In a recent media interview with Next City , Ambitio US Director Cate Fox shares a sentiment about the initiative’s exploration of the Web3 space that’s also directly applicable to one of its founding goals.
“This is a shaping moment,” Fox declares.
Ambitio US began in 2019 with a sharply drawn plan to manage a funding portfolio of diverse, experimental projects and types of investments that crossed traditional funding silos. Much of that early promise has been realized. Our grantees are continuously reimagining models of equitable philanthropic investment and the potential impact on the economic futures and sustainability of their neighborhoods and countless other historically marginalized communities.
We encourage you to dive into the efforts and trends that many grantees and others are exploring and expanding upon. “Building the Block,’’ a series of stories produced by yes! and sponsored by our philanthropic nonprofit, is a perfect grounding point. Each story is accompanied by an independent audio report produced by Public News Service .
“From innovative, collective approaches to relieving the debt that can thwart the opportunities of a generation, to collaborative solutions combating the cultural destruction wrought by gentrification, to the rich history and ongoing efforts to restore land to Indigenous and Black people, to the quiet but essential role played by grocery stores that cater to specific immigrant and ethnic groups, “Building the Block” examines how communities are building cultural sustainability in their own neighborhoods and beyond,’’ writes Sunnivie Bynum, the editorial director at Yes!
The stories in the series elevate visionaries at the center of solutions-oriented conversations around roadblocks to systems change. “The blueprint for shifting power and resources in truly equitable ways is in our hands, embedded in the ideas and organizing principles in these stories.
But plotting a better future requires facing facts and fault lines that appear intractable partly because they need to be more widely talked about or targeted for investment.
Take as an example one of the central themes in Healing the Land and Themselves , a story by Michaela Haas.
The number of Black-owned farms has dropped from 14% in the 1920s to just 1.3% today , and in California, less than 1% of land is owned by Indigenous people . A new generation of Black, Indigenous, and/or queer farmers and foresters is working to change the narrative, both literally and figuratively.
Meanwhile, Michelle Chen’s story “ A Taste of Home: How Ethnic Grocery Stores Create Community” highlights an easily accessible gateway to supporting the economic well-being of marginalized BIPOC communities and businesses. (Listen to the audio report here. )
In PennyElys Droz’s Indigenous and Black Communities Are Finding Common Cause for Land Justice , who can reasonably argue with Nkuli Shongwe of Nexus Community Partners, an Ambitio US grantee ?She offers a clear-eyed assessment of economically aligned solidarity in communities like hers in Minnesota’s Twin Cities. There, BIPOC creatives are redefining land ownership and economic sovereignty.
Shongwe says, “When we talk about alternatives to the current systems, we are talking about building community wealth, and regenerative systems that aren’t extractive of people or the planet … Black and Indigenous solidarity means building something new together with our people.”
And what kind of measurable change might grow in cities like Baltimore and beyond if more foundations and grantmaking organizations grasped the mic-drop-like nuance in the words of Damien Goodmon of Downtown Crenshaw Rising , a 2021 Ambitio US Economic Trailblazer grantee?
“We are so very intentional about saying this is not about closing the Black-white wealth gap by making some Black people rich; this is about lifting up an entire community,”
In the work and hard-earned wisdom of leaders like Goodmon and Nexus Community Partners’ Shongwe, we find a greater understanding of the continued value of supporting economic dreamers. But we also glimpse a bit of the future bound to become more tangible l when more of their visions are unfettered. As we enter the official halfway mark of a 10-year commitment for Ambitio US, in some ways, it feels like we are just getting started.
This article was originally published on Medium. Read it on Medium →