There is a room at The Miami Foundation that bears Ruth Shack’s name. We meet in it multiple times every week. Its walls shape our conversations to make Miami more just and more alive, bear witness to our challenges, and house our celebrations.
We want to tell you about Ruth Shack, the leader. Not the résumé, but rather, her fire that lights the way for us at The Miami Foundation.
Ruth used to talk about what she called “the fire in the belly,” the conviction that must live inside any leader who aspires to live the courageous life she did. As a leader in the fight for equity in Miami-Dade, Ruth was clear-eyed about what it cost. She lived through the hazards of being the face of something right but unpopular when she helped Miami-Dade become the first major urban area in the country to pass a measure to protect the gay community from discrimination. “My passion is what sustained me,” she told us once in her namesake room. “If you don’t believe deeply in it, don’t get out front, because you’ll get hurt. But as you get hurt, if you believe in it, there’s a sense of pride, a sense of accomplishment.”
She brought that same fire to this Foundation and built it into an institution that has already poured over $900 million into the fabric of this community. Her philosophy still guides us. “If it didn’t bring people together, if it didn’t reach the grassroots,” she said, “we weren’t interested.”
Ruth secured funding to address the HIV/AIDS crisis when major funders were afraid to attach their names to it. She launched the Miami Fellows program because she knew that the most important investment a foundation could make was in the next generation of people who would love this “crazy, wonderful place” (her words) as fiercely as she did. She told us that the Fellows program was the proudest accomplishment of her philanthropic career.
Ruth even walked alongside us all the way through her final days.
The last time Ruth spoke to our team was just before our State of Black Philanthropy one year ago, when we invited her to share a leadership lesson in equity. Last week, we hosted our 11th annual State of Black Philanthropy and lifted Ruth’s name in our pre-event team huddle, carrying her with us into a night that said joyfully and clearly: Miami belongs to all of us.
Ruth, you told us last year that your work isn’t over yet. We heard you, not just about the Equal Rights Amendment, but about all of it. About this “remarkable place” that didn’t let you go after your honeymoon here. About the holes in the fabric that still need filling.
So here is what we want you to know: that “fire in your belly” now lives with us. As you reminded us, we will “stay close to the source” – our community. We will stay close to the changemakers and creators who count on us to put them at the center of what’s next. And we will work on issues – not based on their popularity – but based on their ability to bring people together and help our community move forward.
Your work isn’t over, Ruth. It’s just ours now.
