Zora Neale Hurston Richard Wright Foundation

We envision the Hurston/Wright Foundation as an organization that provides unique, impactful and memorable experiences of Black literary life that live far beyond the moment. We will strive to offer participants and supporters distinctive programs that enrich, fortify, and uplift the Black literary community.

Based on our 2018 strategic plan, we have three goals to guide our growth: 1) maintain effective and sustainable management; 2) raise our financial profile; and 3) expand programming. For effective and sustainable management, we must create a functioning committee structure, improve board training and recruitment, preserve institutional knowledge and focus on evaluation and governance. To raise our financial profile, we will provide board training focused on development and finances, recruit a development person to the board, establish a fundraising committee, and get board members to commit to supporting our signature program, the Legacy Awards. To expand programming, we will form a programming committee, review current program offerings to determine alignment with mission, values, and financial sustainability and review our recently completed supporter survey to determine ways to improve/expand offerings that support new populations that are consistent with mission.

Because the foundation has a small staff, we rely on writers, readers and board members to conduct the work of the organization. Writers who studied in our workshops come back to teach new generations of writers. One workshop attendee now volunteers as our social media writer. Authors who receive Legacy Award honors serve as judges in subsequent competitions. Writers who attend our public events participate in panel discussions. Readers who attend public events help staff subsequent competitions. Members of the board serve as program and policy advisors, as well as facilitators to secure resources. The chairman and treasurer of the board play active roles in conceiving programs such as the annual Legacy Awards Ceremony and in implementing financial and business procedures. Most board members help organize public programs such as literary panel discussions and help promote the foundation at arts and cultural events.

In the past two years, Hurston/Wright strengthened its operations, added programs to reach a larger audience, and continued to produce world-class writing workshops. We added board members who brought expertise in strategic planning, grant writing, law, networking, and project management. We hired two part-time administrative assistants to implement better business processes and improve communications. We secured much-needed grants from the DC Commission on Arts abd Humanities and from the Kaiser Family Foundation. The foundation adopted new fundraising software to improve communications and tracking, dramatically increasing the number of donors and funds raised. We expanded our outreach through a new podcast, a new newsletter, ads on Facebook and more frequent Twitter posts. We completed a 2018 strategic planning process which produced three goals to guide our growth: 1) maintain effective and sustainable management; 2) raise our financial profile; and 3) expand programming.