Bese Sake reimagines love and power together by fostering a place to network for 18 Black-led Bay Area organizations. The Bese Saka initiative convenes these organizations quarterly to share organizational knowledge and resources while providing healing support and unity. San Francisco Foundation held a Donor Dialogue on October 6 to share information about Bese Saka.
Brandon Johns, SFF’s program officer for the Koshland Program, facilitated a discourse with his fellow Bese Saka project management team: Brotherhood of Elders’ Quinton Sankofa and Aman Sebahtu, Spearitwurx’s Mizan Alkebulan, and Cheryl Fabio from Sarah Webster Fabio Center. They shared Bese Saka’s impact and future goals.
- All 18 organizations are intentionally from different cities in the Bay Area – to lend a diverse scope in geography, organization size, programs provided, and populations served.
- The initiative is led in partnership with the Brotherhood of Elders Network (BOEN). BOEN is an intergenerational volunteer network of men of African ancestry that work together through stewardship and advocacy to “advance and preserve the health and wellness of our families and communities.”
- Ttori Johnson, Programs Manager at East Oakland Collective, is a Bese Saka Cohort Advisor and shared that the mission and purpose within the cohort is to find liberation through self and generational healing in a safe space “without masks or guises.” Johnson also reflected that much of the work she and her peers do within our communities is heavy and the opportunity to share the weight and lean on others in the cohort for strategy and support are imperative.
- Bese Saka hopes to raise $150,000 – $300,000 from individual donors and invite organizations for the second cohort of Black-led organizations in 2024. Bese Saka calls for donations motivated by love for people, not out of fear. “The work that we do to serve the Black community is work that serves everybody,” said Quinton Sankofa.
“Change moves at the speed of trust, but trust moves at the speed of relationships. In order for us to be able to build and transform our society and our culture and the conditions that folks are living in, we have to build the relationships in order to build that trust, in order to transform.” Mizan Alkebulan said.
Watch a recording of the event.
To learn more about supporting these Black-led organizations, please contact your philanthropic advisor or email donorservices[at]sff.org. You can also recommend a grant in Donor Center to the “Brotherhood of Elders Network for the Bese Saka program.”
