Our Mission: to provide pathways to sustainable, well-paying, and gratifying livelihoods for black women — creating economic engines that give individuals and their communities the power to chart their own destinies for wellbeing, asset-building, and success.
Though she may not have known it at the time, Cassandra Banks forged a visionary path when, in 1979, she entered into the apprenticeship program for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) as the only black woman in her class.
She fully earned the title of “trailblazer” in 2004, when she was the first black woman at the South Pole.
Impacting individual lives, investing in economic stability, and addressing systemic issues of marginalization will be transformative for the women, their families, and the collective good.
The Foundation named in her honor seeks to harness her trailblazing spirit to inspire black women to pursue nontraditional careers and support them on their journey in a manner that will also meaningfully change the way philanthropy operates in communities of color.