Community Empowerment Matters

  Are you thinking of starting a non-profit organization? Maybe you have already set one up, are a director of a non-profit board, or serve as a volunteer on the weekends. Whatever your affiliation, it is important to understand governance beyond the buzzword and its impact on the non-profit you are involved with. By reading this blog post, you will have a clearer understanding of what exactly governance is, what is often required by law, and some best practices for implementing and improving non-profit governance.   What even is governance? While governance has no agreed-upon definition, it’s definition can be summed up as the process by which an organization’s actions, norms, and rules are structured, sustained, regulated, and how the people involved in the organization are held accountable. In the context of a non-profit corporation formed under state law, governance can be broadly defined as how the board of directors who sit atop the corporation are ultimately governed themse

  #BankBlack is a call to action that has been floating around social media for years. The hashtag was started in the aftermath of the death of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile. Rapper Killer Mike (Michael Render) proposed that Black people deposit a portion of their income in Black-owned banks as a form of protest and empowerment. The goal was to provide Black-owned institutions with an influx of deposits that could be doled out for home loans and small business loans in the communities they serve.   The hashtag was revived in 2020 in the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd and the national conversation around racism in America. The call to action went further, calling on large companies to back up their promise to support racial justice by investing in Black businesses. Companies like Aflac, Costco, Dick’s Sporting Goods, and PayPal answered the call by investing in the Black Economic Development Fund (BEDF). BEDF was launched in 2020 as part of a $1 billion strategy to a

  In 2017, the arts – including performance arts, museums, fine arts schools, motion pictures, photography, and more – contributed $877.8 billion to the nation’s total gross domestic product (GDP). Of that amount, performing arts companies accounted for $14 billion to the United States economy. These figures represent the significant economic value of the performing arts, which includes theater. Theater also provides an important escape from the world while teaching life lessons. Although most people think New York City is the primary home of the American theater industry, theater can be a tool for development in communities all around the country. Public theater, which can span from regional to community theater, offers accessible means to theater performances while providing opportunities to engage the local community in events and programming. Furthermore, theater can stimulate economies through investing, ticket sales, and job creation. However, theaters face substantial opera