By Edward Henderson | California Black Media
Kaci Patterson is the founder and Chief Architect of the Black Equity Collective (BEC). This network of funders and nonprofit leaders is committed to investing in the long-term sustainability of Black-led organizations in Southern California.
A graduate of Pepperdine University, Patterson holds an MBA in Organizational Management & Leadership from the University of La Verne.
Patterson takes pride in her commitment to human and community development. She is also the Founder and Chief Architect of Social Good Solutions (SGS), a Black woman-owned and operated boutique social impact consulting firm, Patterson serves as an advocate for Black creatives and thought leaders. She encourages them to “know their worth” and to never compromise when it comes to the value of their intellectual property.
Patterson spoke to California Black Media (CBM) about her successes, disappointments throughout the year and plans heading into 2026.
Looking back at 2025, what stands out to you as your most important achievement and why?
Our most important achievement this year as the BEC has been balancing responding to our external environment (attacks on equity-centered work, pullback in public and philanthropic funding, wildfires, ICE raids, and everything in-between) with the discipline of exercising restraint. We have resisted being pulled in every direction. This has allowed us to continue to focus on building a future full of Black possibilities.
On the program implementation level, we onboarded 20 new organizations into the BEC’s membership, hosted our largest annual symposium to date, released a groundbreaking report on the economic benefits of Black-led nonprofits in California, launched a series of community listening sessions and completed a pilot of a pioneering model on inclusive fiscal sponsorship. We did this while simultaneously supporting wildfire recovery efforts, making solidarity grants to organizations focused on immigrant justice, establishing new collaborative efforts with our ecosystem partners and trying to fundraise in an environment that is increasingly more restrictive of equity-centered work.
How did your leadership, efforts and investments in 2025 contribute to improving the lives of Black Californians?
Since our founding in 2021, BEC has regranted over $7 million to over 40 Black-led organizations (BLOs). In 2024 alone according to our most recent member survey data, the $1.7 million we regranted was leveraged to raise an additional $6.1 million from 44 unique public and private funders. This is significant given the fundraising climate. In May of this year, in partnership with the Nonprofit Finance Fund, BEC released the first-of-its-kind report studying the economic impact of BLOs on California’s economy. Julio Marcial, Chief Impact Officer at Liberty Hill Foundation, called the report: “a roadmap for investment.” This report provides a new narrative framework that ties investment in BLOs to not only community impact, but economic vitality as well for the state. With over 4,000 jobs created, $335 million paid in salaries and over $22 million paid in payroll taxes, BLOs are providing an economic lifeline to thousands of Californians and helping to build a more vibrant and thriving Black economy.
What frustrated you the most over the last year?
I’ve been frustrated by how quickly some funders have turned their backs on equity broadly and the Black community, more specifically. The politics of fear has crippled courage, caused retreat and made many in philanthropy afraid to stand in true partnership with community, leaving many organizations to wonder if they really do have to fight these battles alone.
What inspired you the most over the last year?
Honestly, nature. I have looked to nature more than ever this year to learn lessons of resilience, adaptability, community care, defiant determination, beauty and joy in the face of unspeakable manufactured chaos.
What is one lesson you learned in 2025 that will inform your decision-making next year?
This has been a year to lean into the wisdom of our ancestors. Mama Harriet Tubman created a secret society to liberate our people by moving in strategic silence with a network of partners and allies who were willing to boldly follow the leadership of a Black woman. Dr. King used direct action–strategic, visible defiance in the face of immoral and unjust laws. Both were effective for their time. Knowing which strategies are most effective for our time is what I’m carrying with me into 2026.
In one word, what is the biggest challenge Black Californians faced in 2025?
Erasure.
What is the goal you want to achieve most in 2026?
Helping our organizations to survive — to live to fight another day, another year, another battle so together, we can harness our collective quantum intelligence to create Black PermanencyTM in California.
