INAUGURAL IMPACT INITIATIVE
A Better Goodbye
Discussions Around Death & Dying
It’s hard to think & talk about the end.
Talking openly about death, dying, and grief in the U.S. can be difficult. Culturally, we tend to avoid the topic out of fear and discomfort, while the healthcare system often treats death as something to be fought rather than a natural part of life.
Many people don’t know how to initiate conversations around the end of life until circumstances require it, which often makes discussions and decisions fraught with overwhelming emotion and uncertainty.
Death is not an optional event, it's an integral part of the human experience.
By acknowledging this truth, we can empower ourselves and our loved ones to face the end with greater peace and preparedness, ensuring that our final chapter is written with intention, dignity, and love.
We need to change how we think about telling the end of our story.
We’re ready to be the change.
Introducing The Major Changes Impact Initiative
Each year, we will partner with socially critical organizations around a single cause we feel deeply passionate about to drive meaningful change in our communities.
By amplifying the work of these organizations through capacity-building, narrative development, strategic support, and collaborative partnership, we help partners working to solve real-world problems unlock new possibilities, strengthen their impact, and create long-lasting change.
Our Inaugural Impact Initiative is focused on fostering open, compassionate, and transformative conversations around death, dying, and grief, ultimately reshaping attitudes and practices around end-of-life experiences in the United States.
Our goal is to shift cultural perceptions and conversations around death from avoidance to candor to provide clarity and encourage autonomy in end-of-life planning.
We aim to:
01 REFRAME
Reframe death as a part of life – something to be approached with intention, care, and openness, rather than fear and avoidance.
02 ENGAGE
Create meaningful progress toward more open, ongoing, and compassionate conversations about death by expanding death literacy through community events, storytelling, and awareness campaigns.
03 SUPPORT
Expand access to end-of-life planning resources and increase grief support, with a focus on culturally relevant materials that reflect and honor the diverse communities that make up the U.S.
We will do this by partnering with relevant subject matter experts and organizations with aligned missions to transform how we think about, talk about, and plan for the end of life.
01 REFRAME
The Conversation Week
We will establish an annual observance focused on expanding access to resources, helping spark deeper ongoing dialogue, and creating more compassionate spaces for people to reimagine and consider the end of life.
During this week each year, we will create an awareness campaign to drive people to online resources and live events that encourage ongoing conversations preparing for the logistics and legacy of end-of-life planning.
02 ENGAGE
Death Salons
Inspired by the late 19th- and early 20th-century Paris salons where hosts gathered inter-disciplinary artists and philosophers to discuss and exchange cultural, social and intellectual ideas, and Death Cafés, developed in London in 2011 where people gathered to eat, drink, and increase awareness of death in service of helping people make the most of their finite lives.
We will gather different, diverse groups to encourage and inspire conversations around what the end of life can look like.
03 SUPPORT
End-of-Life Logistics & Legacy Guides
In partnership with our subject matter experts, we will develop tangible tips and tools to guide anyone from avoidance to ongoing conversations, well before the end of life.
These will offer a variety of encouraging and approachable ways to start and continue the conversation leading up to a better goodbye.
We’d like your help:
01 ENGAGE
Engage with our materials and start the conversation around how you and your loved ones want the end of life to look and feel.
02 AMPLIFY
Share this work with your community and encourage them to join the conversation.
03 ATTEND
Join one of our Death Salons and discuss and learn from cross-disciplinary experts in end-of-life planning, care and support.
04 DONATE
Please consider making a one-time or reoccurring donation so we can ensure the conversation continues.
Let’s make major changes.
And give more people the gift of a better goodbye.