Don’t be afraid to build trust through deep communication to foster major change
One of the clearest examples of my resilience is the journey of building the Black Equity Collective during a time when many donors were still most comfortable with traditional, highly restricted grantmaking. When we launched the Collective, our core belief was simple: that Black-led organizations know best what their communities need, and funding should reflect that by being flexible, multi-year, and centered on their decision-making, not ours. That meant asking funders to move away from tightly earmarked grants toward investments that allowed organizations to pay staff well, build infrastructure, and pivot as conditions on the ground changed.
In practice, that required persistent work. It meant meeting funders where they were and asking them to fund a planning phase to demonstrate proof of concept and to walk alongside us as we demonstrated the power of community co-design and governance. It also required giving funders the language and courage to respond to moments like the awakening of 2020, which followed the murders of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd. A moment that required us all to come face-to-face with systemic racism in America.
Since then, we have spent countless hours walking donors through what it actually takes to sustain Black-led organizations by explaining why general operating support matters, why trust-based relationships outperform compliance checklists, and how community-led decision-making leads to better, more relevant outcomes. There were moments when it would have been easier to compromise on the model just to secure more commitments, but we held the line on our principles. To date, SGS has raised and leveraged over $86 million for Black-led organizations in California, a number that speaks not just to fundraising success but to what becomes possible when funders are willing to trust the model.
Over time, as the Collective mobilized significant dollars and Black-led nonprofits demonstrated powerful economic and social impact, donor perspectives began to shift. Seeing that transformation, with funders learning to trust community wisdom and organizations finally getting room to breathe and plan, reminded me why resilience matters. Staying grounded in that vision, even when it meant longer conversations and slower yeses, is what allowed the Black Equity Collective to become a real vehicle for community-led, trust-based funding rather than just another short-term initiative. It is also what shaped my leadership philosophy going forward and it is one I carry into my current work: that lasting change requires the patience to build trust before you can build systems.
