We find ourselves at a pivotal moment of reconnecting, repairing, and moving forward together, but this desire for unity and reconciliation must be based on a truthful reckoning of what our communities have experienced – and specifically the opportunities people of color have lost or been denied for far longer. If we do not take meaningful steps to weave new social fabric, we are likely to revert to entrenched structures and systems that reinforce racial inequity.

The robust and open network architecture of NEON is designed to operate at a meaningful scale and provide real-time examples and new models for other community foundations. NEON, itself, is co-designed by the participating foundations and embraces distributed leadership, collaborative work, and reporting of results gained through collective action.

The inaugural cohort launched in January 2021 and worked throughout the year to build out the scope, expectations, and infrastructure needed to test the concept of an aligned action network. The cohort’s focus builds on the research and findings of the US Partnership for Mobility from Poverty.

The “test phase” continues throughout 2022 and beyond as metrics are defined through a partnership with Urban Institute and data is collected and analyzed.  The goal is to scale the concept to include more community foundations.  Cohort members have committed to common outcomes and metrics that focus on the systems and strategies for advancing Income & Wealth and Power & Leadership.

Read more about this concept in the following articles published in Inside Philanthropy and the Chronicle of Philanthropy:

Can Community Foundations Rally Wealthy Donors to Back Racial Equity Work?

Community Foundations Band Together to Fight Structural Racism (PDF)

Network of Community Foundations Hopes to Attract Big Bet Money From Foundations (PDF)

Please follow this page to learn along with us as the cohort tracks its work and impact.