Celebrating Collective Impact

The Black Fund of Central Texas Awards $275,000 to 24 Community Organizations in its 2025-2026 Grant cycle

The Black Fund of Central Texas (TBFCT) is proud to announce the completion of its third grant cycle, awarding $275,000 to 24 Black-led and Black-serving organizations across Central Texas. With this latest investment, the Fund has now distributed more than $1.25 million to date, supporting 72 awardees in total and strengthening the capacity, sustainability, and reach of Black-led solutions throughout the region.

In addition to grantmaking, TBFCT is advancing a new model of philanthropy that pairs financial investment with sustained capacity building to support long term success. Through a partnership with Little Bit of Good, TBFCT has hosted a series of capacity building workshops since August 2025, including sessions open to the public as well as a 10-month cohort specifically curated for grantees to strengthen organizational growth and sustainability. This approach reflects a shift from transactional funding toward equipping nonprofit and grassroots leaders with the tools, knowledge, and infrastructure needed to scale impact over time. These workshops have drawn strong participation and public interest, signaling a clear demand for practical, skill based learning that supports leadership development, organizational resilience, and effective growth. The strong engagement underscores the importance of investing not only in programs, but in the people and systems that sustain them, ensuring that Black led organizations are positioned to thrive well beyond the grant period.

Looking ahead, the Fund is eager to continue learning alongside its grantees through its evaluation and reporting partnership with Measure, a research and data-driven advocacy organization committed to using both lived experiences and quantitative analysis to advance equity. TBFCT will utilize the nationally recognized Measure Ignite platform. Measure Ignite is a digital reporting and learning tool designed to help organizations define and track their own indicators of success, strengthen data informed decision making, and translate impact into clear, compelling storytelling. By equipping grantees with tools for measurement, forecasting, and growth planning, this partnership supports organizations in demonstrating outcomes, planning for sustainability, and communicating their impact with greater clarity and confidence. In doing so, the Fund is investing in the long term capacity of grantees to grow, adapt, and lead with evidence.

The Fund is also deepening its regional impact through a partnership with Bastrop County Cares, which has been instrumental in expanding The Black Fund of Central Texas’s reach more intentionally into Bastrop County. Of the 24 organizations awarded in this grant cycle, four specifically serve Bastrop County, while 11 of the Fund’s twenty nine total awardees include Bastrop within their service areas. This partnership reflects a shared commitment to ensuring equitable access to philanthropic resources beyond Travis County and strengthening participation across the broader Central Texas region. TBFCT intends to continue deep, place based work in Bastrop while further expanding engagement and investment in Burnet, Caldwell, Hays, and Williamson counties to more fully level set regional participation and ensure that Black led organizations across all five counties are resourced, supported, and connected.

At a time when the broader DEI landscape continues to shift, we view the current moment as a reminder that equity-focused work has always required resilience, clarity, and sustained commitment to challenges that are neither new nor insurmountable; this grant cycle underscores the measurable impact of sustained investment in Black-led organizations and grassroots leadership. In Greater Austin, where Black residents comprise less than 8% of the population, they continue to experience disproportionate disparities including earning, on average, significantly less by approximately 40–50% below regional income benchmarks, holding homeownership rates nearly 30 percentage points lower, facing graduation and postsecondary attainment gaps of 15–25 percentage points, and experiencing higher rates of chronic health conditions and reduced life expectancy by several years. In this context, these investments play a critical role in stabilizing and strengthening community-based infrastructure that supports long-term opportunity and well-being.

Organizations supported through this grant cycle are advancing wealth building initiatives that expand economic opportunity for Black Central Texans while strengthening a connected ecosystem of support. Through the leadership of nonprofits and grassroots organizations, these investments are driving economic mobility, individual and community growth, and shared prosperity, while also reinforcing Greater Austin’s creative and cultural economy, expanding access to high quality educational opportunities for youth and families, and delivering community based health and wellness initiatives that address long standing inequities. Collectively, this funding strengthens regional resilience, with organizations frequently leveraging grant support to secure additional resources, partnerships, and in kind contributions that extend impact beyond the initial investment. As a result, more individuals and families across Central Texas are gaining greater access to opportunity, stability, and pathways to long term success.

Together, these efforts reflect the continued evolution of the fund’s work—rooted in community voice, strengthened by collaboration, and guided by a long-term commitment to ensuring Black-led organizations, youth, and families have the resources they need to thrive today and for generations to come.

A Milestone Moment

This year’s grant cycle is especially meaningful. With 24 organizations funded, we are celebrating not only the scale of investment, but the collective vision behind it. These grants support organizations serving youth, families, artists, educators, health professionals, entrepreneurs, and community members across Central Texas.

Together, these organizations are building pathways toward equity, wellness, creativity, and opportunity.

2025-2026 Grant Recipients

We are honored to support the following grantees:

Wealth Building

$20,000 – Stephen Braggs Youth Foundation
$15,000 – AL Community Development Corporation
$10,000 – Capitol View Arts

Healthcare & Wellness

$20,000 – Hearts 2 Heal
$15,000 – Liberate Counseling
$10,000 – BllinG Salon & Spa Graced and Sage

Improving Education Access & Outcomes

$20,000 – Texas Empowerment Academy
$15,000 – The Rise Child Development Center
$10,000 – Austin Black Physicians Association

Arts, Culture & Preservation

$20,000 – Art Curatorial Inc
$15,000 – Out Tha Box Productions
$10,000 – Black Families of Hutto

Power Building, Organizing & Advocacy

$20,000 – U.S. Africa Institute
$15,000 – Selnel’s Sensory Play & Advocacy Group Inc.
$10,000 – Black Trans Leadership of Austin

Committee’s Choice Awards

$5,000 – JOI Community Outreach
$5,000 – My Sister’s Keeper ATX
$5,000 – Dickey Museum & Multipurpose Center
$5,000 – Sow Family Foundation
$5,000 – Pfaith House
$5,000 – Ballet Afrique
$5,000 – Empower Bastrop County
$5,000 – Bee Unique
$5,000 – Bastrop County Food Pantry

Moving Forward Together

At The Black Fund of Central Texas, we believe philanthropy is most powerful when rooted in trust, shared responsibility, and community voice. As we close our third grant cycle, we are proud to advance our mission of harnessing the power of Black-led organizations to strengthen the Black community and generate lasting benefits for the broader Central Texas economy.

We extend our sincere gratitude to St. David’s Foundation, Fidelity Charitable, Bastrop County Cares, Austin Community Foundation as well as our donors, partners, reviewers, working committees and community members whose support makes this work possible. Together, we are creating infinite possibilities and fostering fairness, opportunity, access and well-being while ensuring Black-led organizations and leaders have the resources to thrive today and for generations to come.