How HBCUs Are Co-Creating a New Model for Capital and Capacity In 2025, the HBCU Brilliance Initiative launched a transformational inaugural cohort of 11 institutions—aligning flexible capital, tailored technical assistance and peer-to-peer learning to address the systemic undercapitalization HBCUs have long faced. By engaging institutions as co-creators rather than beneficiaries, the Initiative is building a … Continued
Category Archives: Hold
Another World Exists (AWE)
Holding Space Where Transformation Takes Root The gatherings can appear simple—people in a room, sharing, listening, being together without a transactional goal. But what Another World Exists (AWE) creates through its facilitated exchange spaces is anything but simple. It is deliberate, radical infrastructure for collective care. In 2025, AWE brought together hundreds of people across … Continued
United States Conference of Mayors
Just City Mayoral Fellowship: Holding the Line When It Mattered Most When a primary federal funding stream shifted in 2025, the Just City Mayoral Fellowship—a proven national program connecting city leaders with tools and partnerships to advance equity through the built environment—faced a moment of real uncertainty. The United States Conference of Mayors refused to … Continued
Memphis Medical District Collaborative
Building Pathways to Prosperity in a Historic Neighborhood For those who steward the development of the Memphis Medical District, the headwinds of 2025 brought a tighter credit market that squeezed emerging developers. Hospital workforce shortages deepened. And in the surrounding neighborhoods where decades of depopulation and disinvestment had already taken their toll, poverty persisted. It … Continued
Environmental Protection Network
Standing in the Breach When the federal government began freezing, delaying and terminating billions of dollars in climate and energy funding in 2025, hundreds of organizations—many of them first-time federal grantees serving communities on the front lines of environmental harm—faced a sudden, disorienting crisis. Grants they had been awarded were suspended without warning. Costs they … Continued