A TRUST FOR THE FUTURE

In building a dedicated and sustaining donor base and a steady stream of investments in non-profit organizations serving the Black community, NBUF’s Trust for the Future focuses on the following programmatic areas:

• Building Assets. Perhaps the greatest obstacle to economic prosperity in the Black community is not income poverty, but asset poverty — the fact that too many Black Americans do not own enough wealth to put a down payment on a new home or save for their children’s college education or start their own business or pass on assets and property to their children. That is why NBUF supports a variety of efforts aimed at building assets among Black Americans — most notably, our program to match savings in Individual Development Accounts, building and managing endowments for Blacks with wealth, establishing donor-advised funds for those with more modest surplus funds, and providing training and advice for planed giving to maximize tax deductible benefits while helping to build black self-sufficiency.
  
  
• Fund Development. NBUF is building endowments and increasing its resources to a level that supports long-term development needs.
  
  
• Leadership. NBUF is working to build leadership at the grassroots level and to provide the leadership on the national level to address emerging challenges, maximize opportunities and strengthen linkages throughout the Black community.
  
  
• Community Capacity-Building. NBUF has launched a set of interrelated national initiatives focused on building capacity within the Black community in high impact program areas.
  
  
• Local Black United Fund Capacity-Building. NBUF is building the necessary infrastructure and technical capacity to support local Black United Funds by providing strong organizational and technical assistance, particularly in the areas of new technology and fund-raising.
  
  
• Communications. NBUF is engaged in building a vigorous program of strategic communications and media relations to advance our mission and serve our affiliates.
  
  
• Black American Public Opinion. NBUF researches and promotes the priority issues reflected in the opinions of Black Americans, such as health, education, children, justice, economic equity and quality of life.