“Rather than allowing wealth and decision-making to be extracted from communities, community wealth building invests in community-owned assets and institutions that keep wealth, power, and opportunity rooted where they are created.“
At a time when communities are navigating growing uncertainty and public systems face increasing strain, philanthropy has an opportunity—and a responsibility—to invest differently: by shifting power, trust, and resources toward the communities closest to the work.
Those ideas were at the heart of Moving Philanthropic Institutions to Invest in Frontline-led Movements, a workshop at the 2026 Sustainable Agriculture & Food Systems Funders (SAFSF) Forum, held June 22–25 in Savannah, Georgia.
Representing Blue Sky Funders Forum, Executive Director Onika Abraham joined Marni Rosen, a longtime philanthropic leader advancing community-led food systems and environmental justice; Kolu Zigbi, a national leader in movement-centered philanthropy; and Hans How, Integrated Capital Officer for the Kataly Foundation’s Restorative Economies Fund. Moderated by Melanie Allen, Co-Executive Director of LIFE, the conversation explored how philanthropy can shift resources, decision-making, and trust toward the communities leading transformational change.
Land as a Community Wealth Building Strategy
During her remarks, Onika reflected on how Blue Sky Funders Forum is helping philanthropy understand land justice as a community wealth-building strategy—one that shifts ownership, decision-making, and long-term prosperity back into the hands of communities.
She began by noting that Blue Sky convenes funders around a shared belief that meaningful connections to land and nature help build stronger, healthier communities. Yet, many of the barriers people face in accessing land, nature, and outdoor experiences are not accidental—they are structural. Quoting historian Patrick Wolfe, she reminded participants that “Colonization is a structure, not an event,” reinforcing that structural harm requires structural repair.
Onika described community wealth building as one pathway toward that repair. Rather than allowing wealth and decision-making to be extracted from communities, community wealth building invests in community-owned assets and institutions that keep wealth, power, and opportunity rooted where they are created. Community land trusts, cooperatives, and locally governed organizations are examples of infrastructure that create long-term resilience.
At the heart of this approach is secure access to and tenure on no land. Without it, communities can spend years investing labor, culture, and resources into a place only to be displaced, losing not only economic opportunity but also history, foodways, relationships, and cultural identity.
Learning from Community-Led Models
Drawing from her experience serving on the board of the Northeast Farmers of Color Land Trust (NEFOC) and her role as a founding member of the Black Farmer Fund’s board, Onika shared examples of what community-led investment can look like in practice.
She reflected on the Black Farmer Fund, where Black farmers—not the Fund’s board or funders—made the investment decisions for what has become a $20 million community investment fund. For Onika, the experience reinforced a powerful lesson: the people closest to the challenges are best positioned to determine where resources should go.
She also highlighted the work of NEFOC, which removes land from speculative markets and places it into community stewardship. Instead of viewing land as a commodity, NEFOC treats it as a shared asset that supports food sovereignty, regenerative agriculture, cultural preservation, and intergenerational wealth.
Onika pointed to the Tributary Land Returns initiative in Maine as another example of philanthropy embracing community governance. Through the initiative, more than 50,000 acres will be returned to Wabanaki communities. What makes the effort remarkable is not only the scale of the land return, but the philanthropic approach itself: funders—including Blue Sky member the Elmina B. Sewall Foundation—trusting Tribal leadership, supporting collaborative decision-making, and making long-term commitments aligned with the scale of the vision.
Read more about this extraordinary partnership in Blue Sky’s blog, Lessons from the Tributary Project Land Justice Webinar.
Taken together, these examples illustrated her central message: philanthropy has a critical role to play in restoring community stewardship over land and investing in the community-owned assets that make long-term self-determination possible.
Helping Funders Move from Learning to Action
The conversation also highlighted that shifting philanthropy requires more than new ideas—it requires new practices. Drawing on Blue Sky’s experience convening funders, Onika shared several approaches that help move philanthropy from learning to action:
- Elevating community stories. Through webinars, case studies, and our Land Justice Learning Series, funders hear directly from practitioners and peer funders about community-led solutions already creating impact.
- Creating spaces for peer learning. Working groups and learning communities give funders opportunities to ask difficult questions, share challenges, and build confidence alongside one another.
- Practicing aligned giving. Convenings and collaborative learning experiences help move participants from understanding community-led approaches to actively supporting them through their own grantmaking.
- Building opportunities for collective action. Our Land Justice Community is exploring ways to coordinate long-term support for BIPOC-led land organizations that need sustained investment rather than one-time grants.
Ultimately, our goal is to help philanthropy move beyond addressing symptoms and toward investing in the community-owned assets and institutions that create lasting change. Communities need both responsive funding that addresses immediate challenges and long-term investments that build the infrastructure for self-determination and resilience.
Looking Ahead
The workshop concluded with small-group discussions where participants reflected on the barriers they encounter in moving more resources into frontline movements, the internal changes needed within philanthropy, and opportunities to build stronger alignment around community governance and shared accountability.
These conversations reinforced something we hear often across the Blue Sky network: funders want to make deeper, more transformational investments—but many are looking for trusted peers, practical examples, and collaborative spaces that help them break through institutional and structural barriers to move from intention to action.
At Blue Sky, we see this work as an ongoing journey of learning, relationship-building, and collective action. As more funders seek to move beyond traditional grantmaking toward community-led solutions, we remain committed to creating the spaces where those conversations—and collaborations—can flourish.
If you’re interested in exploring how philanthropy can advance land justice, community stewardship, and equitable access to nature, we invite you to join us for our upcoming Land Justice Webinar Series, where we’ll continue learning from practitioners and funders leading this work across the country.
We also hope you’ll join us at the 2026 Blue Sky Funders Forum National Convening, October 7–9 in Freeport, Maine. Together, we’ll explore how nurturing relationships, strengthening networks, and investing in community-led solutions can expand meaningful outdoor experiences while building more resilient, equitable communities.