Earth Rising Thanks Polly Cancro

Earth Rising Foundation extends our deepest gratitude to Polly Cancro, whose tireless volunteer work over nearly four years enabled us to get the organization off the ground and set it up for continued success. Polly has had to step away from her work with Earth Rising to focus on a new job at Bard Graduate Center, and while we are saddened to lose such a valuable member of our team, we are excited for her and are certain she will have great success in all of her endeavors. 

Polly has been absolutely integral to building and maintaining Earth Rising, and we have all benefited greatly from her diverse competencies and skills in a number of roles. 

As a founding member of the Board, Polly helped to shape our programs and priorities, and to develop key policies and procedures, as well as maintaining its records for compliance.

Polly’s background and high-level expertise in library science have also been invaluable to the day-to-day operations of the foundation. She created a structure for the administrative aspects of the foundation, bringing order to the chaos of starting a foundation from scratch. This was a truly massive effort, and we have been able to build our reach rapidly because this structure was in place. Very often, the importance of such behind-the-scenes labor goes unappreciated, so we want to publicly acknowledge how crucial it has been.

Polly also managed many of the day-to-day operations of the foundation. In addition to the actual issuing of grants, this involved a tremendous amount of public-facing and internal communications and administrative work. Polly managed our very active email account, which required liaising with applicants and grantees, keeping track of impact reporting, facilitating grant review processes, and much more. She also successfully managed a vibrant Instagram account and blog and helped to update our website. 

This is in fact only a partial list of Polly’s many accomplishments and contributions. She did this complex and often unseen work (alongside demanding full-time jobs elsewhere) because she is deeply and tirelessly committed to intersectional climate justice. Earth Rising Foundation has been able to further that mission thanks in large part to the structure that Polly created for us.  

So thank you, Polly, for everything. Although you have new horizons to explore, you will remain with us in the durable framework that you have built here. 

-       The Earth Rising Team