Postcards from Iona

Stef and Jenny landed on Iona in July

Poetry and Purpose

We spent a week on Iona to attend a retreat led by poet and facilitator Pádraig Ó Tuama, centered on Presence and Place. Standing on land roughly 2 billion years old has a way of putting your inbox in perspective. We wrote tankas (a Japanese form built for slowing down and paying attention — basically a small act of rebellion in an infinite-scroll world), named our personal grounding places, and tackled Pádraig's toughest prompt: if you were to write your life story today, what would the first line be?

Turns out that question works just as well for foundations as it does for poems.

The Big News

We used part of the week for a candid look at where Tigris goes next — and we're making a shift. As a small foundation, we can't write huge checks. So we're doubling down on what we can do: capacity building. Helping our partners and community tell their own stories, build their own strength, and advocate for what they need.

We also swapped ideas with fellow philanthropists, picked up fresh thinking on nonprofit marketing, and met change makers from around the world. We left Iona with grounded feet, a sharper strategy, and a few hundred unofficial tanka drafts.