Sustainable Development Goals: 2025 Community Foundation Cohort
ABFE and CFLeads are joining forces to offer a free new cohort program in 2025 for community foundations to collaboratively engage with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and advance their racial equity agenda.
We have extended the application deadline for the Sustainable Development Goals: 2025 Community Foundation Cohort until Friday, December 20 - access the full application now. Combining expertise and peer learning among and within participating organizations, the 2025 SDG Cohort will help institutions mobilize stakeholders, advance their missions, and increase impact and accountability.
For 2025, ABFE and CFLeads are combining their respective areas of expertise and longstanding relationships with funders across the country to offer a comprehensive program for staff, board members, and donors. In 2024, ABFE developed and refined a new curriculum, adapting its Responsive Philanthropy in Black Communities framework (RPBC) to the SDGs to increase impact and accountability. And for 2025, CFLeads is incorporating its Community Leadership framework to further enhance a collective approach to long-term impact for community foundations. The 2025 program, and ABFE’s previous community foundation cohort programs, are supported by the C.S. Mott Foundation.
How it Works
The 2025 SDG Community Foundation Cohort is an entirely virtual program, offered in two sections: Spring 2025 and Fall 2025. Each section will consist of three monthly half-day sessions. In addition to these three formal cohort sessions, each participating organization is offered six hours of customized consulting to facilitate implementation in the context of each organization’s unique circumstances.
Each participating organization is encouraged to identify several individuals across functional areas and at many levels. We recommend that each foundation select 1-4 participants to attend. A diverse range of program staff, administrative staff, board members, and donors offers the best opportunity for short- and longer-term impact. Organizations may join one or both sections (Spring/Fall).
Each session will be led by ABFE and CFLeads facilitators, augmented by two specialists: Dr. Helen Bond (Howard University), and Dr. Lawrence McGill (Ambit 360). Dr. Bond’s seminal “In the Red” report and research demonstrates how to understand and track racial equity outcomes using the SDGs, and Dr. McGill offers lessons based on first-hand experience helping high- performing community foundations incorporate the SDGs into their existing systems.