Organization: The Black Donors Project

Location: Virtual/Remote

Time Commitment: Bi-monthly (2–3 hours per session)

 

About BLACK PROMPTS

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BLACK PROMPTS is a virtual, peer-to-peer learning journey that draws from arts traditions in theater, improvisation, storytelling, and collective practice. BLACK PROMPTS treats each scenario as a rehearsal space. Participants are invited to explore difficult situations, test responses, and imagine alternatives before encountering similar challenges in real-world settings.

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For Black donors, nonprofit leaders, artists, organizers, and community members who have spent years navigating racialized inequities, exclusion, code-switching, underinvestment, gatekeeping, and other forms of harm within philanthropic and nonprofit systems, rehearsal can serve as a powerful practice of reflection, preparation, and collective care. By engaging challenges together from different vantage points, participants have an opportunity to process experiences, build deeper understanding, strengthen relationships, and imagine responses that are rooted in community wisdom rather than scarcity or survival alone.

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In this way, BLACK PROMPTS is informed by healing justice traditions that recognize collective imagination, cultural practice, and community connection as essential components of individual and collective well-being.

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How to Participate: 

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• Join Bi-Monthly Sessions: Participate in structured scenario-based exercises that mirror real-world challenges for Black-led nonprofits.

• Shape Community Solutions: Collaborate with other Black donors, nonprofit professionals and community members to create culturally aligned strategies that honor our shared history and lived experiences.

• Protect Narrative Sovereignty: Help uphold Black-led organizations’ right to determine how their stories are told and how their impact is measured.

• Foster Racialized Safety: Contribute to safe, culturally competent spaces that nurture Black thought leadership and protect the dignity of Black communities.

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Key Concepts

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• Narrative Sovereignty: Ensuring Black-led organizations control their own stories, missions, and data free from external reinterpretation.

• Racialized Safety: Intentionally creating environments where Black communities can engage difficult conversations, share experiences, and exercise leadership with dignity, trust, and care.

• Cultural Maintenance and Repair: Reclaiming, sustaining, and renewing traditions, practices, relationships, and values that have helped Black communities survive and thrive across generations.

• Healing Justice: Recognizing that collective well-being requires addressing the impacts of systemic and racialized harm while creating opportunities for restoration, connection, imagination, and liberation.

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Why Volunteer?

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• Contribute to Equitable Philanthropy: A unique opportunity to be in an all Black space among your peers to help lay the groundwork for more inclusive philanthropic models that value Black voices and leadership.

• Connect with a Larger Community: Join an active network of like-minded peers dedicated to social change and community care.

• Expand Your Skill Set: Learn about scenario planning, the emerging possibilities (and pitfalls) of AI, and community-centered innovation.

• Honor Our Collective History: Ensure that our stories remain at the forefront of transformative conversations in the philanthropic sector.

 

Dates, Times & Alignment

​The Black Prompts sessions will take place on the following Thursdays from 5:45 PM to 7:30 PM (EST):​

 

Thursday, February 20, 2025 / Scenario

Thursday, April 10, 2025 / Scenario 

Thursday, June 12, 2025  / Scenario 

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Application Process

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• Submit an Application: Complete our short online form here highlighting your background and interest in BLACK PROMPTS.

• Interview/Screening Call: You may be invited to a brief virtual call for us to learn more about your interests and confirm your availability.

• Orientation: Participants will receive an orientation to help you get the most out of this peer-to-peer learning experience.

 

Join us in shaping philanthropic futures where Black-led nonprofits and communities can fully exercise creativity, narrative ownership, and community-driven solutions.