What Does it Mean to Be Black-Led?
SNS’ research project engaging over 115 Black leaders across the United States to understand their leadership experiences and what they need to thrive.
As Black people, our proximity to social justice issues gives us additional passion, commitment and creativity to create lasting change in our communities.
About the Black-Led Project
In a post-2020 world where DEI has entered more widespread consciousness, there has been a desire for increased representation of Black leaders, though not without issue. Expectations are put on to Black-led organizations where leaders are handpicked, then overworked, under-trusted, and underfunded.
Black people are most equipped and informed to define their own identities. Knowing this, Service Never Sleeps engaged Black leaders across the country to answer the following question, “What does it mean to Black-Led?” We committed to engaging as many Black leaders as we could in research around that question and interviewed over 115 Black nonprofit Executive Directors, Deputy Directors, and Race Equity Officers/Consultants on the subject.
This led us to launching a comprehensive Black-led Project report titled, “What Does it Mean to be Black-Led? An extensive guide on liberatory organizational management, Black leaders’ experiences, and their needs from supporters to thrive.”
The Black-Led Project explores:
- The internal and external challenges faced by Black leaders
- How lived experience positions Black leaders for equitable leadership
- What actions and resources promote the success of Black-led organizations
Download the Report
“It's important to note that being Black-led does not mean exclusion or discrimination against individuals from other racial or ethnic backgrounds. Instead, it emphasizes the importance of addressing the unique challenges faced by Black communities and empowering Black leaders to be at the forefront of those efforts.”
Go Beyond the Report
Being Black-led is about more than just demographics, and this is about more than just releasing a single report. As with all of the education our organization provides, we want this report to inspire action.
What you can do:
- Read the report. The report includes prompts to check for your own understanding, but also to facilitate dialogue. We encourage you to share this report with friends, family, and colleagues. Use the contents of the report to create conversation around how you are supporting environments where Black leaders can thrive.
- Take a training with us. Delve deeper into your own understanding of this report and how to create environments that support Black leaders.
- Donate to SNS. While we are providing this resource for free, we need your help to sustain this work and ensure that we’re able to present this material to groups across the country.
It’s about empowering and affirming that Black leaders bring something unique and vital to our sector.
It’s about calling on funders to go beyond the fads of funding, and to trust Black people to lead through long-term investments. It’s about each of us, no matter our identities, benefitting from the authenticity and liberation of Black-led organizations.
Bring our Black-Led Project Training to your organization!
Black-led organizations can benefit everyone. SNS offers a half-day Black Led Project training that supplements the report. People of all identities can attend this training to gain new insights and develop tangible action steps to move forward with the research information. Submit an inquiry bring the training to your organization, or sign up here for one of SNS’ free community Black-Led Project trainings!