Press Release | November 20, 2022 – Minneapolis

First Black Community Foundation in Minnesota Awards More than $1M to Local Change Makers

The first Black Community Foundation in Minnesota recently selected 30 Black-led organizations, initiatives, and leaders to receive $1M+ through a collaborative process to change the way we honor and fund Black-led change.

Each Black-led organization received $50,000 in flexible funding to cover programs, organizational resiliency, and additional general operating needs. In addition to supporting the organization, each key leader received an additional $10,000 grant to directly support the sustainability and growth of their leadership. The 15 grantees, called Black Led Change Partners, were selected based on their community impact and visionary, history-making ideas for change. Their collective genius meets the moment with a force for good, focused on impact areas such as reparations, economic prosperity, culture, narrative change, healing, education, and more. A full list of grantees can be found here below.

The Black Collective Foundation MN (formerly the Philanthropic Collective to Combat Anti-Blackness & Realize Racial Justice) was formed against the backdrop of the 2020 uprising for racial justice. Co-founders Lulete Mola, Repa Mekha, and Chanda Smith Baker were called to harness both the struggles and possibilities of the historical moment to move the philanthropic sector beyond momentary sympathy and into power-shifting solidarity and transformation.

In 2022, The Black Collective Foundation MN embarked on a creative grant making process, partnering with 15 Black community builders to design the grant program and award the initial grants. These 15 talented, community focused individuals were selected through an open nomination process to bring a culturally rooted, philanthropic approach to life. This cohort reflected the diversity of the Black community, and gave seats at the table to those who have been historically excluded from the industry. 

Over six months, Community Builders learned about racial justice centered philanthropy, designed a grant-making program, informed the interconnected challenges to address, and put forth transformative solutions. In addition to being compensated hourly for their time, upon completion of the program, participants will receive a $10,000 grant each to put towards their own initiatives and leadership in the community. 

Selected grantees will continue to find support in and inform the growth of The Black Collective Foundation MN. They will convene over the next year to build relationships amongst one another in the spirit of strengthening the ecosystem of Black-led change in Minnesota.  

Grantees:

Press Release | November 12, 2021—Minneapolis

Lulete Mola Becomes First President of Philanthropic Collective to Combat Anti-Blackness & Realize Racial Justice

The Philanthropic Collective to Combat Anti-Blackness & Realize Racial Justice (the Collective)—a Black-led initiative formed in response to the killing of George Floyd—today announced Lulete Mola will become its first President on November 15. 

Lulete is a co-founder of the Collective, with Repa Mekha, President & CEO of Nexus Community Partners, and Chanda Smith Baker, Chief Impact Officer and Senior Vice President of the Minneapolis Foundation, who will continue leading as Co-chairs of the Collective’s Advisory Committee. Lulete joins this work from the Women’s Foundation of Minnesota, where she served for eight years, most recently as Chief Strategy & Innovation Officer.

Since launching in June 2020, the Collective has supported meaningful dialogue and action on race, equity, and justice with philanthropic organizations across the state, convened leaders in the sector, engaged in strategic planning, and raised $3.6 million. The Collective is housed at Nexus Community Partners and aims to become an independent philanthropic institution and build a long-term infrastructure to advance racial justice.

“Having completed a thoughtful strategic planning process, we have a clear understanding of what it will take to support and sustain the ecosystem of Black-led social change in MN—an independent philanthropic institution that focuses on the promise of racial justice. We are building on work that has come before us and invite the philanthropic, nonprofit, and larger social change field to work in partnership with us as we continue to build. I am thrilled Lulete is stepping into this role as we take the Collective into its next phase,” said Chanda Smith Baker, co-chair of the Collective. 

The Collective has a three-part vision to strengthen and support social change in Minnesota: (1) Build community-led philanthropic power by raising $25 million to deploy resources for both short- and long-term needs; (2) Serve as a backbone organization that supports, inspires, and holds the philanthropic field accountable to advancing racial justice; and (3) Sustain and grow the capacity and well-being of Black leaders, organizations, and the movement for racial justice. 

 “What we are building is part of a new national movement in philanthropy— where communities most proximate to racial injustice are not only asking to be represented at the table,” said Lulete. “We are creating our own tables, grounded in culture and community, and inviting historically powerful groups to join us. In the last 16 months in Minnesota, we’ve lived through a changing world full of hope, tragedy, resilience, and possibility. While we formed in response to the murder of George Floyd, we’ve experienced the death of more Black people at the hands of police here in Minnesota. Still, criminal justice is only one among many interconnected issues that disproportionally impact Black Minnesotans. I am honored to serve in this role and work with a community I love, in principled struggle, to center Black dignity and build philanthropic power that transforms the social change field and sustains the long road to liberation.” 

Collective co-chair Repa Mekha said, “When we launched, we asked ‘How much greater can philanthropy be?’ Today we cast forth a sustaining vision for work that is rooted in a long history of aspiration and ‘calling,’ a new model of philanthropy. Our work to date has been leading us in this direction. And we have engaged multiple stakeholders and audiences over the last 16 months to inform the Collective’s potential. Given the nuanced journey that we’ve been on during those 16 months, and the new Strategic Plan we’ve completed, the hiring of Lulete to lead is a natural progression of our goals. Our commitment is to lead by example, continuing to step out and take meaningful action to change systems, practices, and policies within organizations and the field. And also to bring innovation and profound imagination.” 

Lulete Mola’s Bio:

Lulete Mola is committed to social change that is intersectional, centers dignity, and led by communities most impacted. As the Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer at the Women's Foundation of Minnesota, Lulete put this commitment to action as at the lead strategist and co-visionary of community investments, field-building programming, strategic communications, and bold fundraising that enable large-scale systems change. In this role, Lulete also led the Young Women’s Initiative of Minnesota, a $10 million public-private partnership to achieve equity in opportunities and improve the lives of Black, Indigenous, and young women of color. 

Lulete is devoted to engaging in and supporting community organizing, movement building, and work to advance women's political leadership. She is on the Minnesota Council of Foundations Board of Directors, the VoteRunLead National Advisory Board, and serves on Minnesota’s Advisory Task Force on Expanding the Economic Security of Women. Lulete is the recipient of the 2020 SOAR fellowship with the Aspen Institute Forum on Women and Girls, Humanity in Action Fellowship, Ibrahim Leadership and Dialogue Project Fellowship, and the Scholarly Excellence in Equity and Diversity Award. Lulete graduated summa cum laude from the University of Minnesota.

About the Collective

The Philanthropic Collective to Combat Anti-Blackness and Realize Racial Justice (the Collective) was launched in response to the murder of George Floyd and subsequent community and national uprisings to denounce anti-Blackness and racism in Minnesota. The Collective is a Black-led initiative that engages a collective of philanthropic and community partners to effect long-term systems and community change.  

The Collective is committed to centering Black liberation as a cornerstone of freeing Indigenous, people of color, and all people in Minnesota. The Collective seeks additional ongoing investment to harness the power, leadership, and brilliance of Minnesota’s Black communities to invest in innovative solutions across transformational justice, safety, economics, health, and well-being. Join the philanthropic commitment for racial justice at: MNPhilanthropicCollective.org.

Press Release | July 14, 2020 - Minneapolis

Philanthropic Collective Partners to Combat Anti-Blackness & Realize Racial Justice

The Philanthropic Collective to Combat Anti-Blackness & Realize Racial Justice—a coalition of foundations and philanthropic organizations formed in response to the killing of George Floyd—today issued a statement denouncing anti-blackness and racism in Minnesota. Calling for transformation in the field of institutional philanthropy, the collective announced that it will raise $25 million and invites additional funds to invest in a visionary and historic Black-Led Movement Fund.

The collective has a three-part vision for Minnesota philanthropic institutions: (1) invest in the MN Holistic Black-Led Movement Fund; (2) sign on to a bold and courageous joint statement positioning philanthropy’s responsibility in anti-racism work; and (3) join a long-term transformation table to establish and enhance policies, procedures, and practices to address anti-Blackness and work towards racial justice.

The MN Holistic Black-Led Movement Fund is housed at Nexus Community Partners. The Fund seeks additional ongoing investment to harness the power, leadership, and brilliance of Minnesota’s Black communities to invest in innovative solutions across transformational justice, safety, economics, health, and well-being. Additionally, the Fund will sustain the ecosystem of Black-led social change in Minnesota as an effective and intersectional movement that ignites and sustains change to impact additional communities of color and all people. Led by a community participatory grantmaking process, the Fund will deploy resources for both short- and long-term needs guided by a vision to cultivate and to maximize its impact for years to come. Nexus is working with Black Visions, a Minnesota-based Black-led movement organization to design a process for fund development and disbursement.

“The field of institutional philanthropy has the resources, influence, and positionality as cross-sector connectors, and it has a duty to engage in a deep reckoning to build, yield, and share power in order to elevate the voices of the people most impacted by systemic racism and inequity,” said Lulete Mola, vice president of community impact at the Women’s Foundation of Minnesota  and a co-chair of the collective. “This moment calls on philanthropy to take meaningful action in the field to expand the frame on diversity, equity, and inclusion and be boldly steeped in anti-racism and racial justice.”

In its statement, the group urges Minnesota philanthropic institutions to unite their collective power, invest in Black-led racial justice work, and boldly condemn anti-Blackness, anti-Black police violence, and racism experienced by Black people, Native people, and all people of color. The statement asks philanthropy to center Black voices, knowledge, and activism in this pursuit of transformation as it drives toward meaningful change.

 “We acknowledge the field has flaws. Philanthropy can be associated with social and political change in this country, but it can also be linked to a long history of inequities and trauma in Black, Indigenous, and communities of color. With this collective, we ask, ‘How much greater can philanthropy be?’ Can we transform into practitioners who hold the field of philanthropy to a higher charge, acknowledging that real racial justice calls for balanced social, political, and economic power? Philanthropy needs to be willing to step out and take meaningful action to change systems, practices, and policies within organizations, the field, and society,” said Repa Mekha, president and CEO at Nexus Community Partners, and a co-chair of the collective, along with Chanda Smith Baker, senior vice president of community impact at the Minneapolis Foundation.

Join the philanthropic commitment for racial justice at: MNPhilanthropicCollective.org

The Philanthropic Collective to Combat Anti-Blackness & Realize Racial Justice is a growing partnership of the following:

• Blandin Foundation

• Bush Foundation

• Frey Foundation MN

• Heading Home Minnesota Funders Collaborative

• Give MN

• GHR Foundation

• Headwaters Foundation for Justice

• Knight Foundation

• McKnight Foundation

• The Minneapolis Foundation

• Minnesota Council on Foundations

• Mortenson Family Foundation