Newsletter | Springboard to Opportunities

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

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

Watch Aisha’s full interview with Dr. Tressie McMillan Cottom.

Deepening and Expanding – Springboard in 2024

It’s hard to believe the first month of 2024 is almost over. In 2023, we celebrated 10 years of Springboard and spent a lot of the year reflecting on the past decade, celebrating our past growth and success, and identifying our strengths and core commitments as we move into the future. Springboard has always been grounded in our radically resident-driven mission, which means that as the needs and goals of our residents and the world around them shifts, our strategy and execution of that mission shifts, too.

With all that in mind, at the beginning of 2023, we started developing a strategic plan to guide the next years of our work. We talked with residents, staff, our partners, and other stakeholders to determine how Springboard can best serve residents in affordable housing. What emerged is 5 priority areas that will be the core of our strategy moving forward.

Resident Relationships

Springboard’s work has always been rooted in strong, trusting relationships with residents of affordable housing. Staff’s main job will always be building and maintaining these relationships. In this next phase of work, Springboard will strengthen its navigation, coaching capacities, referral networks, and partnerships, while continuing to ensure essential resources and basic needs for all residents are met.

Socioeconomic Well-Being

Since 2018, Springboard has been a leader in the direct cash assistance field. Springboard will continue its signature Magnolia Mother’s Trust guaranteed income program, modeling best practices for cash disbursement programs. Springboard will also expand other cash-based initiatives grounded in dignity and trust, such as direct cash disbursements in emergencies and creating new Lending Circles℠. Lending Circles℠ is a social loan program managed by Mission Asset Fund (MAF)

Fellowships

Springboard’s fellowships offer cohort-based learning, personal development, and opportunities for residents to make connections between public policy and their lived experiences to catalyze positive change in their communities. Springboard will deepen and expand these fellowships to provide residents more opportunities for off-site learning, developing meaningful networks, and enhancing their confidence as community leaders.

Policy Advocacy

Springboard believes no one knows better than families themselves how social policies can be improved. Springboard’s community-driven policy agenda centers the voices and lived experiences of our residents and advocates for policies grounded in dignity, equity, and trust. Leveraging a network of partnerships, Springboard finds places for residents’ stories and expertise to be heard, shared, and spur change.

Narrative Change

The vast majority of our country’s poverty policies and strategies are grounded in false beliefs and assumptions about low-income families. Springboard believes it is time for families to tell a new story, by shifting their own internal narratives, recognizing their own self- and community-worth, and sharing their true, lived-experience through media and other platforms willing to amplify residents’ authentic voices.

We have already spent the first month of this year developing a plan and goals for this year’s implementation, and we look forward to sharing this new journey with all of you. Thank you, as always, for your partnership and support on the journey!

The 5th Magnolia Mother’s Trust Cohort is Set to Begin!

We’ve got some big news!

We are so thrilled to announce our 5th cohort of The Magnolia Mother’s Trust (MMT), our guaranteed income program offering $1,000 per month for 12 months with no strings attached, will be launching in October. Over the past several months, we took some time to really analyze the data and feedback we have received from past cohort members and evaluations. Our commitment to being radically resident-driven means we never stop growing and never stop learning alongside our families. As their needs shift, our responses must shift too.

This year’s cohort will be our largest yet with over 100 mothers and will continue to include $1,000 deposits in 529 Children’s Savings Accounts, opportunities for community building, and goal-setting support. But we will also be adding new elements to help make the program even stronger.

For example, we have seen the importance of mental health and self-care support, like we offered through our MISS Program, and how the strengths of that program complemented the strengths of MMT. In response, we’ll be integrating the MISS Program into MMT for interested participants. We also heard families ask for more ways to build savings and education around wealth building. So we’ve created a built-in savings option that moms can opt-into and have increased our support around the 529 investment accounts and education on other wealth-building products.

The Magnolia Mother’s Trust has always been about reimagining what is possible: What’s possible when we give families cash? What’s possible when we trust families to make the best decisions for their own lives? What’s possible when we stop believing the way things have always been is the way things always have to be? Through the program itself we model what’s possible when we’re responsive to family voice and willing to try bold new ideas.