The Acumen - May 2024

Timeline with dates significant to them, so that it’s not just the Timeline, it’s their Timeline. All proceeds from sales of the Timeline are invested in making the RTL Foundation and the BNDC better and more accessible to the community and to members of the BNDC. The original version of the Timeline from 2006 is proudly displayed at the Blair-Caldwell African American Research Library in Five Points. Our friends at Blair-Caldwell will soon display the newest, updated version of the Timeline which RTL Foundation has donated, to ensure that the entire community in Five Points enjoys this rich, and important, piece of African American History for years to come. In keeping with our mission as a BIPOC-led and serving organization, we will be creating parallel Timelines that chronicle the history of the other communities within the BIPOC umbrella. As such, we will be adding individual Timelines that honor Indigenous, Latinx, Asian, and Pacific Islander (the “IPOC” in BIPOC) communities. I want to take this opportunity to announce to all readers to please be on the lookout for our Grand Opening this summer – exact date to be determined, sometime in late June or July. Limited sponsorship packages are available - please email jlondono@rtl-foundation.org or call Jhon at 908.937.3998 to learn more. We will once again hold an online giving campaign during Black Philanthropy Month this August via our website at rtl-foundation.org We will host a BIPOC Leaders Luncheon in the Fall. We will bring five (5) BIPOC leaders, one each from corporate, government, nonprofit, foundation, and entrepreneurial sectors for a panel discussion on their journey to their leadership position(s), barriers they faced, obstacles they overcame, and what it means to be a BIPOC leader in a landscape transformed

by Covid, the social justice movement, and the retrenchment of support for DEI nationally. Tentatively to be held in October, venue and time TBD. Limited sponsorship packages are available - please email jlondono@rtl-foundation.org or call Jhon at 908.937.3998 to learn more. I want to invite potential investors from Corporate and Private Foundations, as well as individual donors to consider supporting the RTL Foundation and the BNDC. Your investment and support of the Foundation amplifies your support of BIPOC nonprofits and Social Entrepreneurs, and leverages our reach above and beyond the 24 members of our inaugural cohort, which includes more than 400 BIPOC-led and serving nonprofits, and BIPOC businesses with whom we have deep and emerging relationships, who look to the RTL Foundation as a trusted source in the community. Please email jlondono@rtl-foundation.org or call Jhon at 908.937.3998 to learn more and discuss how to amplify your investment in support of BIPOC nonprofits and social entrepreneurs. We believe the collective investments in the BNDC, the BIPOC-led Nonprofits and Social Entrepreneurs in our inaugural cohort, the year-round programming, the community of supporters, stakeholders, collaborating partners, building our home in Five Points, the resources we are providing to our members, non-members and the community at large in Five Points and beyond, and the powerful history embodied by the Timeline, will see the RTL Foundation rising, renewing, thriving, transforming and impacting communities near and far for years to come. All are invited to visit us and to experience the Timeline, the BNDC, the Art Gallery, and all that we’ve built in Five Points. To schedule a tour please email jlondono@rtl-foundation.org or mvaldez@rtl-foundation.org Please visit us at rtl-foundation.org ; and africanamericantimeline.org to learn more about us.

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28 The Acumen

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