aisha
Aisha Nyandoro Showed America What Happens When You Give Mothers Cash
In 2017, Aisha Nyandoro came to a sobering realization. As founder and CEO of the nonprofit Springboard to Opportunities in Jackson, Miss., she was committed to helping lift families in local public housing into the next phase—a place of their own.
Aisha Nyandoro – TIME100 NEXT 2024
Meaningful change often begins with having the courage and curiosity to ask nonobvious questions. Aisha Nyandoro, the founding CEO of Springboard to Opportunities in Jackson, Miss., has become a national leader in the quest to end generational poverty by basing her work on a radically practical approach: listening to those most in need.
CEO Aisha Nyandoro named to TIME100 Next — TIME’s annual list of the next 100 most influential people in the world!
Below is a letter from our CEO Aisha Nyandoro after being named to the 2024 TIME100 Next List.
Dear Springboard to Opportunities Partners,
I am starting this morning filled with joy and gratitude. Today, I was named to TIME’s annual TIME100 Next list, a list recognizing leaders and innovators across a variety of disciplines and from across the world who are rising leaders shaping society’s future. I am truly honored and humbled to be listed alongside so many other great leaders across the world.
It has been a whirlwind of a couple of weeks with interviews, photo shoots, and preparing for this release. But I am taking a moment this morning to soak it all in and express my gratitude to all who have made this possible. While it might be my name attached to these recent awards and honors, I am fully aware that none of them have been possible without the Springboard team, our incredible partners, and — most importantly, the families we are privileged to work alongside every day.
Providing Black mothers living in extreme poverty in Mississippi with cash, through a guaranteed income program called The Magnolia Mother’s Trust, was not my idea. It was our families’ idea. They were the ones who told us what they needed to move out of poverty was not another program, but actual cash. They were the ones who told us they needed a system that trusted them to know the best way to care for their families, instead of more excessive paperwork and paternalistic requirements. It has been their stories that have continued to push this work forward, launch over 150 guaranteed income pilots across the country, change social safety net policies across the country, and shift the narratives surrounding Black mothers and families in poverty.
All we did was believe them.
And today, I am grateful that you believed them, too. We are honored to count each and every one of you as a partner on this journey. Together, we can continue to innovate, advocate, and shape society’s future for the better.
Yours in Service,
Aisha Nyandoro
CEO
2024 Heinz Awards | Aisha Nyandoro
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.
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