The heady and often complex issues inherent in the nonprofit sector—particularly concerning under-resourced, community-based organizations led by African Americans—inspired the visioning and development of the African American Strategic Partnership. The central purpose of the organization’s founding was to fill the need for an authentic and indigenous space where leaders of African ancestry can reveal their greatest challenges, successes, concerns and victories free of judgement, as well as a hub where Afrocentric learning serves as an apparatus for individual and organizational capacity-building. Importantly, we also advocate for ourselves, our community and our children, knowing that advocacy is a powerful catalyst for change. The development of this membership organization through which brilliant African American thought leaders gather, share and build at the individual and collective levels—for impactful community change—has been, by far, my most memorable and humbling contribution to the sector. “To God be the glory!”

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Dr. Sharon McDaniel

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