Rhode Island Foundation Partners with Resilia to strengthen BIPOC-led nonprofits

The partnership equity initiative focused on supporting organizations and leaders who identify as Black, Hispanic or Latino, Indigenous, Asian, and multiracial from across different mission areas

New Orleans, LA. - The Rhode Island Foundation has partnered with Resilia, a social impact organization that offers nonprofits access to their exclusive online platform and unlimited 1:1 coaching to support effectiveness, creativity, and workflow in organizations across the country.

Through the partnership, participants will be able to access Resilia’s multi-faceted capacity-building program as they work toward organizational sustainability. Resilia helps change-makers build mission-facing and back-office capacity while elevating stories and data that drive advocacy and fundraising efforts. This is enabled through a combination of an online platform, unlimited 1:1 nonprofit coaching, and a peer-to-peer learning model, thereby enabling multiple entry points into capacity building and meeting nonprofits where they are.

The Rhode Island Foundation’s Resilia collaboration continues major efforts and new initiatives launched by the Foundation during a period of tremendous growth. In 2021, the organization awarded $76 million in grants and raised $98 million dollars. The combined total is the highest in the organization's 106-year-history. The Foundation is partnering with Resilia partnership to sponsor a cohort of BIPOC-led/serving nonprofit organizations from across the state.

 “Supporting diversity, equity and inclusion cuts across all our work. Giving nonprofit leaders an opportunity to connect and learn at a time and place convenient to them extends our commitment to supporting critical community partners," said Jill Pfitzenmayer, vice president of capacity building.

“The Rhode Island Foundation’s initiatives are focused on equity, social justice, and critical needs across the state and we’re honored to partner with them,” says Resilia founder and CEO Sevetri Wilson. “Our Funder Program was crafted specifically to support activists, leaders, and organizations who are advancing missions that drive real change in their communities, and we look forward to supporting them in their essential work.”

Through the partnership, the Rhode Island Foundation has also joined Resilia’s flagship ELEVATE initiative, a first-of-its-kind national funders collaborative comprised of 28 funders and aimed at elevating the capacity and voices of BIPOC-led and BIPOC-serving grassroots organizations throughout the country.

More information about Resilia’s Funder Program can be found here.

About the Foundation

For more than 100 years, the Rhode Island Foundation has been dedicated to improving the lives of Rhode Islanders. We partner with generous individuals, families, organizations, and corporations that share our commitment to the state, as well as with nonprofit organizations that provide the "boots-on-the-ground" services that make Rhode Island a better place to live, work, and play.

About Resilia

Founded in 2016, Resilia is a Black-led organization that leverages a combination of technology & human touch to help nonprofits and change makers build capacity and elevate stories. Resilia’s Funder Program enables grantors (foundations, corporations, and cities) to empower their nonprofit partners with on-demand technical assistance and capacity support that meets them where they are.

To learn more about the program, please reach out to Tamara Zeidan, Senior Director of Institutional Partnerships at Resilia at  tamara.zeidan@resilia.com