Dear Friends and Colleagues,

At 21/64, our work centers the human spirit. Our goal is to support people as they make decisions that shape how they lead, give, invest, and live. As 2025 comes to a close, I’ve been reflecting on all that has unfolded in our work, in the wider world, in my own life, and I’m reminded why keeping humanity at the center of what we do feels more urgent than ever.

Across public life, we’ve seen how complexity is often flattened in the name of efficiency. Conversations about wealth are reduced to financial capital, identity is narrowed to a single label, and generosity is measured by grants alone. These simplifications make information easy to digest, but they strip away what allows us to connect as humans: conversations about our values, belief systems, hopes and fears. 

Complexity is what makes us human. It is why, at 21/64, we center conversations about wealth around values and history, honor identity in all of its dimensions, and recognize generosity through relationships, trust, and collaboration. To acknowledge complexity is to see one another fully and honor each other’s dignity—not only our aspirations, but also our vulnerabilities, lived experiences, and needs.

Whether guiding next gens in their journey of personal growth, helping families work effectively across difference, or advancing equity through our Certified Advisors of Color Program, 21/64 strives to center people over productivity and relationships over transactions. Our work is a reminder that our values, the very ingredients that make us human, belong at the core of every decision.

This year has also invited a personal reflection. I turned 47, the same age my father was when he died. Reaching this milestone has felt like standing at a mirror where past and present meet. His death, more than thirty years ago, continues to shape how I understand love, impermanence, and purpose. It reminds me that humanity is inseparable from complexity and that love and loss, joy and grief, hope and uncertainty often live side by side.

As we look to 2026, I am mindful that staying human in a fractured world requires moral courage—to hold complexity, name what is required to honor people’s dignity, and to respond with care and responsibility. I am profoundly grateful for this community, our colleagues, board, advisory committee, Certified Advisors, and funding partners, who share in this practice and remind me daily what it means to do this work together.

Guided by that same commitment, we made a year-end donation to Feeding America in honor of our 21/64 Certified Advisors, recognizing that holding complexity includes acknowledging need, that dignity begins with meeting basic human needs, and that the work of connection and purpose is inseparable from the work of care.

Thank you all for walking this journey with us.

With gratitude,
Danielle Oristian York
Executive Director, 21/64