What's Up-date!
Published on December 5, 2022 by Ericka Ward
I am so excited to write our first update for the Black Ideas Collaborative!
Black Ideas Collaborative is a brand new initiative set to launch in 2023 focused on creating a support system and guaranteed income for emerging visionaries in the African Diaspora.
Open Collective Foundation become the fiscal sponsor for BIC in late 2022 and we joined this amazing community of solidarity economy activators.
Black Ideas Collaborative is a brand new initiative set to launch in 2023 focused on creating a support system and guaranteed income for emerging visionaries in the African Diaspora.
Open Collective Foundation become the fiscal sponsor for BIC in late 2022 and we joined this amazing community of solidarity economy activators.
- What did you accomplish during 2022? How did you use money?
- 2022 has been focused on research, learning, connecting with future partners and ideation/visioning. We haven't started fundraising quite yet. We plan to formally start fundraising early 2023.
- What challenges did you face during 2022? What did your Collective learn? How did you change or grow?
- BIC was only a curiosity that grew into an idea in the fall of 2022. Through conversations with Black changemakers, we asked: what support did you need in the earliest days of your new idea/project/organization? What gaps currently exist in funding and support for innovators who want to enter the social impact space?
- That question helped us start to envision a pilot for a guaranteed income for emerging Black visionaries as they work to build new models to solve the problems in their communities through democratic practice.
- Through our conversation, we realized that guaranteed income was critical but also that community, connection, peer support and mentorship were just as important as funding. Through our Guaranteed Income pilot, visionaries will also have access to a cohort of other visionaries who are experiencing the insecurities and opportunities that new ideas and questions bring. They will also have access to a network of mentors along with leadership development workshops.
- What are your plans for 2023? Anything exciting coming up?
- 2023, we will start fundraising - yay!
- Our goal is to raise funds to be able to launch our micro-pilot by summer 2023