Black History/Black Futures Month | The Blessing of Serving Community: Q&A with Renita Francois, Chief Strategy Officer
Tides Advocacy is proud to be the nation’s first pro-Black fiscal sponsor, steered by dynamic leaders who believe in the value of revolutionary love and building strong, pro-Black movements. To kick off Black History/Futures Month, we chatted with our Chief Strategy Officer, Renita Francois. Check out her reflections on strategy, what funders can learn, channeling the energy of Malcolm X and Fannie Lou Hamer, and her experience advocating for Black folks in New York in the latest installment of our Black Love Rising campaign.
What role do you think love can or should play when it comes to building strategic power for Black communities?
Renita: Black folks are no strangers to “doin it for the love” and there’s no greater labor of love than the fight for Black liberation. We’ve been in it for 400 years and the hope that we will one day move and exist freely anywhere and everywhere is what has sustained us through generations. It’s the love that we have for one another, for our ancestors, for our future that keeps us going when the setbacks seem greater than the progress. It’s that same love - of self, of community - that moves us to organize, mobilize, and channel our collective talents and resources for the greater good of Black people and for a radical future beyond our wildest dreams. And it’s in that mobilizing, organizing, visioning and applying pressure to make it reality that we will build Black political power.
What is Tides Advocacy’s strategy for supporting their partners’ work?
Renita: In 2024, Tides Advocacy’s organizational priorities and strategy consists of four key pillars – strengthening our Pro-Black infrastructure, building strategic relationships, mobilizing critical resources, and shifting the narrative to tell our own stories from the ground. We will lean even deeper into our Pro-Black framework, centering the dignity, humanity, and restoration of Black lives, which history dictates, is critical to the collective liberation of us all.
We will continue to listen to our partners to understand how to meet both their needs and this crucial moment. Moreover, we are committed to fostering intersectional spaces, building community, and aligning resources to advance the capacity of movements. With over 90+ partners and decades of experience in the field, Tides Advocacy is committed to channeling that expertise in service of the fortification and advancement of organizations doing the work to uplift historically oppressed communities and protect our democracy.
How can funders be more collaborative and less extractive in their relationship with grantees and grassroots groups?
Renita: Remove the strings from the purse. Trust Black leaders to know what will move the dial for their communities. Take a genuine interest in the work of the organizations you fund, not just in counting widgets to determine impact and in 10 page reports to assure you they did what they were supposed to do with the money. Fund them early and fund them like you want them to WIN. Invest for multiple cycles - don’t be scared to be in relationship. Introduce them to others in your network who can support them and celebrate the good work they did with the seed you sowed.
How is Tides Advocacy helping movement partners innovate, advocate, and dismantle white supremacist and oppressive systems?
Renita: We are centering Black leadership and seeking a greater understanding of what it means to support Black led organizations, not just as a fiscal sponsor but as a partner in the fight for liberation. We are building connections across the ecosystem with our Beyond Impact conference, the only convening of its kind bringing together 501(c)(4) organizations to learn from and strategize with one another. Through our Healthy Democracy Action fund, Tides Advocacy is investing in critical political infrastructure work led by BIPOC organizations, supporting multi-year, year-round civic engagement, and supporting organizing work in key states. Most importantly, we are calling on our partners in the field and in philanthropy, in the spirit of Black History / Black Futures Month, to also invest in our collective liberation and to be unapologetic in funding our partners doing the critical work on the front lines.
What is one Black-led or serving project or campaign you are most proud to have worked on in your career?
Renita: In my previous role at the Mayor’s Office for Neighborhood Safety, I got to work with, for and on behalf of Black folks in New York City who had been overlooked, ignored and unheard for years. Together, we built a platform for them to directly shape what safety and wellbeing looked like in their communities without centering the violence that many in power used to mischaracterize, stigmatize, and silence them for so long. I had the privilege of advocating for and winning resources to help invest in and build up their communities, and the honor of providing a pulpit from which they could tell their own stories and create their own narratives. It’s nothing short of a blessing to be able to use the gifts given by the community that raised you in service of its greater good, and I’m always grateful to do that.
What activists or leaders inspire your values around building Black political power?
Renita: Malcolm X and Fannie Lou Hamer. Period.
Malcolm X was unapologetically Black and bold in his convictions. He centered Black folks and didn’t feel the need to make his articulation of our needs, wants and frankly, our rights palatable to others. He was wise, constantly seeking to quench his thirst for knowledge and not afraid to evolve his positions and perspectives as he grew. He loved us fiercely and gave his life speaking truth to power.
Fannie started out just determined to vote, no matter what barriers were put up to stop her. She would not be denied, she would not quit, and she never gave up. Not only did she make sure she voted, she cleared the way for other Black people to exercise the franchise at great personal risk to herself. She was relentless and she was fearless. She co-founded the Mississippi Democratic Freedom Party when white democrats would not seat Black delegates and questioned “Is this America, the land of the free and home of the brave…”. She put the country on notice that we were TIRED.
Both Fannie Lou Hamer and Malcolm X were brazen in their efforts to liberate Black people, to ensure that we could live full lives by any means necessary. I pray that my work to help us move closer to the freedom they envisioned for us channels the energy they left behind for us.
We invite you to join us in supporting the liberatory imagination of progressive Black, Indigenous, and People of Color-led organizations that challenge and replace oppressive, capitalist, and white supremacist structures by giving to the Power of Us Fund.
Stay tuned for more stories and reflections in our Black Love Rising campaign! We also want to hear your thoughts! What does #BlackLoveRising mean to you? Share with us on our social media channels or send us an email.