Springboard CEO Aisha Nyandoro was selected as a 2024 Heinz Award winner for her innovative approach to equipping mothers to exit poverty and changing narratives around who deserves trust and care.
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CEO Aisha’s Nyandoro’s conversation with Dr. Tressie McMillan Cottom
Anyone who does work that is thinking about a tomorrow is hopeful.
I have been thinking about those words from Dr. Tressie McMillan Cottom since I had the honor of interviewing her at Bold New Consensus earlier this month. Our conversation was part of the larger event, hosted by Economic Security Project in collaboration with the Roosevelt Institute, Community Change, and the Hewlett Foundation celebrating the progress we have achieved in building an economy that works for everyone, and setting the course for a bigger, bolder economic paradigm for our collective future.
Our full, joy-filled conversation explored possibilities like rewriting the social contract into one that rejects the premise that there have to be winners or losers, or those who are deserving and undeserving. We explored the probing questions that recognize our current cultural narratives and what we seek to create new, better ones. We talked about the seeds others planted before us that we discovered, and the ones we are planting ourselves that we trust will bloom for others in the future. The hopes that we have for all the tomorrows to come.
It is easy to look at all that is happening around us and fall into pessimism. Inflation, suffering around the world, unaffordable housing, constant threats of economic downturn, a gridlocked Congress that can barely keep the government open, let alone think about reimaging a better economy and future for all people. It is no wonder that so many have leaned toward despair or simply apathy in times like these.
And yet, there are still so many of us doing work focused on tomorrow.
We end every interview or story sharing opportunity with our moms asking them what is giving them hope right now. Most often, we hear them talk about their children, their family, or their communities – the people around them who they are working to create better tomorrows for. Our families continue to inspire this same hope for us, and we trust that our work is contributing to better tomorrows for the South, Black families, and people living in poverty across the country.
As we look toward the end of 2023, we want to ask you the same question – what right now is bringing you hope? And what work for tomorrow will you put in today to make that hope a reality?
Your in Service,
Aisha Nyandoro
CEO
The Magnolia Mother’s Trust Featured on The Kelly Clarkson Show!
Exciting news! Our CEO, Aisha Nyandoro, and Magnolia Mother’s Trust Recipient, Sequaya Coleman, were featured on an episode of The Kelly Clarkson Show! Watch the full video below!
Aisha’s TED Talk is Here!
“Wealth is about a sense of agency, a sense of freedom, and being able to care for the collective whole.”
Last week, our CEO, Aisha Nyandoro, took to the TEDWomen stage to ask us all if we are brave enough to reimagine what wealth looks like in this country. Through a powerful personal testimony, the stories of Springboard families, and the results of The Magnolia Mother’s Trust, Aisha challenges us all to listen more deeply to the stories of families living in poverty and create new narratives, policies, and systems that can disrupt poverty and actually support families as they build wealth according to their own definition.
We are thrilled to announce that Aisha’s dynamic TED talk has officially been publicly released.
We hope you’ll take some time today to watch it yourself and share it within your own networks, too. Pass it along to 3 more people to watch, and ask them, “What does wealth truly mean to you?” We need to start a conversation about what wealth means in this country, and that starts with us in our communities.
We are grateful to count each of you as a partner on this journey and look forward to continuing to grow this movement of centering family voice and pushing for a trust-based social safety net system alongside each of you.
Magnolia Mother’s Trust Marks a History-Making Three Cycles of Paying Black Mothers $1,000 a Month
The Mississippi fund is the longest-running guaranteed income program in the United States.
Guaranteed Income Is a Blueprint for a Better Social Safety Net: ‘Give People Money—Not Vouchers, Not Subsidies’
For low-income families looking to receive benefits from state or federal welfare agencies, bureaucracy can prevent them from getting the food, housing and money they need to survive.