Investing in Black Visions and Leaders
Authors: Joi Edwards, Manager of Storytelling and Insights
Many leaders working to advance racial equity live the experience of its absence firsthand, and Black women know this better than most anyone.
Black women in the United States are the most likely demographic to experience social, political, and economic harm against our personal and collective body—and are also the most likely to organize against it. Black women not only raise the bar, they oftentimes leap right over it.
Yet and still, like clockwork, reports roll in every 90 days confirming the data we already knew—the state of play for Black women in America is chronic.
Black women shatter glass ceilings only to find themselves atop glass cliffs. Oftentimes given more responsibility with less support than their counterparts in the same position of power, Black women leaders have always had to over-perform. Systematically underpaid, strategically overworked, and chronically underinvested in—it’s clear that the cards, odds, and everything else stacked against a Black women leaders in America aren’t just betting for a downfall, they’re betting against the triumph.
For Black women, survival is a promise we make to ourselves, and one another.
We know that it doesn’t have to be this way, and we know that we can’t do it alone. We need to invest in the infrastructure for solidarity across our movements. It’s not only about achieving the wins, it’s also about having the means to protect those gains once we make them. Pushing back on harm using a diversity of social and financial networks has been shown to protect long-fought progress, reinstills hope, and advances a more equitable future.
At Common Future, we’re investing in what works, and supporting the leaders best equipped to move the needle. We believe a Black future is a just future, and that diversity, equity, and inclusion are essential for our collective human flourishing.
We invited a panel of expert visionaries and leaders to discuss how investors can support Black brilliance by expediting support for Black leaders. Hosted by Karla Monterroso of Brava Leaders, this panel of experts featured Faye Horwitt from Black Wall Street Forward, Maia Blankenship from Black Wildflowers Fund, and Leah Patterson, Chief Innovation Officer from Remix Ideas.
Black Wall Street Forward aims to support Black entrepreneurs and catalyze economic liberation by reimagining and developing vibrant Black Wall Streets across the country through action learning networks.
Emphasizing the importance of entrepreneurial pathways rooted in the unique history, identity, and culture of black Americans, Black Wall Street Forward aims to foster collective power and intergenerational wealth by integrating black voices and leadership in economic development.
"It's widely recognized that most traditional and inclusive approaches to entrepreneurial support and economic development are not designed for us and don't address and integrate the unique identity values and culture of Black Americans, and they rarely send our voices or our leadership or our vision. We believe that entrepreneurial pathways and support efforts rooted in that unique history, identity, and culture of our people hold unlimited potential for collective power and intergenerational wealth."
—Faye Horwitt
Black Wildflowers Fund is a non-profit focused on removing systemic barriers for Black educators who want to pursue leadership pathways and design innovative schools—without compromising their freedom, power, identity, or financial security.
BWF is a liberatory education movement that invests in the limitless potential of Black children and Black leaders through their grant programs and community of practice.
“We are a national movement of Black educators who are transforming schools and creating learning environments where Black and brown students thrive. Educators who are doing the most important work to ensure that our children love themselves, love learning, and grow up to be thriving citizens in our democracy deserve to be heard. They deserve to be trusted and we must fund their vision, because they're closest to the families and children that are affected by what happens when we don't.”
—Maia Blankenship
Remix Ideas is building a supportive ecosystem for Black-owned businesses in Arkansas by disrupting cycles of intergenerational poverty and creating pathways for economic mobility through business ownership.
These supportive ecosystems are designed to inspire and educate Black entrepreneurs to start, grow, and scale their businesses. Through leveraging strategic partnerships in the community to create meaningful, transformative, and measurable coordinated actions, economic mobility for Black communities in Arkansas is more possible.
“Our Imani Fund is a unique funding vehicle which doesn’t look at traditional requirements for funding, but actually looks at the strength of that business model. We have a very unique underwriting process for that, and really the intent is to remove traditional barriers, which we see as economic red lines, for entrepreneurs that have solid business models and just need that capital to see it through.”
—Leah Patterson
The Ripple Effect of Black Women in Leadership
Statistics show that Black women are the biggest investors of social reinvestment. No one invests more time, or labor, to advance justice for collective change. Their calls for change push forward entire generations, setting a pace for progress we’ve yet to match.
Leaders shared how they see the ripples from their efforts when investing in Black leadership and advocating for systemic change—
“When you look at this country, the systems don’t work for Black people. When you look at the Constitution and the fact that rights for Black people and women had to be written in for those rights and inequities to even begin to be addressed, that frames how important and vital it is to address the inequities in these communities. From here, it can then ripple out onto every other community because you're addressing it at the most marginalized and the most oppressed in the community.” —Leah Patterson
“A lot of it starts with innovative funding, but it also starts with investing and trusting Black women. Black women have been at the center and the fringe of early childhood education for generations. And I do believe that if we trust Black women, we invest in them, we follow them, we believe them in every area of our society, where there is trauma, where there is loss, where there needs to be a lot of healing, we can transform it. It really is about trusting and believing in Black women and investing in them to do the work.”
—Maia Blankenship
“The wealth of this country was built on stolen land of indigenous people and the slaves that were birthed out of our bodies as Black women and so. So the wealth that this country has created has come from our loins, right? …But this work is not just about us individually. It is about if we can claim our rightful place in society, that will truly say that we have been. And this country understands its history and is able to provide compensation to begin the compensatory process of making that right.” —Faye Horwitt
Building Intersectional Power
Multiracial organizations, and even Black-led institutions, are often romanticized as a progressive utopia, free of conflict or the traditional workplace dynamics that many Black leaders experience.
While communities subjected to systemic harm and injustice are stronger together than they are apart, the pervasiveness of anti-Blackness in America is deeply woven into nearly every facet of the American body politic. Throughout movements, institutions, and organizations, multiracial or otherwise, anti-Blackness is much deeper than a socioeconomic attitude. It is a system of power designed to drive communities most aptly harmed by racialized capitalism apart.
Understanding the economic history of black Americans is crucial to understand the landscape of our current economic barriers. This speaks to the need for collaboration and co-creation of new solutions that address systemic barriers. Faye Horwitt of Black Wall Street Forward discusses the importance of understanding the past, present, and future in the context of racial equity work.
Far too often, the brilliance of Black leadership is blocked out of rooms where decisions are being made. To ensure that power is shared with the leaders best-positioned to wield it, white leaders can close opportunity gaps by working across the aisle and bringing others into the work of truth and reconciliation.
“If we don't understand who we are, our identity is rooted right in our history, I think that we miss out on opportunity...So looking at the original and historical Black Wall Streets in this country, what were they based on? What culture, what values and pillars were lent themselves to the creation of those amazing instant economies, right, where we all came together to do what was needed for the Black community. Yes, it was by necessity at that point, but that doesn't mean it can't happen again under different circumstances. So what does that look like? ”
—Faye Horwitt
“If you approach a community that you are looking to serve as though you are the savior or solely have the answer, you will never actually see that change happen that you envision. That community has to be a part of the solution for multiple reasons, the most important being that they actually understand the issue very intimately. And if you don't bring that depth of understanding to the table, you will never have a solution that really gets at the root, that is more than a band aid, more than a temporary fix.” —Leah Patterson
The Role of Trust
Though capital has continued to move in this space, Black women still receive a fraction of the funding compared to their counterparts. The most likely entrepreneurs to close the racial wealth gap are the least likely to receive the funding it requires.
Despite being the fastest-growing demographic of business owners in the United States, Black women aren’t supported—and aren’t trusted—when it comes to making decisions about how and where money flows.
By removing barriers to funding for Black visions to actualize, Maia says trust-based philanthropy meets entrepreneurs where they are.
“One of the things that gives me kind of hope and promise is the reality that by existing and by participating in trust based philanthropy, where we say this is a fund who's completely focused on you…believing in the promise, the potential and vision of Black educators, and that we're going to invest in their vision as they create different types of schools, and build a community of practice where they can continue to grow professionally.” —Maia Blankenship
When we think about tailoring our investment strategies and supporting diverse leaders to bring their visions to scale, we need investment strategies that support the diversity of assets Black women bring.
Entrepreneurs can advance what they’re doing when investments also support how they do it.
Maia shared the need for creating a community of resistance and providing a safe space for black educators to share best practices, including creating flexible models. This is one way leaders with power to redesign systems or leverage power for strategic shifts can reinforce interracial solidarity.
To support Black Visions and Leaders, investors, nonprofits, and policymakers can build waterways to:
- Invest for Belonging. Black organizations need support to collaborate and strengthen generational bonds.
- Invest with Abundance. Black leaders are deserving of trust and decision-making power. Unrestricted support supports long-term systems change work by shifting metrics to focus on changing systems, instead of fixing communities.
- Invest with Care. Black leaders need the space to prioritize healing, self-care, and well-being for sustainability in this work.
- Invest in Psychological Safety. Foster transparency and understanding between communities of color, seeking to understand similarities and differences.
