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Applications Open on February 2

SistaRoot: Organizing Competency, Administrative Efficiency, and Fundraising Sustainability. Logo features a Black Woman with a full afro on top of the wording and roots on the bottom. The roots grow around the woman with mutlicolored leaves and indigo blossoms.

Purpose

SistaRoot is the entry-level leadership and capacity-building tier within the Black Southern Women’s Collaborative (BSWC). It was created to identify, nurture, and prepare emerging Black-women-led grassroots organizations across the South to eventually become full BSWC members.

Strengthening the Organizing Infrastructure of the South

While BSWC’s core members are already established 501(c)(3)/(c)(4) organizations led by seasoned executives, SistaRoot focuses on incubating smaller or newer groups — those that have strong community roots but limited infrastructure, staffing, or fundraising capacity. The program bridges that gap by providing intensive coaching, organizational development support, and wellness-based leadership formation. Like all of BSWC’s work, this too is grounded in Womanist principles, which centers Black women’s lived experiences as a path toward dismantling all forms of oppression and achieving collective thriving.

Program Components

  1. Organizing Competency
    • Leadership Development: Cohort-based curriculum centered on power building, strategic planning, and creating a healthy organizing structure, with explicit outline of the executive director role.
    • Political Education & Organizing Skills: Deep training in relational and issue-based organizing within a Southern context, knowing the difference between metrics used in electoral and deep relational organizing.
  2. Administrative Efficiency
    • Organizational Strengthening: One-on-one coaching on finance, governance, HR, and compliance.
  3. Fundraising Sustainability 
    • Organizational Durability and Growth:  Training and coaching on creation and implementation of a development plan with a diversity of income streams.

All of this is rooted with Healing & Sustainability Training, which incorporates somatic practices, reflection, and community care to counter burnout. To maximize our discipline and devotion to Black Women Leadership that is experienced differently than other women, we will have:

Retreats & Convenings: Hybrid kickoff retreat plus quarterly in-person deep dives.

Equity-Based Supports: Participant stipends and travel reimbursements to ensure equitable participation regardless of geography or financial means.

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Our Blueprint for a Liberated South

A liberated South is one where Black women are not just surviving, but thriving, leading with vision, holding institutional power, living in safety, and shaping narratives rooted in truth. It looks like our people cared for, our voices respected, and our communities resourced. This blueprint is both a declaration and a roadmap, born from our lived experiences, spiritual wisdom, and generational dreams.
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