Making a Way Out of No Way

In June 2020, four Black women set out to do something that had never been sustainably done in Washington state. The four of us — Andrea Caupain Sanderson, Angela Jones, Michelle Merriweather, and T’wina Nobles — launched the Black Future Co-op Fund, a cooperative philanthropy rooted in the beauty, soulfulness, and strength of Blackness.

We envisioned the Fund as a way to ignite Black generational wealth, health, and well-being across our state while shifting the philanthropic paradigm. Five years later, we reflect on the journey from that initial vision to where we are today.

We offer you this story of our five-year journey in celebration of all we have accomplished, the ancestral wisdom that guides us, the beauty and brilliance of Black people and communities across Washington state, and the radically free Black future we are working to create — together.