Social Justice and Economic Opportunity Archives

Five Minutes with… Stacey Abrams on why health equity starts close to home

Posted on May 20, 2026May 21, 2026 by Brianna Provenzano

For years, Stacey Abrams has been one of America’s most recognizable champions for expanding access to the ballot box, to economic opportunity, and to the systems that shape who gets to thrive. A former Georgia House minority leader, two-time gubernatorial candidate, bestselling author, and founder of organizations including Fair Fight and American Pride Rises, Abrams has built a national profile by connecting the dots between structural inequities and the everyday lives they shape.

That same desire to expand access is what animates Close to Home: a new health equity initiative from American Pride Rises designed to help people better understand how wellness is shaped by policy, place, and the everyday pressures we all face. Alongside a public education campaign, the initiative also pairs storytelling and resource-sharing with a 2026 health equity microgrant program designed to surface community-driven solutions.

In this installment of Five Minutes With…, NationSwell asked Abrams to reflect on why health equity belongs in the same conversation as democracy and economic mobility; what makes such an initiative remarkable in a moment when even the language of equity is under attack; and what she hopes funders, business leaders, and civic institutions will do to bring this work close to their own homes.

NationSwell: In the simplest terms, what is “Close to Home,” and why did American Pride Rises want to make health equity one of its flagship fights right now?

Stacey Abrams, founder of American Pride Rises: American Pride Rises focuses on DEI in our everyday lives, and one of the most important and high impact places where DEI has been critical is in the healthcare space. The Close to Home campaign is focused on how we can best surface, understand, and invest in community-driven solutions that reflect the lived healthcare experiences of the most impacted communities.

Put more simply, the Close to Home campaign is a place to understand how health connects to our daily lives and to one another through the lens of DEI.

NationSwell: The name “Close to Home” is significant. What does that phrase mean to you, and how does it help people understand how inequity actually shows up in everyday life?

Abrams, APR: We know that health equity is a fairly misunderstood issue. It often feels like something that’s being done to you; as if your access to healthcare is shaped by Washington, D.C., that your access to a hospital is being changed by your state, or that your access to a fair chance at good health is being determined by your background or your zip code. What we want to do is say that it is close to home, it is your community, it is your family, but if the problems are there, so are the solutions.

At the same time, we also want folks to understand that these health outcomes, these challenges, are not personal: It’s close to home, but it’s not you. So many of us are made to believe that a poor health outcome is a personal failure, and Close to Home is designed to help us understand the gaps that exist in access, and between people and opportunities, and that the solutions are close to home.

NationSwell: Close to Home seems designed to do three things at once: public education, community-based microgrants, and policy advocacy. How do those pieces work together, and why was it important to build an initiative that operates across all three?

Abrams, APR: First and foremost, we have to understand the systemic failure that has led to the healthcare crisis. We’re talking about communities that face barriers to preventive care, higher rates of chronic illness, environmental hazards, and rising healthcare costs, and all of that can be traced back to what you know, who you know, how much things cost, and who’s in charge. That’s why we always say it comes back to education, economics, and elections.

On the education side, we are stronger when we understand what we’re facing. Too many Americans of all backgrounds are experiencing persistent health challenges because of gaps in access to care. And that’s part of the onus of DEI: understanding that diversity means all people, equity means fair access to opportunity, and inclusion means respect for belonging — especially when it comes to healthcare.

So the education piece is about making sure people know what they’re entitled to and understand the barriers they face. The microgrants are the economic piece. We know that, at scale, it’s going to take public policy to solve these problems — but close to home, we are already incubating and ideating solutions. One of the most important things we want to lift up is that wherever you live, you probably have a neighbor, a friend, or a community member who’s thinking about how to make life better and improve access to healthcare.

The intention of the microgrants is to invest in those ideas. Because of the attacks on DEI and the attacks on the Affordable Care Act, resources that could make us stronger are instead making us sicker, more divided, and more vulnerable. So the microgrants are really about investing in communities to surface extraordinary ideas, test those experiments, and then say: based on what we now know, let’s build systems that can scale them.

And that leads to the third piece: policy. It is a political decision to undermine public health infrastructure. It is a political decision to use executive orders to attack equity in healthcare. It is a policy decision to roll back protections for women’s bodily autonomy, and to undermine care for communities facing the AIDS and HIV epidemic.

These are policy decisions, and therefore it is our responsibility to advocate for the policies that can make us healthier, help unite us, and strengthen not only those most directly impacted, but the communities they’re part of. We all win, regardless of where we start, when we solve healthcare inequity.

NationSwell: What feels differentiated about the approach American Pride Rises is taking here, particularly in a moment when even the language of equity is under attack?

Abrams, APR: We begin with the belief that we have to understand what we face. And to your very first question about what “Close to Home” means, we know that the language we hear helps shape what we believe we’re entitled to. That’s why we’re focusing on the language of “Close to Home”: because we want people to understand that this is an everyday issue. It’s not remote. It’s about you, your loved ones, and your community. For us, it’s about helping people understand how the values of DEI improve health outcomes for all communities.

We’re talking about providers who are trained to deliver competent care based on your cultural needs. For example, we know that men can experience PSA levels differently in ways that affect whether prostate cancer is detected. That’s culturally competent care. And that doesn’t care about who you are; it cares about what biology tells us about your health needs. We know that women, especially women going through menopause, have very specific needs, and that policies should be designed around the people most impacted. We know that rural communities often have less access to healthcare simply because of geography.

So part of our intention is to use language that helps people understand that diversity isn’t a curse. It is one of the superpowers of our society, but it can only work if we understand how it can be used for us, or weaponized against us.

NationSwell: When you look at the communities this initiative is meant to serve, what do you see as the most overlooked drivers of health inequity — the forces upstream from the doctor’s office that too many leaders still treat as separate from “health”?

Abrams, APR: Well, let’s just start with the current administration’s decisions: We began with the slashing of federal funding for healthcare, and we saw this administration double healthcare premiums for 20 million Americans and kick 14 million people off their coverage in order to fund a permanent tax handout for the top 1%.

That has real consequences, because those are still people who are going to show up in our hospitals. They’re still going to show up in urgent care, but they’re not going to have the care they need. And there’s a cost to every American. We don’t often think about this, but when someone goes to the hospital and can’t afford care, the hospital absorbs that as uncompensated care and then passes those costs along to everyone else. One of the realities is that our affordability crisis is caused, in part, by our broken healthcare system.

You can’t afford to get what you need because when you do get support, you’re being charged more than you should. Number two: this administration also cut environmental justice investments. That may sound esoteric, until you realize what it actually means: they cut efforts to address the health burdens facing vulnerable communities, including communities living with high levels of pollution. When you roll back environmental protections, you create an environmental hazard that becomes a healthcare cost.

And then there’s something very close to me, and to where I live in Georgia: we have one of the worst maternal mortality rates in the nation. But this is not endemic to Georgia, and it’s not endemic to the South. When maternal mortality rises, it’s not just healthcare costs that go up, the economic costs to the entire community go up as well. There are real economic harms that come with persistent health challenges.

We are all made stronger when we have a public health infrastructure that goes beyond the medicine we’re given and extends into the communities we live in.

NationSwell: At a time when many institutions are retreating from equity language or narrowing their ambitions, what does it look like to make the case for health equity in a way that is both morally clear and broadly resonant?

Abrams, APR: I was having a conversation with someone earlier today who asked me, “Why do you talk about DEI and equity so brazenly?” And I said it comes down to two things. First, when we adapt our language, we change our minds. That’s not always a bad thing; sometimes we change our language because we’ve learned something new. New language can help us evolve our thinking, but that same dynamic can also be used against us.

So when it comes to the attacks on DEI, my question is always: Which letter don’t you agree with? Do you oppose diversity? Are you offended by equity? Are you afraid of inclusion? What part is problematic? Equity simply means fair access to opportunity. And in healthcare, equity means understanding that when one person is healthier — when a system is healthier — we all benefit.

That goes back to a fundamental recognition: too many of us have been trained to believe that broken healthcare is a personal failing, that our needs are simply the result of individual choices. But health is shaped by the places we call home. It’s shaped by the work we do. It’s shaped by the pressures we face. It’s shaped by what we can afford.

That’s why it’s so important to talk about health equity and to talk about DEI. Because when we internalize that language, we also internalize the power to know that things can be made better. The attacks on DEI are not happening because DEI has failed. They’re happening because DEI has been working — because Americans of all backgrounds were getting better access and a fairer shot at living healthy, thriving lives.

Those who oppose it demonized the language. So for me, it is a power move to keep using it, because when we own the language, we own the narrative. And the narrative should be that everyone in this country deserves a fair shot at living a healthy and thriving life, no matter where they are — but especially close to home.

NationSwell: You’ve spent so much of your career expanding access to power in democracy, in the economy, in public life. Why does health equity belong in that same conversation?

Abrams, APR: I grew up in southern Mississippi. I used to be on the debate team when I was young, and when we’d pass through Louisiana, we would drive through what was known as “Cancer Alley.” The fact that there was a nationally recognized name for an entire community defined by environmental harm was devastating. What it said was that, in pursuit of revenue, it was acceptable for industry to poison a whole community. And that community was predominantly Black and predominantly poor.

My family did not have health insurance. When we got sick, prayer was our best option — and then Tylenol. Those should not be the choices we have to make. My dad fell off scaffolding and broke his back in an on-the-job accident, but his employer refused to pay for it. So my parents had to figure out how to cover extraordinary medical bills while also fighting a legal system that ignored my father because of his race.

Now my parents are older, and they’re grappling with healthcare issues again. But the difference is: now they have health insurance, and now they have a daughter who knows who to call and has the ability to open doors. What I can do on an individual level for my parents today should be available to every person, for every member of their family, every day.

Equity is about fair access. I should not have more access simply because more people know my name. This comes close to home for me because I cannot believe in a democracy that is real if it does not include all people.

NationSwell: If you could leave corporate leaders, funders, and civic institutions with one challenge as they think about their own role in health equity, what would you want them to do differently? How could they start the work close to home?

Abrams, APR: A healthy workforce is the least expensive form of labor. At the most basic economic level, it is better for industry and better for companies to have a healthy workforce. People work faster, they work better, and they’re not stressed about the next accident or the next mistake. So at a very basic level, it’s in the interest of business leaders to want a healthcare system that works for all of us.

At the societal level, we know that DEI helps ensure the healthcare system reflects real communities — that we have providers trained to deliver culturally competent care, and that policies are designed around the people most impacted. When we invest in DEI and healthcare, we build systems that work better for everyone. When we solve healthcare problems for the most vulnerable or the most complex cases, there’s a follow-on benefit for everyone else.

And ultimately, in a democracy, business does better when people can afford to invest, afford to come to work, and afford to value your products. “Close to Home” is about connecting those dots and making sure we are building healthier, more equitable communities everywhere we go, and supporting the ideas that actually lift us up.

Companies already know from the data that when people do better, they are more productive, more engaged, and stronger community members. So at the individual, corporate, and societal level, health equity makes us all richer.

Solution Spotlight: Rethinking homeownership models to build generational wealth

Posted on April 8, 2026May 20, 2026 by Brianna Provenzano

In many cities, the homeownership gap reflects not a shortage of aspiring buyers, but the long erosion of affordable homes for sale. In communities shaped by redlining, population loss, and decades of systemic neglect, the problem is often twofold: homeownership remains financially out of reach for many families, and the supply of high-quality, affordable homes has been hollowed out. In some neighborhoods, that dysfunction is compounded by hypervacancy, where abandoned or uninhabitable properties sit empty for years, dragging down surrounding values even as would-be buyers struggle to find homes they can realistically purchase.

NationSwell’s Solution Spotlight series is designed to surface the most innovative and promising (or proven!) initiatives and approaches that are creating results. Each installment offers a closer look at a unique, impact-driven model — how it works in practice, how it was brought to bear, and what it reveals about building durable change. Sourced from within the NationSwell community, the series aims to surface what’s working, why it matters, and how it can be adapted or scaled.

This feature spotlights two models that both show how reinvestment in overlooked areas can unlock exciting new opportunities for homeownership (and avoid the displacement of communities who have lived in those neighborhoods for decades.)

Parity Homes — created and run by Bree Jones in West Baltimore — has stepped in to fill that gap by rebuilding not just individual homes, but also by rethinking the conditions that make ownership possible in the first place.

And in Springfield, Massachusetts, the City of Homes Initiative — led by Way Finders and supported by MassMutual Foundation — is advancing a policy-driven pathway that transforms long-blighted properties into affordable homeownership opportunities for working families.

Parity Homes: Rebuilding homes and markets in West Baltimore

“What we do in simple terms is we create both the supply and the demand to jumpstart housing activity in collapsed markets through social capital.— Bree Jones, Founder & CEO, Parity Homes

The Problem: Dysfunctional housing markets
In historically Black neighborhoods like those in West Baltimore, homeownership barriers aren’t driven by overheated demand, but by long-term market disinvestment. Thousands of homes sit vacant or uninhabitable due to decades of redlining, urban renewal, and predatory lending that displaced residents and restricted the flow of capital into Black neighborhoods. Legacy residents are often left with devalued homes and overdue maintenance, while new buyers have few affordable and livable options. Traditional housing markets — and financing systems — struggle to operate effectively in this context.

For individual buyers, the perceived risk of being “first” — moving onto a block without confidence that neighbors, services, or investment will follow — further suppresses demand, even where interest in homeownership exists.

The Solution: Community building for market revival
Founded in 2020, Parity is a development company and community-building model designed to address both sides of this problem at once. The organization acquires clusters of vacant properties, renovates them to a high standard, and pre-sells homes to cohorts of buyers — often friends, family members, or existing social networks — who move onto a block together.

By anchoring demand in trusted relationships rather than isolated individual buyers, Parity reduces the social and financial risk of moving into disinvested neighborhoods, helping buyers feel confident that they are not entering a block — or market — alone. Rather than treating homeownership as an individual leap of faith, Parity treats it as a coordinated act of collective entry which contributes to stronger community relations and richer social capital.

On the buyer side, Parity guides participants through a readiness program that prepares them financially, emotionally, and mentally for homeownership. On the community side, it supports legacy residents through key partnerships with organizations like the SOS Fund which connects residents with anti-displacement resources that help them address deferred maintenance and lock in property taxes as values rise.

Why it’s Different: Parity treats social capital as the primary catalyst for market revival. Rather than marketing homes to individual buyers in isolation, the organization intentionally assembles cohorts of prospective homeowners from existing social networks, guiding them through the buying process together.

Parity recruits buyers through referrals, community outreach, and trusted relationships, then moves cohorts through a shared readiness process that builds financial preparedness alongside mutual commitment. And by pre-selling homes before construction and anchoring demand in groups that already trust one another, Parity reduces uncertainty for buyers, lenders, and the surrounding market. Parity’s core process of repurposing vacant houses also contributes to more sustainable construction, because it creates a much smaller ecological footprint than a new construction site would.

“We pre-sell all of our homes. The buyer goes through the entire construction process — they choose finishes, they’re invested. It’s not ‘build it and list it on Zillow.”

— Bree Jones, Founder & CEO, Parity Homes

Impact Highlights: In just a few years, Parity has moved from proof of concept to measurable, neighborhood-level impact, accelerating renovation timelines while demonstrating that coordinated reinvestment can revive disinvested blocks.

What began as a vision to cluster buyers and rebuild vacant homes has translated into measurable production and faster delivery, signaling that the model can scale:

60+ properties acquired
13 units completed on the first block; 20 more under development
Renovation timelines reduced from ~12 months to ~6 months

Key Enabler: Catalytic capital that de-risks early stage innovation

“Without JPMorgan Chase’s catalytic funding, I wouldn’t have been able to do any of this.”

— Bree Jones, Founder & CEO, Parity Homes

Parity launched with a $2M catalytic grant from JPMorgan Chase, enabling early proof of concept at a moment when traditional lenders were unlikely to back a market-revitalization model. That early capital helped to demonstrate viability, which in turn helped to attract additional partners.

The organization has since expanded through blended capital, including a $1M, 1% program-related investment (PRI) from the Nathan Cummings Foundation, and a $2M revolving construction loan from Baltimore Community Lending – increasingly leveraging debt to scale production.

Future Plans: Parity’s model is uniquely designed for housing markets experiencing hypervacancy like Detroit, Cleveland, St. Louis, East Cleveland, and Kansas City. Parity has proven the ability to convert the most entrenched dilapidation and vacancy into ownership, rebuilding intergenerational wealth, and strengthening civic power at the block, neighborhood, and city level.

Lessons & applications for other leaders:

Design for community building, not just individual sales. Pre-selling homes to buyer cohorts before construction reduces risk for purchasers and lenders alike. By leveraging existing relationships to assemble and support buyers, Parity demonstrates that social capital can function as a form of investable capital when intentionally organized.
Build ownership pathways for a range of buyer profiles. Designing financing and readiness processes around actual lived circumstances expands access while strengthening long-term stability.
Fix underlying structural misalignment, not just the symptoms. Markets don’t fail accidentally — they fail when systems are misaligned. Pairing social driven demand with institutional lending, national philanthropy, policy, and construction innovation restores market function (rather than temporarily masking dysfunction).

“Our long-term theory of change is about building power—neighbors who know how to advocate for themselves and shape the systems that serve them.”

— Bree Jones, Founder & CEO, Parity Homes

City of Homes: Turning blight into pathways to ownership in Springfield

“We’re creating a new pathway for properties to go from being blighted to being assets for the community — and for families that didn’t have that opportunity before.”

— Keith Fairey, President & CEO, Way Finders

The Problem: Blight, disinvestment, and lost ownership opportunities
Springfield, Massachusetts is historically known as the “City of Homes,” but decades of disinvestment have left many single- and two-family properties abandoned or in severe disrepair. In turn, those properties depress surrounding home values, destabilize neighborhoods, and often cycle through the court-appointed receivership process where they are rehabilitated and often converted into rental units rather than preserved as ownership opportunities.

At the same time, hundreds of local residents complete first-time homebuyer education programs each year. Upon graduation, and with access to down payment assistance programs, they still struggle to uncover adequate, affordable inventory to purchase. This imbalance results in a glut of blighted homes creating liabilities for neighborhoods while scores of aspiring homeowners remain locked out.

The Solution: Connecting policy reform, redevelopment, and first-time buyers
Observing this disconnect, Way Finders created its “City of Homes” initiative (named for the city it serves), which relies on three coinciding solutions in order to create a new, equity-focused pathway for prospective homeowners:

First, Way Finders works effectively within recent reforms to Massachusetts’ Affordable Homes Act — shaped by Way Finders’ own on-the-ground innovation in both process and partnerships — to appoint what are known as “special attorney receivers” to interrupt the automatic conversion of distressed properties into permanent rental stock. Traditionally, when properties entered into receivership proceedings, the assigned court-appointed receivers were private contractors or developers. But thanks to recent reforms, the law now allows for the appointment of “special attorney receivers,” who transfer the properties specifically to nonprofit developers like Way Finders for rehabilitation and resale as an affordable homeownership opportunity.

In addition to strengthening ownership pipelines, Way Finders simultaneously leverages its developmental capacity by working to acquire, rehabilitate, or rebuild the blighted homes themselves — often using local, BIPOC-owned contractors to do so.

Finally, Way Finders taps into an extant first-time homebuyer education pipeline that it already uses to train 700–800 prospective buyers annually in order to connect that demand directly to newly restored inventory. Homes are then sold affordably to buyers earning roughly 80–100% of area median income, with mechanisms such as lotteries used when city-owned funding is involved.

Why it’s Different: By recognizing and slightly modifying how receivership works under Massachusetts state law, the model creates a durable pathway for blighted properties to return to community ownership rather than speculative rental properties.

“This is such a slight tweak to an existing process that has such strong ripple effects… reminding us that innovation doesn’t always have to mean looking for a big flashy unicorn. It can be as simple as a shift in the way that we think about something that already exists.”
– Dennis Duquette, President & CEO, MassMutual Foundation

Impact Highlights: While still early in its implementation (the Massachusetts Affordable Homes Act was signed into law in August of 2024), properties are currently being rehabilitated in concentrated clusters, creating a multiplier stabilization effect within targeted neighborhoods. The special attorney receiver pathway is now codified statewide through Massachusetts’ Affordable Homes Act, expanding the model beyond Springfield, and early implementation demonstrates that long-blighted ownership properties can return to productive, affordable homeownership rather than converting to rental stock.

Keith Fairey, President & CEO, Way Finders, shared one recent anecdote from a blighted home’s former owner upon learning that it would be rehabilitated into a family home:

“We had a public event at a two-family home that had seen much better days… it was boarded up. The special attorney who helped convey that property brought the owner — someone who grew up in the home but couldn’t keep up with it.

I didn’t know how that would go… but he felt really bad that it was pulling down the neighborhood. He was glad to see that it was going to be somebody’s home again rather than sitting there in a very blighted and abandoned state.”

— Keith Fairey, President & CEO, Way Finders

Key Enabler: Patient, flexible capital and systems-oriented philanthropy

“We don’t hold the solutions… we are a connector. We use our resources to bring folks together, to experiment, and advance ideas into action.”

– Dennis Duquette, President & CEO, MassMutual Foundation

MassMutual Foundation has played a catalytic role in bringing the City of Homes model to life. Over several years, the Foundation funded research by a retired housing court judge to prove viability, pressure-tested the concept with stakeholders across the city, and provided early, flexible capital to de-risk the pilot before other funders joined.

Beyond funding, MassMutual also convened stakeholder groups, supported statewide policy adoption, and aligned complimentary investments — including down payment assistance resources for Western Massachusetts — to strengthen existing ownership pipelines.

Future Plans: Scalable pathways for gateway cities
The legislative framework that underpins the City of Homes Initiative is now active statewide, with interest emerging from other “gateway cities” across Massachusetts — former industrial centers facing similar cycles of abandonment and disinvestment.

If scaled, the model offers:

A durable mechanism for transforming blight into ownership
Expanded pathways to household wealth-building
Stabilized neighborhoods where property value growth benefits working families rather than external investors

For MassMutual Foundation, the long-term goal aligns with its broader mission of strengthening financial resilience:

“Homeownership is such a key lever in building financial resilience and capability. It’s also foundational to establishing generational wealth over time.”

– Dennis Duquette, President & CEO, MassMutual Foundation

Lessons & applications for other leaders:

Slight policy shifts can unlock outsized impact. A targeted change to receivership rules created a new pathway without having to dismantle the entire system.
Pair systems change with tactical investment. Supporting first-time homebuyer programs and down payment assistance in tandem with reforms to structural barriers accelerates impact.
Patient capital matters. The City of Homes Initiative required years of dialogue, research, and early stage risk tolerance before it could be implemented.
Innovation doesn’t have to be “disruptive” to be transformative. Sometimes the most durable change comes from adjusting existing infrastructure rather than inventing something new.

NationSwell op-ed: Reflecting on 100 Years of Black History Month

Posted on February 27, 2026May 20, 2026 by Brianna Provenzano

February 2026 marks a century of observing Black History Month — a milestone that invites remembrances of and reflections on the Black leaders, communities, solutions, and institutions that shape our lives and our work.

To honor those legacies and this anniversary, NationSwell invited a group of Black leaders from across our community to reflect on a forward-looking question: What’s one movement, model, or solution that you are seeing create momentum toward a more just and equitable society today — and what can other leaders be doing to ensure that work can scale or endure?

Although the responses span sectors and strategies, one shared philosophy emerged: Momentum is strongest when communities are trusted and resourced. The answers we received point to the neighbors organizing mutual aid and defending democratic participation; to collective giving models that pool capital and strengthen civic infrastructure; to philanthropy that trusts communities with flexible, long-term investment; to leaders doing the internal work required to lead with accountability.

Although urgency may be the spark that ignites action, the strength of our communities is what sustains it, and Black History Month is an occasion to honor the ancestors and elders, artists and organizers, mentors and managers, and everyday examples of courage and care that form the basis of those communities.

Take a look at some of the responses from across our community below:

Prompt: What’s one movement, model, or solution that you are seeing create momentum toward a more just and equitable society today — and what can other leaders be doing to ensure that work can scale or endure?

“What I’ve seen from my neighbors in Minnesota hasn’t just inspired me — it has moved the nation.

The way ordinary Minnesotans mobilize to take care of one another, and to fight for the American freedoms and values we hold dear, may be making headlines now, but it isn’t new, which is a point of both pain and pride. We saw it after the murder of George Floyd, when grief and outrage drew people to be part of something bigger than any one of us.

Today we’re seeing it following the surge of federal agents into our neighborhoods. Like then, people did not retreat with fear or fury. Instead, they built mutual-aid lifelines: food distribution, rent support, school carpools. They trained as constitutional observers. They documented what they witnessed not to inflame conflict, but to protect rights and de-escalate harm. They marched by the thousands, in sub-zero temperatures. The nation was watching, and what it saw was the best of Minnesota — and of America.

We have been told the surge is ending. And while it is clear that policies or practices have yet to change, the signaled departure is proof that the peaceful pressure worked. Care and accountability carried Minnesota through.

And for leaders who want that civic strength to scale and endure, the mandate is clear: Fund grassroots organizations. Protect democratic participation. Use your voice to tell the truth about what communities are experiencing. Direct capital back into neighborhoods after the headlines fade.

A just society is built from the ground up. By neighbors who refuse to abandon one another, and by leaders who choose to stand with them.”

– Tonya Allen, President, McKnight Foundation

“One movement driving meaningful progress toward a more just and equitable society is collective giving. Across Black communities in America — including my hometown in West Tennessee — there is a longstanding tradition of pooling resources to meet urgent needs, build institutions, and support one another. Today, that tradition is developing into more formal structures such as giving circles and philanthropic collectives, merging cultural legacy with strategic philanthropy.

These models are powerful because they democratize impact. They allow individuals, regardless of social economic status, to participate in thoughtful, community-focused grantmaking. By aligning shared values with pooled resources, collective giving magnifies results beyond what any single donor could achieve alone. It strengthens connections, encourages shared accountability, and enables communities to deploy resources quickly and efficiently. In doing so, it reinforces both social trust and civic infrastructure.

As this movement expands, leaders can help it grow and sustain in two key ways. First, invest in infrastructure organizations that provide education, governance frameworks, and operational support to collective giving networks, as we do through the Fidelity Charitable Catalyst Fund, a grantmaking program led by our Board of Trustees. Second, lead by example. When leaders actively participate in and promote collective giving, they normalize collaborative philanthropy and help it expand and endure.”

– Jacob Pruitt, President, Fidelity Charitable

“Right now, one of the most powerful changes gaining momentum is leaders turning inward and embracing real self‑awareness. Leaders are starting to take that step to not only look within, but to also act on what they learn. That is huge because as leaders, our greatest impact comes from doing this internal work and challenging our own beliefs, assumptions, and misconceptions. That’s where real growth happens and where our power lies to actually drive change across the work we do, now and in the future.

Throughout my career, I have made it a priority to practice a deep level of self-examination because meaningful change only happens when there’s also personal accountability. This self-reflection is what strengthens you as a leader, a family member, and a member of your community. After working with countless leaders, I can honestly say that what separates a good leader from a great one is their willingness to ask questions, seek context, and stay open to being challenged rather than assuming they already understand others. Our willingness as leaders to embrace internal growth strengthens who we are and helps us empower everyone we lead and every community we serve.”

– Olivia Jefferson, Vice President and Executive Director, Best Buy

“One movement I see creating real momentum toward a more just and equitable society is the shift from transactional philanthropy to trust-based, community-informed investment. Across the country, leaders are rethinking who holds power, who defines impact, and who is trusted to lead change. Multi-year general operating support, participatory grantmaking, and deeper listening are not merely technical adjustments — they signal a cultural shift in how institutions relate to communities.

What gives me hope is the recognition that communities closest to the challenges are also closest to the solutions. When we provide grantees with flexibility and respect, we unlock innovation, resilience, and long-term transformation.

At WKKF, this is not new. It reinforces what has long guided our work: meaningful change happens through, as Mr. Kellogg described it, “cooperative planning, intelligent study and group action.” While “trust-based philanthropy” may be a newer sector term, the underlying ethos, following the lead of communities and resourcing their vision, is deeply aligned with our founding values.

For this work to scale and endure, leaders must move beyond rhetoric and align systems, governance structures, risk tolerance, reporting practices, and definitions of success accordingly. Justice is not accelerated by urgency alone; it is sustained by trust, partnership, and shared accountability.”

– Roshell Rinkins, Vice President of Transformation and Organizational Effectiveness, WKKF

“The movement I’m most inspired by is the growing insistence — from HBCUs, community organizers, faith leaders and everyday people — that they are the AI experts who will build the technological future that works for all of us. The Civil Rights Movement didn’t wait for powerful institutions to invite participation. People built parallel structures — freedom schools, legal defense funds, community newspapers — because they understood that if you aren’t at the table shaping the narrative, you become a character in someone else’s story. The same principle applies today. AI is not destiny — it is design. And design reflects the imagination, values, and blind spots of whoever holds the pen. When entire communities are absent from that process, the resulting systems don’t just fail to serve them — they often actively harm them. This is why Omidyar Network partners with organizations like Collab Capital, an Atlanta-based early-stage venture firm investing in the building blocks of shared prosperity and economic parity, and the Black Innovation Alliance — a growing coalition ensuring Black-led startups, innovators and researchers can connect with the capital, talent, and networks they need to scale and shape the future of tech.

Real momentum comes from investing in people who see themselves as protagonists — not end users or data points, but architects. Leaders can accelerate this by funding inclusion before the crisis, by asking what voices are missing from their portfolios, and commissioning diverse design teams as a standard, not a footnote. The decisions made in boardrooms today are shaping the world our grandchildren will inherit.

Let’s make sure they can be proud of what we built.”

– Michele Jawando, President, Omidyar Network

Investing in Rural Communities: Why the Delta Demands Bold Philanthropy

Posted on January 6, 2026May 20, 2026 by NationSwell Team

Rural America is often spoken of as if it were a single place: a stretch of heartland, a scattering of towns, a flat landscape dotted with fields and farmhouses. In reality, the picture is far more complex — and far richer. Nearly 20 percent of the U.S. population lives in rural areas, and almost a quarter are people of color. These communities are home to deep cultural traditions, close-knit civic life, and an abundance of untapped talent and creativity that fuel the nation’s food systems, industries, and arts. Yet among the youngest rural residents, one in five grows up in poverty — the highest rate across all age groups nationwide.

This gap between perception and reality often obscures the nuanced beauty of rural life, leaving entire regions undercounted, misunderstood, and underfunded. Despite the fact that nearly one in five Americans lives rurally, these regions receive just 7% of philanthropic capital — leaving schools, housing, and infrastructure chronically underfunded.

Nowhere is this tension clearer than in the Mississippi Arkansas Delta, a region that embodies both the challenges and the possibilities of rural America. Long celebrated as the birthplace of the blues and a wellspring of cultural creativity, the Delta is equally defined by the resilience and ingenuity of its people — communities that have sustained one another through generations of economic and social change. Yet the Delta is also home to some of the nation’s most persistently poor counties, where pathways to steady work and economic security remain too few and far between.

“What’s struck me most is how much creativity, expertise, and leadership already exist in rural communities,” says Robert Burns, director of the Walton Family Foundation’s Home Region program. “When you start by listening, you quickly see that the ideas and solutions we need are already there. Our role is often simply to help remove barriers and expand access to the opportunities residents are already working hard to create.”

Burns notes that the Delta’s greatest strength is its people — and that funders must match that strength with humility and long-term commitment. “The Delta is a place of deep history, culture, and possibility,” he says. “But it’s also a region facing persistent inequities, including a significant wealth gap. That’s exactly where bold, community-led investment can make a real difference.”

While Burns emphasizes the talent already present in rural communities, Kim Davis, president of the King Foundation, underscores what it requires of funders: humility, proximity, and a willingness to shift power.

“I’m proud that I’ve been able to keep community at the center of this work,” he says. “At Walton, we lifted up the Delta and brought visibility to a region too often overlooked. And at King, we’ve doubled down on proximity — on wearing the jersey of community instead of playing the superhero, and on fueling local leadership with the resources and trust they deserve.”

For philanthropy, the Delta represents both a stark challenge and an extraordinary opportunity: to invest not just in infrastructure or programs, but in its already-existing wells of creativity, leadership, and cultural capital — and to help scale them into lasting engines of resilience and shared prosperity.

The Realities of Rural Investment

Despite the enormous promise rural America holds for investment, attracting and sustaining that capital is rarely straightforward. Communities often face infrastructure gaps, fragmented leadership, and logistical barriers that make it hard to scale solutions across regions. Agriculture is also no longer the primary driver of rural employment, meaning that investments must now also reach sectors like manufacturing, health care, and small business.

The stakes of these challenges are deeply human: “When you look somebody in the eyes who’s thrown in the towel and thinks nobody cares about them, it breaks your heart,” says Colby Hall, Director of Regional Economic Development at Craft Philanthropy. “But when you remind them that they’re here for a reason — that they have unique gifts and a path forward — that’s transformational work.”

The Delta region mirrors many of these more broad-based rural challenges, including persistent poverty, housing shortages, and childcare gaps that keep parents, especially women, out of the workforce. Yet despite these barriers, the region also holds great promise; proximity to midsize metros like Memphis and Jackson creates natural economic ladders, while the rise of remote work expands job opportunities for residents.

Ultimately, solutions in the Delta must be built with — not for — local people, which means investing in the workforce, supporting affordable childcare, and helping residents access training that connects them to emerging industries or remote work opportunities. It also means strengthening civic infrastructure: ensuring that there are strong backbone organizations, convening spaces for collaboration, and opportunities for communities to share lessons with one another across county lines.

“Rural communities are deeply familiar with performative or extractive forms of support, so it’s critical that funding be rooted in authenticity and trust,” says Anna Beth Gorman, CEO of the Women’s Foundation of Arkansas. “When funders listen first and partner closely with community members, the solutions are not only more relevant, but also more sustainable.”

Rethinking Scale

For funders accustomed to measuring success by the size of their impact, scale in rural regions can look deceptively small. As Dreama Gentry, president and CEO of Partners for Rural Impact, notes, clarity about what level of place you aim to reach is key.

“In rural areas, much of the work happens regionally — but ‘region’ can mean different things depending on whether you’re focused on health, education, or economic development,” she says. “What matters most is aligning your definition of community with the outcomes you hope to achieve.

Being realistic about the number of people you can reach, she adds, is equally important: “A regional strategy might engage thousands, while a neighborhood effort could reach hundreds — but that might still mean 80% of local youth are benefiting. In rural contexts, depth of reach often matters more than raw numbers.”

Sherra Bennett — Senior Program Officer at the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation — builds on this point, encouraging prospective funders to remember that a grant that can seem modest in a metropolitan context can be transformative in a rural context.

“Sometimes funders focus on how many people are reached, but in rural places, it might be 50 or 75 instead of 5,000, and that smaller number can still create a ripple effect that transforms the region,” she says. “If you’re looking for scale in terms of volume of people, you can easily overlook the real amount of work and collaboration that’s happening in rural communities.”

Bennett notes that those scaling challenges extend to organizations themselves, which are often operating with very small staff and limited infrastructure. “They’re doing a lot with a little — stretching dollars, building networks, and leveraging informal systems to get things done,” she says. “What they need most is flexible, multi-year funding that builds capacity — not just programs,” she says.

What’s Already Working in the Delta

Despite the challenges it faces, there are also bright spots in rural regions that demonstrate what effective investment can look like. In the Delta region specifically, funders like the Walton Family Foundation are investing in education pipelines and place-based development; the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation has prioritized investment in grantees like Communities Unlimited, which emphasizes economic mobility and equity; and the Women’s Foundation of Arkansas is advancing opportunities for women and families. Other regional and national partners are supporting workforce development programs, broadband expansion, and the strengthening of civic infrastructure.

The lessons are clear: the most successful programs are community-led, equity-driven, and built to last. Together, these efforts show that progress is possible when investment is rooted in local priorities and designed for long-term impact.

“People assume rural means limited, but I’ve seen rural leaders accomplish things with fewer resources that some larger institutions struggle to achieve,” Davis says. “They collaborate across silos, stretch every dollar, and create solutions grounded in lived reality. That ingenuity — born out of necessity — isn’t just admirable, it’s instructive for all of us in philanthropy.”

“If we can figure out how to unlock economic opportunity for rural people — give them purpose, dignity, and a fair shot — I think that’s the greatest domestic challenge we face as a country,” Hall says. “The development that’s coming will happen in rural America, and it’s critical that those benefits reach the people who’ve been left out for decades.”

NationSwell’s Place-Based Collaborative has unearthed several field-tested strategies for championing rural investment:

Let communities define “place.” Avoid one-size-fits-all boundaries; listen to residents about where meaningful change can take root.

Go beyond bricks-and-mortar. Proximity to schools or clinics doesn’t always mean access. In Greenville, Mississippi, for example, residents live near critical services but still face life expectancy as low as 63 years and labor participation rates around 60. Effective investments must address underlying barriers — from healthcare access to workforce participation — not just physical infrastructure.

Use data-driven, asset-based mapping. Tools like the Urban Institute’s rural typology help funders tailor strategies to local strengths, whether rooted in natural resources, emerging industries, or cultural institutions.

Account for variation across rural places. No two communities are alike: some are near metros, others are energy hubs or farming towns. Treat this diversity as an opportunity to customize strategies, not as a hurdle.

Map leadership and empower local champions. Pastors, superintendents, and grassroots organizers are often the connective tissue that builds trust and convenes coalitions.

Align on shared outcomes. Clear, measurable goals — such as third-grade reading proficiency or high school graduation rates — can unite divided communities and build internal alignment for funders.

Support backbone organizations. Strengthening civic infrastructure ensures progress outlasts any one grant cycle.

Invest in local talent. Hiring and skilling up residents, supporting affordable childcare, investing in transportation, and expanding pathways to remote work all build durable local economies.

Bridge federal funding gaps. More than 400 federal programs target rural America, but recent cuts to funding stand to blunt the impact these programs have. Funders can play a catalytic role by underwriting grant-writing capacity, supporting local planning efforts, or co-investing alongside federal dollars.

Building Capacity, Building Momentum

Momentum grows when funders act as conveners — not only bringing resources to the table, but also helping rural communities connect, share solutions, and collaborate across regions. Over time, this creates a stronger ecosystem of leaders and institutions that can sustain progress well beyond any one grant cycle.

“Rural communities are beautifully complex,” Gorman says. “Even when resources are limited, people find innovative and adaptive ways to meet challenges, build opportunities, and support one another. That blend of determination and ingenuity is both inspiring and humbling to witness.”

The Delta’s challenges are generational, but they are not insurmountable. With patient capital, authentic partnership, and a commitment to long-term outcomes, funders can help transform the trajectory of entire communities. Even for those who cannot commit decades of investment, there are catalytic opportunities — like building job training pipelines or strengthening early childhood systems — that can shift local economies and empower residents for years to come.

For too long, rural communities like those in the Delta have been treated as an afterthought in philanthropy. By investing in the Delta, funders are not just addressing inequality — they are fueling the resilience, creativity, and prosperity of a region that has always been at the heart of America’s story.

In offering her advice to prospective funders, Bennett encourages a wholesale attitude shift — moving away from eyeing the region’s challenges and toward an embrace of all the potential and complexity it holds.

“Avoid a deficit mindset,” she says. “The challenges are real, but so are the tremendous assets — the cultural wealth, the deep social bonds, the vision of what already exists. Rural communities don’t need saving; they need investment, sustainability, and patience.”

Now is the moment to show up, listen deeply, and commit boldly. The Delta is ready for partners who believe in its future.

What We Can Learn From The Annie E. Casey Foundation and Tomi Hiers, VP of the Foundation’s Center for Civic Sites and Community Change

Posted on August 12, 2025May 21, 2026 by NationSwell Team

This summer, as part of NationSwell’s Place-based Impact Collaborative, we explored the power of community-led change through an immersive experience in Atlanta, GA. This experience would not have been possible without our host, The Annie E. Casey Foundation.

As place-based work popularizes, new actors should pay attention: nearly 25 years into their place-based commitment to the city, what the Foundation is building in Atlanta is a testament to place-based investment done right. Long-term, community-rooted, structurally sound, and boldly committed to building a brighter future for youth, families and communities the Annie E. Casey Foundation is unwavering in striving toward greater opportunity for all Atlantans.

A group of NationSwell members walk past the icon ferris wheel in Atlanta

Why Atlanta?

Many view Atlanta as a booming metro hub, but it is also the city with the lowest rate of economic mobility in the United States. A child born into poverty in Atlanta has less than a 4% chance of escaping it. The Annie E. Casey Foundation established its Atlanta Civic Site in 2001, recognizing the city’s unique potential, alongside its stark disparities.

“Atlanta has a vibrant economy (one of the fastest growing in the country) and rich culture,” says Tomi Hiers, “It continues to be an attractive city, as its rapidly growing population shows.”

But as she points out, “Atlanta has one of the country’s fastest-growing economies, but that growth is uneven across its communities….Communities along and below I-20 continue to face some of the most persistent poverty rates in the country.”

A three-pronged approach: The Foundation’s theory of change in Atlanta

The Foundation’s commitment in Atlanta is long-term and multifaceted, focusing on three investment pillars: economic opportunity, neighborhood transformation, and educational achievement.

“Atlanta is the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s second hometown (Baltimore is the other),” says Hiers, “We encourage action and transformation in Atlanta through a combination of strategic partnerships and investments, spanning beyond individual neighborhoods. Our work continues to be undergirded by the belief that strong communities are possible when young people have the family connections, relationships, communities and educational and employment opportunities they need to thrive.”

Neighborhood transformation: Pittsburgh Yards

Home to the Foundation’s Atlanta Civic Site is Pittsburgh Yards, a 31-acre development in Atlanta’s historic Pittsburgh neighborhood — a community founded by formerly enslaved people in 1883. The south side of Atlanta carries deep scars from redlining, disinvestment, and broken promises, but it also holds the legacy of resistance, culture, and community pride. It’s here that Pittsburgh Yards rises, not just as a development, but as a reclamation of possibility.

Pittsburgh Yards is both a business hub and a model of community-driven development. After purchasing the site in 2006, the Foundation undertook a years-long design process that engaged local residents and businesses. This investment resulted in the Nia Building (Swahili for “purpose”), which now houses over 100 office spaces and supports nearly 160 local businesses through both leased spaces and accessible co-working memberships.

With property values near the Beltline increasing by over 500% in just five years, the Foundation’s investments are carefully designed to prevent displacement. From affordable leases to technical assistance and business development programming, Pittsburgh Yards is a market disruptor in commercial real estate.

Economic opportunity: Supporting local entrepreneurs

Many entrepreneurs in Atlanta, limited by social and economic barriers, are unsure if the city has room for their dreams; targeted investments from the Annie E. Casey Foundation support small business owners through space and ownership, reshaping how they imagine their futures.

The Foundation partners with organizations like Our Village United and the Russell Innovation Center for Entrepreneurs (RICE), which provide coaching, funding access, and business strategy training. Entrepreneurial support at Pittsburgh Yards is not limited to real estate. Innovative models like the container courtyard, a marketplace of rotating micro-retailers and food vendors built from shipping containers, have provided flexible, low-barrier entry points for businesses to scale and test new concepts.

Hiers highlights the urgency of this work: “Even when it comes to entrepreneurship, one of the primary drivers of wealth, company owners from certain demographics lag behind, creating a gap in revenue generation.”

Educational achievement: Starting from birth

Approximately 8 out of every 20 children in Atlanta aged 0-5 are considered economically disadvantaged, with 5 of them living in poverty. The Foundation’s commitment to educational achievement begins in early childhood. Through supporting initiatives like “Promise All Atlanta Children Thrive” (PACT), the Foundation has galvanized a citywide action to make Atlanta the best place to raise a child.

Partners like GEEARS (Georgia Early Education Alliance for Ready Students) have helped build a collaborative that includes public and private leaders, all aligned around improving outcomes for children from birth to five. This coalition has led to coordinated grantmaking, Head Start provider collaboration, childcare stabilization grants during the pandemic, and aligned advocacy to shape systems and policy change.

A culture of collaboration and honoring legacy

What sets the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s approach apart is its commitment to authentic collaboration. Both cross-sector and community efforts are designed with shared purpose, long-term structure, and community voice. The Foundation’s partners reflect that spirit — from housing advocates and public health leaders to artists, educators, and entrepreneurs.

“I learned very early in my career that people with lived experience and those who are closest to challenges have unique perspectives that can lead to innovative and lasting solutions. I have made it a priority to ensure that people who live in the communities where work takes place or those who participate in targeted programs have a voice in helping to set priorities, developing strategy and getting the work done.”

This immersive experience was offered to NationSwell through the NationSwell Collaboratives. To learn more or get involved, visit nationswell.com/nationswell-collaboratives/

Two Days in Atlanta with NationSwell and The Annie E. Casey Foundation

Posted on July 17, 2025May 21, 2026 by Brianna Provenzano

On a warm July afternoon in Atlanta, a group of corporate, philanthropic, and community leaders gathered to experience what place-based impact looks like when it’s rooted in history, shaped by community voice, and powered by a shared vision. As part of NationSwell’s Place-Based Impact Collaborative, and in partnership with The Annie E. Casey Foundation, this immersive, two-day experience offered a firsthand look at Atlanta as a “tale of two cities.” Throughout the experience, participants learned how bold, collaborative investment is helping communities reclaim land, preserve and celebrate identity, and build a more just economic future.

Day One: Grounded in history, connected by movement

Our time together began with something deceptively simple: a walk. Led by a close partner of NationSwell, GirlTrek, the walk to Centennial Park focused on presence and intentionality. “We walk, talk, and solve problems,” our leader shared, describing GirlTrek’s model of wellness and connection. It was a chance to move through the city, feel its energy, and open space for reflection.

Later that evening, we headed to a welcome reception, setting the tone for what would be a day of honesty, inspiration, and exchange. In a circle, we heard from visitors and locals alike about their personal and professional motivation for joining the immersive. Participants were welcomed to Atlanta as a city of neighborhoods, of legacy, of resilience.

Day Two: A tale of two cities

Breakfast opened with a powerful panel, “Atlanta’s Path in Perspective,” laying bare the complexity of the city’s narrative. As Courtney English, Interim Chief of Staff to Mayor Andre Dickens noted, “Atlanta is a tale of two cities and two stories.” On one hand, it is the cradle of civil rights, home to Black leadership and cultural innovation. On the other, it is among the lowest in economic mobility for Black families, shaped by redlining, disinvestment, and policy decisions that still echo today.

Site visits followed, including a deep dive into the Atlanta Beltline’s evolution – a project that has generated both opportunity for entrepreneurs and concern for displaced residents. Led by the Atlanta Beltline team, we saw examples of responsive solutions: affordable housing built to combat gentrification pressures; shipping containers repurposed into microbusiness spaces; and ongoing work to address basic infrastructure, like stormwater and sewage management. We also heard from a small business owner, Sarah Pierre, owner of 3 Parks Wine Shop, about her partnership with the Beltline.

We then made our way to Pittsburgh Yards, standing out as a living example of what it looks like when development is done collaboratively with a community. Built on land acquired by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the space has grown into a hub for locally-owned businesses, creatives, and entrepreneurs – including some that have transitioned to brick-and-mortar storefronts in retrofitted shipping containers (check out Carrot Dog and PinkPothos). Individual co-workers, businesses, and events hosted at Pittsburgh Yards bring in revenue, helping sustain the space without compromising its mission. “We would like to think that the Annie E. Casey Foundation is a collaborative partner and listener,” Tomi Hiers, vice president of the Center for Civic Sites and Community Change at the Annie E. Casey Foundation said, reflecting on the ongoing effort to ensure that the people closest to the challenges are closest to the decisions. As we stood outside Pittsburgh Yards, a child played on his bike, calling out “Hey, neighbors!.” As one participant noted, “The fact that a little boy came up and called us ‘neighbor’ — that’s what success looks like.”

Our visit included a Partnerships for Collective Action roundtable, held in the heart of Pittsburgh Yards’ Nia Building. Amanda Jaquez, Senior Associate, Annie E. Casey Foundation opened by naming the legacy of the neighborhood — founded by formerly enslaved people and long a center for Black self-determination — and reminded the room that development must build on, not erase, that foundation.

The panel explored what makes cross-sector collaboration work, with Mindy Binderman, Executive Director of GEEARS, emphasizing that shared purpose and trust must come before action. Natallie Keiser, Executive Director of HouseATL, added that structure, sustained engagement, and clarity of roles are important, especially when tackling entrenched challenges like affordable housing and displacement. The cost of inaction was made clear: unchecked infrastructure investments can rapidly raise property values and inadvertently displace the very communities they intend to serve.

Jay Bailey, President and CEO of the Russell Innovation Center for Entrepreneurs (RICE), offered a powerful charge: “Collaboration beats competition every day of the week.” But he cautioned against “collaborative theater” — partnerships formed for optics rather than outcomes. He urged leaders to confront uncomfortable truths, including the stark contrast between Atlanta’s image as a Black mecca and the reality of its low Black economic mobility. “Let us have the courage to say no…because we are worth investing in.”

The day ended at The Third Space, where a happy hour and signature dinner prompted deeper conversation and laughter. Over shared plates, attendees unpacked the day’s learnings: how land becomes leverage, how rest becomes resistance, and how institutions can be built to last.

Day Three: Collaboration and continuity

Our time together concluded with a tour of RICE. The impressive center, which supports Black entrepreneurs with space, mentorship, and capital access, sparked conversations about ecosystem thinking. During the tour, participants saw how the organization is cultivating Black entrepreneurial success at scale. The 54,000 square foot space was built with intentionality: every wall, quote, and photo was curated to inspire ownership, legacy, and possibility. As Bailey summed it up: “We don’t need another symbol of hope. We need institutions that manufacture hope.”

As attendees began to head home, there was a palpable sense of momentum. Participants reflected on what they had seen and learned, and how they can apply it to their own communities and work.

What Atlanta taught us

Atlanta is not a monolith. It is a microcosm of the broader American story — a city where systemic harm and radical possibility coexist. Place is not neutral here, it is contested, storied, and powerful. From listening sessions designed with dignity to equitable housing strategies and entrepreneurship ecosystems, the visit to Atlanta reminded us that place-based work requires honesty, trust, and collaboration.

As one participant shared, “The system isn’t broken. It’s working how it was designed to work.” But in Atlanta, people are redesigning it — together.

This immersive experience was offered to NationSwell through the NationSwell Collaboratives. To learn more or get involved, visit nationswell.com/nationswell-collaboratives/

Inside & Out: Education, Community and Opportunity for the Incarcerated

Posted on May 9, 2025May 21, 2026 by Brianna Provenzano

On Wednesday, May 7, NationSwell community members gathered at Mount Tamalpais College in San Quentin Prison for a guided site visit to explore how education and growth programs can foster growth, resilience, and possibility for incarcerated and formerly incarcerated individuals.

Led by Dr. Jody Lewen — founder and president of Mount Tamalpais College, the independent, tuition-free, accredited college that operates inside the prison — the experience offered a powerful look at how expanded access to quality higher education is about more than learning — it’s a bridge to community, purpose, and hope.

We’ve recapped some of the key insights from the day below.

Key Takeaways:

Education can be a counterculture
In carceral systems designed to disconnect, education becomes radical. It’s not just about learning, it’s about reclaiming voice, building community, and engaging with the world in new, life-affirming ways.
The light of learning disrupts the system
Mount Tamalpais College offers more than classes, it challenge the very logic of incarceration. Education is a “disturbance in the force.”
Healing requires space to reflect
Access to education in prison opens the door to deeper psychological insight. It creates space to confront trauma, build resilience, and help others do the same.
The system is not rational
The carceral state is not the product of coherent logic, but a patchwork of arbitrary decisions and policies. We must resist the illusion of inevitability and instead ask who benefits, who’s harmed, and what a more humane system could look like.
Human worth is inherent
Regardless of our worst decisions, our pasts, or our circumstances, every person holds equal value and is worthy of dignity, respect, opportunity, and growth. Full stop. Systems can be designed to forget this. We can’t afford to.
Reentry is a collective responsibility
The transition out of prison is complex. Career support and alumni services are critical and a space where deeper community partnerships can make a lasting difference. This is an area where Mount Tamalpais College could use our help!
Proximity is powerful—but depth is essential
Connection starts with showing up, but it doesn’t end there. The question is: how do we move beyond observation into curiosity, action, and shared storytelling?
Let people tell their own stories
Authentic storytelling fosters understanding, not just attention. How do we create space for people to speak in their own words?
Resist both romanticizing and othering
Incarcerated people are often cast as either heroes or villains. The truth is more human, more complicated, and more deserving of our full attention. How do we shift society from sensationalizing the experience of incarceration to humanizing it?
Fair chance hiring is everyone’s work
Every organization can audit, improve, and advocate. Whether it’s changing internal practices or supporting national reform, inclusive hiring must become standard.
Bridge-building means welcoming discomfort
Can we broaden the aperture of experiences like this one? Can we invite in people with different ideologies and use shared reflection to build understanding across differences? What’s the first step? How do we take it?

Pathways to Economic Opportunity: Extern

Posted on December 2, 2024May 21, 2026 by Brianna Provenzano

As wealth and income inequality continue to climb in the United States, some employers are developing innovative models and catalytic partnerships designed to bring new skills, job access, and ultimately economic opportunity to financially vulnerable and historically marginalized individuals.

With our Pathways to Economic Opportunity interview series, NationSwell is taking a closer look at some of the solutions companies are pursuing in service of leveling the playing field and expanding their talent pipelines. In spotlighting these partnerships, this series hopes to uncover the “secret sauce” that makes these solutions successful for the benefit of other employers and their leaders.

NationSwell recently sat down with the team at Extern — a mission-driven organization empowering students with hands-on professional experience while creating meaningful pathways to economic mobility for historically underserved talent. Extern developed the Externship – a new form of professional experience that its students say is a more flexible and accessible alternative to internship or co-op programs. Companies like PwC, The Home Depot, AT&T, HSBC, National Geographic, and The Nature Conservancy have leveraged Extern’s tech-enabled platform to deliver Externships to tens of thousands of young people.

Here’s what they had to say:

NationSwell: In your own words, can you describe the high-level problem that Extern is solving for?

Matt Wilkerson, Founder and CEO, Extern: The challenge is clear: employers increasingly value work experience over credentials, yet most students don’t have access to the professional opportunities they need to succeed. Internships are shrinking, and career centers aren’t equipped to meet the demand for real-world preparation.

At Extern, we create new opportunities for students to gain professional experience while helping companies broaden their talent pipelines. Our team has a mix of tech, education, and corporate DNA which allowed us to develop a platform so companies can deliver Externships at scale. Externships go beyond traditional internships by offering accessible, structured work experiences that meet the needs of both students and employers.

As of this publication, we’ve officially served 50,000 students with six to eight week externship experiences since 2020; about 25,000 of those have been year to date, and we’ve worked with about 45 companies at this point.

Extern works by standing up programs that connect students seeking real-world experience with companies seeking to recruit from diverse, underrepresented talent pools. The companies pay us to organize and run these experiences, and in exchange we absorb much of the recruiting, training, and management work that they would have had to do in a traditional internship.

For hiring managers, the professional experience section of a resume is often the most critical factor in recruitment decisions. Yet, systemic barriers leave millions of students—especially those from underrepresented communities—without access to these resume-building opportunities. Extern’s solution is to create and deliver new experiences that wouldn’t exist otherwise, ensuring more students are equipped to step into the workforce with confidence.

NationSwell: What are the primary differences between externships and internships, and what are the unique benefits of each for companies?

Wilkerson, Extern: Externships make professional experience more scalable and accessible. Unlike internships, which are often limited in number and require significant HR resources, Externships are designed to create flexibility and minimize the logistical burden on companies.

The number of available internships is currently about 4 million each year, compared to about 20 million college students. So there’s a supply and demand issue to begin with, and part of the reason is that internships are hard to get set up on the employer side — it’s laborious to train students, to give them feedback, to manage these programs. The really big programs require enormous amounts of employee resources — many, many hours supporting individual students. At Extern, we take most of that load off of the employers.

NationSwell: Could you tell us a bit about how the program actually works, in practice?

Wilkerson, Extern: Over six to eight weeks, students work on real-world projects remotely with company support, removing geographic and logistical barriers to gaining work experience. For companies, externships reduce training and management overhead while delivering meaningful engagement with a diverse talent pool.

Take a head of consumer insights launching a customer research project: they may not have time to recruit, train, or manage interns on frameworks like survey design or ‘Jobs to Be Done.’ With Extern, they can launch projects quickly, spending just an hour every other week mentoring students while Extern handles the rest—recruiting, training, managing, and ensuring deliverables meet professional standards.

Extern streamlines the entire process: recruiting students through a single application, preparing them with targeted training on project-specific tools and methodologies, and managing daily operations like answering questions and reviewing work. By the time deliverables are presented, students have been guided to produce high-quality, professional outputs, freeing managers to focus on high-value mentorship instead of oversight.

For companies—whether or not they aim to hire college grads at scale—this creates a rewarding way to share expertise, connect with emerging talent, and build brand recognition.

NationSwell: How does your current funding model work?

Mike Eng, Senior Director of Partnerships, Extern: We’ve been fortunate enough to find some corporates who have been paying us to run these programs; that is predominantly where our funding comes from right now. Some of our biggest partners believe from a CSR perspective that they have a commitment to society — and to different stakeholders — to invest in initiatives like education and upskilling, and have funded programs where they want to create better career outcomes for specific demographic groups. They’re not necessarily looking to hire the students, and they are happy if the students go and work at different places.

Other corporates work with us from the perspective of a pre-internship funnel, where some strategic leaders have recognized that they need to improve and find ways to differentiate themselves in the marketplace. By launching Externships with large cohorts they expand their brand recognition in competition with peers or different companies. They’re able to engage students a little earlier on and give them exposure to different career opportunities within the organization.

For example, we created a National Geographic and the Nature Conservancy externship that’s managed by us. These organizations want to bring young people into the field of conservation as part of their mission to inspire others to protect the natural environment, and so we’re running this program where students come in and get support and guidance toward careers at all these different places doing conservation work.

NationSwell: How would you describe your theory of change?

Wilkerson, Extern: At a societal level, we’re addressing the disconnect between education and employment. For decades, the focus has been on earning costly degrees without ensuring job readiness, disproportionately affecting underrepresented students who face greater economic barriers.

At an individual level, Externships act as a catalyst for economic mobility, embedding future-ready skills through structured, real-world experiences that enhance education and give students a competitive edge. For example, we’re investing heavily in Generative AI training—covering prompt engineering, identifying hallucinations, and building chatbots—because we see it as a key skill for helping young people leapfrog the job market over the next few years.

This has a direct impact on learners from underrepresented populations, who ultimately have gotten left behind by this big push over the last few decades to go through higher education, take on more and more student debt to do so, and come out the other end with some kind of credential that’s supposed to mean something in the marketplace.

NationSwell: What is the call to action for other leaders at other organizations who would hope to establish their own programs to improve either educational attainment or economic mobility?

Wilkerson, Extern: If you’re a company that has been thinking of standing up some sort of impact program, but you’re struggling with how to connect it to business value, the Externship model offers a powerful solution. If you have a corporate foundation or CSR team that wants to tie into business goals around recruiting, building employer branding, and engaging your employees, that’s where this program really shines. That’s our big call to action.

NationSwell: Tell us a little bit about your learning curve — what have been the stumbles you’ve faced, or anything you’ve learned as you’ve grown this program?

Wilkerson, Extern: One of our biggest hurdles has been convincing companies that externships are as effective as we claim. Employers are often skeptical that students can deliver high-quality work with minimal oversight. It sort of flies in the face of your intuition about how the world works. However, once the employees and managers experience the program firsthand, they see the value—and that’s why we’ve maintained such strong retention among our partners.

Degrees alone aren’t enough anymore. Employers need to prioritize real-world skills, and students need more opportunities to build them. Extern is uniquely positioned to address both sides of this equation.

NationSwell: Is there anything else that feels really important to mention here?

Wilkerson, Extern: An Externship becomes this ability to train young people on future-ready skills. My current thesis is that companies aren’t going to embrace Generative AI fast enough — they’re dabbling in it, but employees actually need to be able to experiment and play with those tools. We’ve started to build out modules that can be delivered within the Externship that train students on this — we’ll teach them how to do something the regular way, and we’ll teach them how to use Generative AI to do it more efficiently, at higher quality — or do something that wasn’t possible before.

Over the next few years, you’re not going to have enough candidates in the market who have developed these skill sets in a real professional experience. We can help students from underserved and underrepresented backgrounds essentially leapfrog the talent pool with these skill sets. So I’d say companies that believe in that, that want to invest in that, that want to run experiments, this is also a way to do that with a talent pool that’s hungry, and in many cases, actually knows more about how to use technologies like Generative AI better than the average employee.

The Virtuous Cycle of Revitalization and Small Business Growth

Posted on October 28, 2024March 6, 2026 by Syd Goin

There are 415 counties across the nation that qualify as persistently-poor, and in these areas, the average poverty rate is 26%, compared to 11% in the Midwest, 8% in the West, and just 2% in the Northeast. Small businesses are a critical component of an equitably thriving community, providing several essential benefits that increase districts’ livability and vitality, especially in historically divested neighborhoods that have been void of the resources and policies that allow for expansion and advancement. Supporting small business stamina and growth can spark a virtuous cycle of revitalization, bringing resources a district needs to incentivize people to stay, thus creating an environment ripe for small business longevity.

To set this in motion, strategies for supporting small enterprise growth must go far beyond creating more equitable access to funding, grants, and other financial resources. Approaches must be community-centered and holistic, taking into account all the elements that make a locality a place where small businesses and their patrons can thrive. Through their Executive Fellowship Program, FUSE is working in cities across the U.S., like Jackson and Los Angeles, to jump-start the momentum for revitalization.

In the fall of 2023, the Jackson Redevelopment Authority (JRA) in Jackson, Mississippi, partnered with FUSE to promote equitable social and economic growth through a comprehensive urban renewal approach that includes housing, business development, infrastructure, and public spaces. A key focus is Farish Street, historically the largest economically independent African American community in Mississippi, which has suffered a decline since the years of white flight, followed by decades of divestment and many failed restoration efforts. The JRA’s unique, holistic approach to revitalization focuses on three key aspects. First, the area’s redevelopment plans align with the community’s vision for a lively entertainment district. Second, they welcome diverse small businesses to the area. Third, they gradually improve the street using a combination of private and public funds. This balanced approach meets community needs, attracts business interests, and ensures sustainable development.

One project that exemplifies the holistic, balanced strategy the JRA is taking is the plan to develop more public green spaces. Along with 2 C Mississippi, which focuses on climate mitigation and education, the JRA is working to turn three parcels of land into an urban forest with a stage for entertainment use. Not only does this plan respect the community’s request for bringing entertainment to Farish Street, public green spaces also encourage a host of health, climate, and socio-economic benefits that are invaluable for small businesses. Green areas encourage people to walk and congregate outdoors, boosting foot traffic and shopping and dining at local businesses.
This initiative between the JRA and Jackson, catalyzed by the FUSE Executive Fellowship aims to bring together all the essential parts that allow a revitalization plan to succeed – bringing existing projects and programs together around community-identified common goals, understanding and solving for resource gaps, securing partnerships and funding, boosting operational capacity, and setting up the JRA with a full-spectrum game plan for continued and long-lasting redevelopment. This work is sure to continue as Yolanda R. Owens, the FUSE Executive Fellow leading the partnership, will join the JRA as COO once the fellowship concludes.

In Los Angeles, small business revitalization efforts have been county-wide after historic closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Small businesses in the area experienced one of the highest loss rates, with 15,000 small business closures across L.A. County. Businesses owned by people of color and women were particularly affected, exacerbating the already prevalent racial and gender inequalities —in 2020 alone, there was a 41% decrease in active Black business owners, a 36% decline in immigrant-owned businesses, and a 25% drop in women business owners.

FUSE partnered with Los Angeles BusinessSource Centers in 2021 to build up capacity to provide small businesses, particularly those owned by women and people of color, with the technical and programmatic resources they need to thrive. The BusinessSource Centers act as a one-stop shop for small businesses, assisting with everything from faster and more efficient permit processing to increasing capacity in departments like Power and Water to work with owners directly on upgrading their electric systems and working with the Mayor’s office on deadline extensions and helpful programs.
The focus on businesses owned by people of color and women taps into the virtuous cycle of restoring communities as 1) these businesses tend to reinvest more of their earnings back into the community through hiring local residents, donating to local charities, and investing in infrastructure and 2) they play a crucial role in encouraging inclusive economic growth and reducing the wealth gap, supporting local suppliers and providing opportunities for people of color and women.

FUSE Executive Fellowships spark the momentum for initiatives that have the potential to restore cities and towns through virtuous cycles of revitalization successfully. When centering the community, they help set up the pieces like community feedback processes, crucial partnerships with nonprofits that work with the community, identifying gaps in resources, and understanding what the community wants. In terms of small business support, they help cities identify what micro-entrepreneurs need regarding training, zoning, permitting, or fundamental partnerships such as distributors and suppliers. Learn more about how you can get involved at FUSE.org.

JPMorganChase Delivers Major Boost to Ohio’s Workforce Through Formation of New Regional Workforce Collaborative

Posted on September 12, 2024September 12, 2024 by NationSwell Team

The $2.1 million commitment will advance career pathways and deepens the firm’s 155-year investment in Columbus.

NationSwell is honored to partner with JPMorganChase, One Columbus Foundation, Columbus City Schools District, Ohio Excels and Zora’s House in support of the critical work of the newly formed Columbus Regional Workforce Collaborative. Together, the Collaborative will bring in local stakeholders, drive equity by addressing employment disparities, and strengthen the systems needed to support both employers and employees as the Columbus Region’s economy continues to grow and flourish.

“We are committed to transforming how we prepare our employees and others to compete for well-paying jobs and successful careers,” said Corrine Burger, Columbus Location Leader for JPMorganChase. “We’re proud to deepen our investment in the region by joining forces with some of our city’s leading business and community organizations, including NationSwell, to create a more prosperous and inclusive workforce.”

Read below to learn more.

September 12, 2024 (Columbus, Ohio) — Today, JPMorganChase announced its support of a newly-formed regional workforce collaborative that will strengthen the Columbus Region’s economy by breaking down obstacles to employment, advancing equity, and equipping job-seekers with the skills and experience needed to thrive. The collaborative, funded by a $2.1 million commitment from JPMorganChase, will enable five organizations to better align the Columbus Region’s workforce system to address employment disparities, enhance workforce development, and create an environment where diverse individuals and families can fully benefit from the region’s economic growth. The funds will be distributed amongst the organizations to support their involvement and initiatives within the collaborative.

Led by One Columbus, central Ohio’s leading economic development organization, the new workforce collaborative will convene business, education, community, and elected leaders for facilitated discussions to modernize the regional workforce system strategy. Its focus will be on emerging industries that demand highly technical skills. Specifically, the collaborative will develop:

A landscape assessment of regional attributes and case studies of successes and pitfalls
A regional workforce roadmap that articulates business needs and priorities
Data and research on the needs of diverse community members
A comprehensive workforce system plan, with robust community input, identifying strategic implementation steps, critical partners, and potential resource alignment

“Today’s announcement will help to ensure the Columbus workforce is equipped with the knowledge, skills and experience needed to compete for high-quality careers in emerging industries, ” said Tim Berry, Global Head of Corporate Responsibility and Chairman of the Mid-Atlantic Region for JPMorganChase. “Drawing on our experience, we know it’s critically important to bring the right local stakeholders together to ensure the workforce has the skills needed to meet the evolving needs of the region.”

The Columbus Region is one of the fastest-growing economies in the nation. However, like many urban areas, the available job opportunities have not been equitably shared among all workers and residents, leading to a racial wealth divide. The workforce collaborative announced today will help address this challenge by preparing individuals for jobs that can jump-start careers.

“As an employer with such a long-standing history in Columbus, we’re proud to deepen our investment in the region by joining forces with some of our city’s leading business and community organizations to create a more prosperous and inclusive workforce,” said Corrine Burger, Columbus Location Leader for JPMorganChase. “Together, we’re making a difference and ensuring that every resident can thrive.”

“When it comes to workforce training, the Columbus Region is program-rich, but by addressing skill gaps within our workforce, we can advance opportunity for all residents,” said Kenny McDonald, president and CEO of the Columbus Partnership. “This new commitment from JPMorganChase will go a long way toward helping us strengthen the systems and strategies that will improve our workforce for both employers and employees.”

Partners Include:

One Columbus Foundation: One Columbus will lead the integration of workforce efforts across the region, aligning regional initiatives to meet the needs of emerging industries. By facilitating collaboration among businesses, educational institutions, and workforce partners, One Columbus will develop a more cohesive system that supports sustainable economic growth, enhances skill development, and ensures equitable access to job opportunities for all residents.
Columbus City Schools District: Columbus City Schools will support this project by ensuring connectivity between their high school redesign work and the opportunities and skills articulated by the business community throughout the process.
NationSwell: NationSwell will support OneColumbus with the overall project design, conducting research on challenges and opportunities, facilitating convenings, and developing key assets, including a regional workforce system roadmap.
Ohio Excels: Ohio Excels will provide project management support to One Columbus, ensuring alignment, coordination, and communication among all grant partners throughout the process.
Zora’s House: Graduates of Zora’s House Women of Color Equity in Design Institute (WECDI) — a program that upskills participants in design thinking skills and then embeds them in critical community conversations and projects to ensure that the lived experiences of women of color are adequately engaged and informing the work — will develop processes to ensure that the voices and experiences of women of color—the fastest-growing population segment in our region—are adequately addressed in strategy planning and design.

JPMorganChase in Ohio

JPMorganChase has a 155-year long history serving Columbus and has committed $11 million over the last five years to strengthening career pathways for Central Ohio residents. As one of the state’s largest private employers, JPMorganChase is proud to serve more than 18,000 employees, 725,000 consumer customers, and 59,000 business customers. As leaders in business, the firm works in partnership with local government officials, businesses, and nonprofits to advance inclusive economic growth and drive a stronger, more inclusive economy.

About JPMorganChase

JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) is a leading financial services firm based in the United States of America (“U.S.”), with operations worldwide. JPMorgan Chase had $4.1 trillion in assets and $341 billion in stockholders’ equity as of June 30, 2024. The Firm is a leader in investment banking, financial services for consumers and small businesses, commercial banking, financial transaction processing and asset management. Under the J.P. Morgan and Chase brands, the Firm serves millions of customers in the U.S., and many of the world’s most prominent corporate, institutional and government clients globally. Information about JPMorgan Chase & Co. is available at www.jpmorganchase.com