Lauren Girardin
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girardinl.bsky.social
Lauren Girardin
@girardinl.bsky.social
920 followers 540 following 1.1K posts
Communications consultant, storyteller, and plain language writer for nonprofits, foundations, and others who inspire. @lwvsf.bsky.social member. Em dash fan. For hire. she/her juhr-RAR-din

📍 San Francisco
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girardinl.bsky.social
So freeing! I'll even use the oil from things that come packed in it to make mayo.

This, in particular, makes a great mayo
A jar of Trader Joe's sweet picante peppers with creamy cheese filling.
November 27, 2025 at 4:34 PM
girardinl.bsky.social
"This is just to say. I have eaten the plums that were in the icebox and which you were probably saving for breakfast. Forgive me they were delicious so sweet and so cold." Poem by y William Carlos Williams Screenshot of a social media post by President Donald Trump that says "SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!"
November 20, 2025 at 5:32 PM
girardinl.bsky.social
Brought some everything bagels back from Brooklyn, but had a near-empty fridge back in SF. Behold the Bklyn-Frisco hybrid! Pickled beets, shoots from a red onion that sprouted while we were out of town, capers, hot chili oil, cream cheese.
A half an everything bagel on a white plate. The bagel is topped with cream cheese, beets, sliced green onion, capers, and hot chili oil.
November 17, 2025 at 6:10 PM
girardinl.bsky.social
One of my friends saw it and said it was a weird and terrible and bad movie. Then they said who directed it. Me:
November 13, 2025 at 3:58 AM
girardinl.bsky.social
From a mutual graphic design dork
keming. noun. The result of improper kerning.
November 13, 2025 at 3:06 AM
girardinl.bsky.social
Someone in this thread described the reading comprehension problem as "vibe reading," and I am thus
The meme of three photos of Pablo Escovar waiting
November 12, 2025 at 1:38 PM
girardinl.bsky.social
It's here.

It's time.

Shen Yun season has begun.
A Shen Yun poster on a restaurant window in San Francisco.
November 9, 2025 at 5:26 AM
girardinl.bsky.social
For my nonprofit friends 😆

(via reddit.com/r/StandUpCom...)
November 6, 2025 at 7:32 PM
girardinl.bsky.social
I swear there's a San Francisco "I VOTED!" sticker under all that hair.

If you haven't voted yet, get it done! lwvsf.org/vote has everything you need to know.
Photo of me standing out in the cloudy sun with a San Francisco "I voted" sticker on my forehead. I'm wearing my "Maybe voting will help" t-shirt. The wind is blowing my curly hair all around.
November 4, 2025 at 10:25 PM
girardinl.bsky.social
Happy Halloween from Pablo Picasso's Guernica and Psychedelic Squid!

I wanted to do a costume about the fascist times we live in, but didn't want angry people up in my face. I was surprised how many people got my costume and how happy it made them. I heard bursts of "GUERNICA!" wherever I went.
Two people in Halloween costumes. One is a multicolored giant squid. The other is Picasso's Guernica, with parts of the painting all over, including the lightbulb eye, the screaming woman on fire, the bull, and the horse. Me in my Halloween costume as Picasso's Guernica, with parts of the painting all over, including the lightbulb eye, the screaming woman on fire, the bull, and the horse. Todd in his Halloween costume, a multicolored giant squid. Me in my Halloween costume as Picasso's Guernica, with parts of the painting all over, including the lightbulb eye, the screaming woman on fire, the bull, and the horse.
November 3, 2025 at 9:48 PM
girardinl.bsky.social
Some of my Halloween looks from throughout the years!
I'll share this year's costume tomorrow, and I can't wait to see photos of yours 🎃🖤
Costume: Running With Scissors. I'm wearing a yellow and green runner outfit, and am bleeding comically from where I've been stabbed with several scissors. Costume: Chess. I'm wearing an oversized black and white checkerboard jacket, checkerboard pants, a headdress of oversized chess pieces, and I have a checkerboard painted on the upper right of my face. Costume: Witch Hunt. I'm wearing a witchy outfit, but it's all made of camouflage pattern. I've also got on a hi-viz orange hunter's vest, and am carrying a shotgun, which is obviously made of cardboard. Costume: The California Drought. On my head is a comically large silver faucet with strips of sandpaper coming out of it. I've got on a chic coat that has a vaguely dry riverbed like pattern. The coat is covered in a dozen fish skeletons.
October 31, 2025 at 9:05 PM
girardinl.bsky.social
Achievement unlocked! I've become a Halloween meme! Thanks @dothebay.bsky.social
A screenshot of an Instagram post by DoTheBay. It's one of those Spirit Halloween memes. It shows a packaged Halloween costume, inside a clear rectangular bag is a paper with a description of a costume and a photo of a person wearing the costume. The description says "Coit Tower - Includes: insane city views, SF historical legacy, Telegraph Hill Parrots. Not included: Pre-rolls, fog. And then there's a pic of me dressed in my Coit Tower Halloween costume from a couple of years ago!
October 31, 2025 at 4:36 PM
girardinl.bsky.social
The character Dr. Nick from The Simpsons saying "Instead of chewing gum, chew bacon."
October 26, 2025 at 4:03 PM
girardinl.bsky.social
On my way to march with the League of Women Voters of San Francisco @lwvsf.bsky.social today's #NoKings protest!

Wherever you live, there's probably a protest happening. Come raise your voice to defend democracy 💜🤍💛
Me smiling wearing a t-shirt that says Put the Rage in Suffrage with an illustration of suffeagist Lucy Burns.
October 18, 2025 at 8:02 PM
girardinl.bsky.social
The flag of Greendale Community College from the TV show Community. On a blue field, there's a pink circle with a six pointed starburst in the middle, surrounded by the phrase *E Pluribus Anus."
October 8, 2025 at 8:26 PM
girardinl.bsky.social
The Economist does mention nonprofits censoring under threat. But it misses the bigger meaning: it isn’t just websites being scrubbed. It’s about nonprofits being forced to abandon people the administration has decided are undeserving.

I covered this early on: nonprofitquarterly.org/nonprofits-s...
That would be legally dubious. But a threat need not be actionable to be chilling, notes Roger Colinvaux of the Catholic University of America. After a string of executive orders targeting “diversity, equity and inclusion”, non-profits started deleting DEI language. Many are conducting mock audits in anticipation of IRS scrutiny. Foundations such as Ford or Gates once amplified their grantees, whose affiliation with the heavyweights raised their profile. Now this is a liability. “We see a lot of website scrubbing,” says an adviser.
September 18, 2025 at 7:26 PM
girardinl.bsky.social
The Economist misses the mark here. PSLF changes are far from the "first real warning sign" of attacks on nonprofits. And framing the admin's targets as "lefty activism" just fuels division.

I break down what the PSLF changes actually mean in my article: nonprofitquarterly.org/proposed-psl...
The first real warning sign came instead from a different corner of government. The Department of Education has proposed a rule denying federal-student-loan forgiveness to graduates who work for non-profits with a “substantial illegal purpose”. Its definition of illegal would cover a range of lefty activism: services for undocumented immigrants, transgender health care, pipeline protests. Getting booted from the student-debt-relief scheme is headache enough for non-profits, since the programme incentivises bright young graduates to work for them, often at below-market salaries. Now some wonder whether the IRS itself will try to apply that same definition to non-profits, with an eye to yanking tax exemptions.
September 18, 2025 at 7:26 PM
girardinl.bsky.social
Reddit r/photoshopbattles doing some real magic with Melania's goth weirdness reddit.com/r/photoshopb...
Melania Trump in all back with a wide brimmed hat that totally obscure her face photoshopped into a still from the famous moment from the dance in Michael Jackson's Annie Are You Okay video where MJ and his backup dancers lean forward dramatically.
September 18, 2025 at 12:56 AM
girardinl.bsky.social
Love to see all the people lined up for covid and flu vaccines at Kaiser in San Francisco!

It's mostly older folks and people with disabilities here. You should get the vaccine ASAP for your own protection, but also to help more vulnerable folks!

Bonus pic of some of my favorite bizarro murals.
A painted mural of a woman in a pink Victorian dress and white wig sitting while a man in a lavender coat and blue thigh high boots. He's presenting a tray of large rainbow striped cakes and holding a bottle of wine.
September 17, 2025 at 6:21 PM
girardinl.bsky.social
Post a PERFECT album from the 90s that isn't Nirvana or Pearl Jam.
Album cover for PJ Harvey's "To Bring You My Love."
September 4, 2025 at 3:44 PM
girardinl.bsky.social
I really appreciate this point from the League of Women Voters of California's statement on their official proposition position. lwvc.org/prop50/
Screenshot of the League of Women Voters of California's website "On the proposed maps themselves, our policy is clear: the people most affected by district maps, especially communities of color who are often underrepresented, should be the ones to decide if those maps are fair. Many of our partners in Latino, AAPI, and Black communities are still reviewing the California map and forming their positions. We will defer to them to share their conclusions."
August 27, 2025 at 8:42 PM
girardinl.bsky.social
And it's a misleading one! The League of Women Voters of California sent out an email this morning saying it did not authorize the use of its name and statement on that flyer, and it's not part of that coalition.
Screenshot of an email from the League of Women Voters of California that says: Dear Members and Supporters, You may have received a mailer from "Voters First Act" about the redistricting ballot initiative this November. By naming our organization and quoting Gloria Chun Hoo, the mailer wrongly implies that the League of Women Voters of California is part of their coalition and endorses the information contained in the flyer. This implication is not correct—we are not part of that coalition. The League of Women Voters of California did not authorize this action.
August 21, 2025 at 7:28 PM
girardinl.bsky.social
I call shenanigans! If the cash was really an auspicious friendship offering, it should have been in a red potato chip bag
A red potato chip bag. Lay's Firery Habanero Flavored. On the bag, there are a few hot peppers and a few potato chips, all on fire for some reason.
August 21, 2025 at 12:45 AM
girardinl.bsky.social
It might be this. There's a birthday calendar in Google Calendar that you can turn off.
August 16, 2025 at 5:16 PM
girardinl.bsky.social
Under attack by the Trump administration, some nonprofits are fighting back nonprofitquarterly.org/legal-defens...
Amid mounting legal threats, nonprofits aren’t waiting for trouble to find them—they’re making plans. Ossenfort said groups that AFJ has talked to “are taking the time right now to figure out what they need to do, to shore up their defenses, to make sure that if they do find themselves under investigation, that they’re ready to respond.”
August 15, 2025 at 2:54 PM