To the Momentum Alliance community,

After deep reflection, Momentum Alliance is closing its doors at the end of this month. With years of touch and go fundraising, lack of investment from major foundations, and this prolific right-wing administration, we just cannot hold out any longer. This decision comes with a full heart and immense gratitude for everyone who made this work possible.

Let’s just be real for a second: unfortunately, this experience is not unique. We are seeing small leftist orgs closing left and right. This is not an accidental vacuum of circumstances and outcomes. With the cracking down of this administration’s policing of liberal-lite institutions, political leaders taking embarrassingly meek stances, and the blatant disdain for immigrants, Trans individuals, Black and brown families, people with disabilities, and quite frankly anyone who is not a christian white cis-het man- it has made it nearly impossible to access funding. Not to mention, several foundations now don’t have the need to pretend that they care about DEI. The non-profit industrial complex relies on foundations to support and invest in our missions, however these foundations are often run by well-intentioned people who still don’t get it. Your tax shelters aren’t just funding us or any organization for the moment’s most trendy political issue, it is wealth redistribution into communities that these donors have already disenfranchised in other very intentional ways. Thus, when we hear there’s scarcity because it's so competitive or it's hard to trust us because we are youth run – we say, “so what?”

Corporations, big nonprofits, CEOs, and our elected officials mess up often, with much higher stakes, yet when youth leadership struggles due to a lack of access to institutions, education, and people, we’re met with reprimand rather than support. Granted this system is not set up for young BIPOC to succeed – so I ask you all to hold the same amount of grace for us that you have for the white boy who fails upwards. We ask you to invest in us with the same fan energy in which y’all bought your pink pussy hats. Forget investment, think about the redistribution that is much past deserved in communities of color. We shouldn’t have to write essays upon essays on why our work is important, why our arts program is educational and, is in fact, suicide prevention, why it matters that Black youth have a safe place to convene in the whitest major city in the entire country. We shouldn’t have to convince you it’s valid for youth of color to have access to the same parks and activities you grew up taking for granted. And we shouldn’t have to beg for our lives to matter by circulating a new murder everyday. Our closing is a symptom of a collective disease that is white supremacist capitalism. 

In 2025, Momentum Alliance continued to do what it was created to do: center young people of color, trust their leadership, and invest in joy, creativity, and liberation. Across workshops, gatherings, trips, and shared experiences, Momentum Alliance prioritized access, care, and dignity, especially for young people who are too often excluded from decision making and resources.

Momentum Alliance also stood firm in its values. As a fully BIPOC led organization with a young staff, our work demonstrated what it looks like to build programs rooted in trust rather than control, and relationship rather than extraction. This work does not end with Momentum Alliance. The relationships, lessons, and momentum continue through the young people, artists, organizers, and partners who move this vision forward every day. The closing of our organization does not mean the closing of a movement, a community, or a commitment to collective care and liberation. And if we’re staying honest, no 501(c)(3) will bring about the change that needs to happen for our lives to drastically improve. We are trying to bandaid a rotting flesh wound that is actively gushing blood, so we beg of you to dig deeper because our current interventions are not working. 

Thank you to our partner organizations – time and time again we learned that developing real friendships is what held us during the toughest times. Whether it was Imagine Black lending us a space when we couldn’t afford to hold sessions anywhere else, or Daffodil Studios donating their class and instruction time to us so we could work in a real ceramics studios, Ori Gallery hosting our art showcase, or Black and Beyond the Binary’s ED mentoring our young EDs to run a successful campaign, and so many more amazing partners – y’all held us and pulled us through. Thank you forever. 

To our funders, thank you for your continued support. We are extra appreciative of those that were open to our honest asks for help and came in clutch when things got tight. We urge all of our funders to continue making their processes more accessible, as lenient as possible, and figure out ways to drain your accounts faster. 

To our lovely donors: we adore you and your collective support. Thank you for trusting us and sharing our unwavering vision for happy and healthy young BIPOC leaders. Thank you to Give!Guide for giving us a platform to engage new donors and help us wrap up with dignity and strength as we move to sunset this organization. With your support, we were able to close out our programs strongly and support our staff in smooth and intentional transitions that center their well being. 

Thank you to all of our participants and staff that have come through MA’s doors. This organization is just a tax status without all of those who have made it wonderful. 

Momentum Alliance may be closing, but the pursuit of collective liberation and healing fortunately will never end with one person or organization. It is now that we must act strategically, think creatively, turn to Black history to understand how we can actively resist, and deepen our capacity for compassion because it’s about to get a lot harder and we are going to need each other despite our differences and conflict. We must be bold enough to do things differently because we can no longer afford to wait idly for change. We are so grateful to have had the opportunity to help uphold MA’s legacy of care and love for our community. 

Forever and always: Fuck ICE and the police

With love and solidarity,

Ale and Imani