Black-led Nonprofit Leadership Alliance
A Black-Led Nonprofit Town Hall sparked a call to action: the creation of the Black-Led Nonprofit Leadership Alliance, a group of 18 local executive directors who crafted recommendations for the Foundation to shift funding practices and promote racial equity.
Advancing funding equity
When the Community Foundation hosted a Black-Led Nonprofit Town Hall in August 2023 as part of Black Philanthropy Month, “the room was filled—with excitement, brilliance, frustration, hope, and an undeniable hunger to move the conversation forward,” recalled Aerial Ozuzu, Director of Community Impact.
That energy sparked a call to action: the creation of the Black-Led Nonprofit Leadership Alliance, a group of 18 local executive directors who crafted recommendations for the Foundation to shift funding practices and promote racial equity.
Not pictured: Keauna Cheers (Beyond Educating Foundation), Natalie McKinney (Whole Child
Strategies), Justin Merrick (Center for Transforming Communities), Sam O’Bryant (BRIDGES USA)
“I started this alliance because Black leaders deserve more than recognition—they deserve equity, investment, and trust,” Ozuzu explained. Data confirms significant disparities in financial support and sustainability between Black-led and white-led nonprofits—despite the critical role Black-led groups play in meeting community needs.
“So many of these leaders have been doing miracles with pennies, pouring everything into their communities, often with little support and even less recognition. But they continue to show up. We needed to show up for them in the same way, moving from conversations to commitments.”
In 2024, guided by Dr. Adriane Johnson-Williams of Standpoint Consulting, alliance members held in-depth conversations about the challenges they face, including the burden of proving impact, complex grant processes, and limited access to flexible funding. They also identified opportunities for shifting funding practices to more fully support Black-led nonprofits.
The resulting recommendations call for lasting changes, including:
- Revising grantmaking processes to remove barriers and improve access to funding
- Expanding unrestricted funding for organizational flexibility
- Investing in leadership development to build capacity
- Creating space for ongoing dialogue between funders and Black-led nonprofits
“Too often, we are expected to do more with less,” one leader shared. “There’s a need for funders to trust us as experts in our communities.”
We are putting these recommendations into action—embedding them into our 2024–29 Strategic Plan—as part of our commitment to building trust, transparency, and authentic partnership with Black-led nonprofits. Additionally, two members of the alliance were elected to the Community Foundation’s Board of Governors.
“Equity isn’t abstract. It’s practical,” Ozuzu said. “It’s about shifting power in a real, tangible way, and listening with the intention to do something with what we’ve heard.”
Excerpted from the 2025 Community Foundation Annual Report