🌿 Two invites + our white paper coming soon

⏱️ Reading time: 5 minutes

Welcome to Fearless — my weekly-ish newsletter where I share leadership insights and honest advice for women of color in social impact navigating power, career, and change.

What's inside today's newsletter:

1. The weight women of color leaders carry — and what the data says
2. Season 3 of Flourish Fellowship is now open (Early Access: July 21)
3. FREE workshop! From Reactive to Strategic: Summer Leadership Reset — Tuesday, June 30 (Asia-friendly!)

You made it to the halfway point of 2026.

Before we rush into the second half, I want to name something.

What you're carrying is not just a heavy workload. It has a name. Several, actually.

📊 The Weight Has a Name (Multiple Names, Actually)

You already know this story. Maybe you're living it right now.

You're leading well. You're doing the work. You're holding the room, absorbing the stress, translating the hard news, supporting your team — and doing it all while navigating systems that weren't designed with you in mind.

That's not a character flaw. That's a structural pattern. And it has names.

We talk about the glass ceiling — but for women of color, there are more specific ones: the bamboo ceiling, the concrete ceiling, the canvas ceiling for immigrant and refugee leaders, and for many of us holding multiple marginalized identities, a double ceiling.

Researchers call the gap where they begin the broken rung — not a barrier at the top, but at the very first step up, where women of color are passed over for promotion at disproportionate rates and never fully recover ground.

Women of the global majority — women of color, indigenous women, women from the Global South — make up roughly 85% of the world's women. A few numbers tell the rest of the story:

• Women of color hold just 7% of C-suite roles (McKinsey / Lean In, 2024)
• In the nonprofit sector, BIPOC women CEOs are concentrated in the smallest, most under-resourced organizations — leading 28% of nonprofits with revenue under $50K, while white male CEOs lead 41% of organizations above $25M (Candid, 2024)
• In global development and humanitarian organizations, only 4% of heads of organizations are BIPOC women — a figure that has not meaningfully improved in years (Social Impact BRIDGE survey, 2021–2023)
• Only 0.5% of philanthropic giving reaches women and girls of color (Candid)

And then there's the weight that doesn't show up in org charts at all.

MIT Sloan Management Review published new research this week naming it the empathy tax — the caring labor women leaders carry disproportionately, equivalent to a part-time job layered on top of their actual work.

Researchers and practitioners have mapped the full picture: the Care Tax, the Trauma Tax, the Empathy Tax, and Compassion Fatigue — each one a form of invisible labor that accumulates quietly until it becomes a crisis.

For women of color in social impact, a sector already built on care and sacrifice, these taxes compound everything else. They don't just slow us down. They put us in survival mode. And you cannot lead from your values when your nervous system is running a deficit.

This is not a personal failing. It is a structural design.

We're going deeper on all of this. Fearless is developing a white paper on the state of women of color leadership in the global social impact sector — coming end of summer 2026. More soon.

But here's what I know to be true right now: we are more powerful when we are not doing this alone.

🪸 Season 3 of Flourish Fellowship Is Now Open

It's a bit of a milestone to say, but we've now completed two full seasons of Flourish Fellowship — and I've honestly loved each one more than the last.

We've supported women of color and underrepresented leaders across the globe: navigating promotions and pivots, processing burnout, finding peers who don't require explanation. I've watched members go from isolated to connected — from running on empty to actually having a community that can co-regulate with them.

That's what Flourish is. And now, Season 3 is open for enrollment.

Here's what membership includes:

🌿 14+ live gatherings per quarter — connection celebrations, storytelling gatherings, skill-building workshops, guest speakers, peer learning, and accountability circles with people who understand your context

🌿 A global community on Circle — 52 members, 24 countries, 5 continents, available 24/7 between sessions

🌿 Deep dives on the topics that matter most: grounding and healing, building, sharing, and navigating power, authentic and values-driven leadership, thriving lives and careers, and innovative organizations

🌿 A growing resource library — all event recordings, tools, and workbooks, permanently accessible

🌿 Community accountability — because growth without support is just more pressure with a different name

🗓 Early Access begins July 21 — join before then for platform access and an intimate welcome from me before the cohort officially opens.

🗓 Season 3 officially launches August 1.

We keep it small to keep it real. The early-cohort energy — where you help shape what we build together — won't last.

Employed? This likely qualifies under your professional development budget. I have a toolkit to help you make that ask. Partial scholarships also available — just reply to this email.

🌅 Free Workshop | From Reactive to Strategic: Summer Leadership Reset

Tuesday, June 30

Before Season 3 begins, I want to offer you something right now.

Our first free workshop of the season is for the second half of 2026 — not to sprint harder, but to move with more intention.

A note for our friends in Asia: We've intentionally scheduled this at 11 AM GMT (4 PM PKT, 4:30 PM IST, 6 PM ICT, 7 PM SGT) so more of you can attend live.

And as always — event replays are available, so even if the time doesn't work, you won't miss out.

What you'll walk away with:

✅ A nervous system update — which pattern you've been running, and what you want to shift

✅ A Season Check + Second Half Intentions — where you are now, and where you want to be by December 31

✅ Permission Slip + Strategic No Scripts — what you're allowed to set down, and how to protect it

✅ A 30-day grounding plan — one boundary, one priority

Details:

📅 Tuesday, June 30

🕖 7 AM EDT | 7 PM SGT

💻 Zoom | 90 minutes

💰 Free & open to all (donations accepted)

Warmly,

Maya 🧡

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