By Dianne Anderson

There’s power in numbers for Black nonprofits in Orange County that are coming together to collaborate within their collective, now convening to learn from each other about how to keep their programs going strong.

Wendy Gladney, among the first funded through the Orange County Community Foundation African American Alliance Fund, said Black nonprofits must continue the work, learn from each other, and compete for funding as the opportunities arise.

“There’s quite a few of us that are doing amazing things across O.C., but also L.A. and San Bernardino county. Now, we’re putting together the groundwork and framework providing information resources, etc., to the people that are part of the African American Alliance Fund,” said Gladney, co-convener of the Fund.

Participants all bring their own unique skills and talents to the table. With about 48 organizations comprised of 90 individuals, she said the goal is to teach each other, maximize capacity building, and get organizations grant-ready.

Gladney, a survivor of childhood sexual abuse, founded Forgiving For Living, Inc. over twenty years ago to help at-risk girls from low-income communities, and help women learn to heal hate through forgiveness.

Through Tammy Tumbling, executive vice president and COO of the Orange County Community Foundation, she said the alliance has brought knowledge, resources and hope, first through smaller grants, but especially in building capacity for Black organizations to serve Orange County.

In June 2020, Tumbling created the African American Alliance Fund as one solution to address systemic racism by supporting programs to advance Black residents within Orange County and surrounding communities.

Tumbling came out of pocket with the first $25,000 donation for that fund, which has since grown to grant over $550,000 to 43 organizations.

Gladney said the convenings and regular meetings draw a huge amount of wisdom in the room toward leveraging resources.

“The fund was established in response to the George Floyd situation to make sure that African American nonprofits that are either in Orange County, or serve constituents of OC, that we’re not ignored and not left behind in getting some funding help to support their work,” she said.

Also among the first funded, Ingrid Johnson said she knows of no other active college course that does it the way they do it.

She said the convenings have been very productive.

“Other people have their stories and we can talk to that will help us with grant writing, improve your social media, how to get your marketing and your story out there,” she said. “When you are a small nonprofit and really trying to do God’s work, we don’t do this because there’s gobs of money to be made.”

Coming together with like-minded others is one of the best aspects of the fund, she said. It’s encouraging to find others invested in making the world better. She said that until now, people have been working in silos, which does nothing to enrich the total community.

Originally, president of the nonprofit Council of African American Parents, co-founded the nonprofit over 30 years ago after she moved to Diamond Bar, and saw the level of discrimination in the school system so deep that Advanced Placement classes were not offered to her daughter.

Since then, she has served hundreds of students across Southern California.

Over the summer, her nonprofit worked their legacy roundtable. Their math program had served boys in the past, but now includes girls, and their students are taking math courses at various community colleges, getting ready for the big leagues.

For nearly 15 years, her program has hosted the event with UCI where students get access to a full complement of campus life, they learn of admissions, and access projects in math and sciences. Until this year, they had 30 to 40 males with a total STEM program and the engineering department was involved, along with the 100 Black Men of Orange County.

“We had different fraternities, talking about what to do when stopped by police. We’ve [covered] etiquette, and presentation skills. We’ve always collaborated with others to get our mission done because this is not something you can do in a silo,” she said.

At the end of the courses, those with a B grade or better will be invited to their program at UCI for four days for a total exploration of the campus, she said.

On August 27, they are also hosting their orientation at Cal Poly Pomona at 2:00 p.m.

“We are doing our orientation, registration for new families that are interested in empowering their children to seek excellence, not excuses,” she said.

Johnson said meeting the community needs is the primary motivation for small nonprofit. She is excited about the convenings of the alliance, and coming together for resources are needed to take back to the students she serves.

“Whatever they do to reach other people to bring them along, it’s not a monolithic kind of thing. Whatever we can do to make the whole community better, we’re doing one day at a time,” she said.

For the OC-CF African American Alliance Fund, see  https://www.oc-cf.org/african-american-alliance-fund

For Forgiving for Living, see  https://www.forgivingforliving.org/

For CAAP programs, see https://councilofafricanamericanparents.org/