Denise St. Omer
Executive Director
About Us
Our Mission
The mission of KC People’s Fund is to cede power to communities impacted by systemic racism by investing in organizing and movements, centering trust-building, and removing barriers to opportunity.
Our Vision
KC People’s Fund envisions a Kansas City where Black, Brown, Indigenous, and other people of color have access to the resources and opportunities they need to thrive in a world of abundance and love.
Our priorities
- A focus on supporting systems change through organizing and movement building.
- Continuing to provide support to a core group of Hadley Project partners engaged in this work.
- Disrupting and democratizing philanthropy by ceding power through participatory gifting.
- Providing support beyond the check to support the growth of a thriving ecosystem.
- Using our institutional power to support the work of communities impacted by systemic racism through convenings and learning opportunities.
Our People
Kathryn Evans
BoardThomas Sunderland
Board
Grant Sunderland
BoardAndrew Eanes
BoardEmery Golson
In Loving Memory
Our Evolution
The KC People’s Fund is the next iteration of a pilot project launched in 2021 called the Hadley Project. The Hadley Project began with a shared goal of supporting grassroots nonprofits led by people of color in Kansas City. Following the trust-based philanthropic model, we used a simplified process
to identify partner organizations and provided multi-year unrestricted funding. Our funding centered in two areas: providing funds to grassroots nonprofits led by people of color who have historically lacked access to grantmaking foundations, and supporting power building and community organizing.
Our History
Over the course of three years, we developed strong partnerships and saw significant growth in those organizations and the dream of the KC People’s Fund took shape. We began our planning in the fall of 2022 with a review of our work as the Hadley Project, looking at both our
internal processes and our grantmaking. Incorporating our lessons learned helped shape the mission and vision for the KC People’s Fund.