How Nwamaka Agbo Is Leading Kataly’s Work to “Redistribute and Redefine Wealth”

In Inside Philanthropy, Mandy Van Deven interviewed Kataly’s CEO Nwamaka Agbo about the Foundation’s methodology, values, and guiding principles. Read a few excerpts from their conversation :

“We are really clear about who we want to resource and how we want to resource them, which is Black-led, Indigenous-led, and community-of-color-led projects that serve those communities and do so with a clear power-building analysis. One of the things we are trying to figure out is our flexibility around white-led organizations that want to be in deeper alignment and support racial justice. This is a place where we don’t want to say, “We don’t want to partner with you,” but our priority is to support those who are most impacted by injustice. While we recognize that this is the time for white-led organizations to do deep work, we think it should not just be around diversity, equity and inclusion, but around justice, liberation and accountability.”

“Regeneration is particularly important for us as a spend-down foundation. We’re supporting projects in a way that prioritizes their financial sustainability and their ability to regenerate resources in a way that circulates back out into their local community rather than being returned to the foundation. We want to leave more value, more wealth, more resources, more knowledge and expertise in the community rather than to extract from our grantees.”

Read the full Inside Philanthropy interview with Nwamaka here.