Connect + Reflect through the Years
What started as a simple meeting of the minds has become one of our community’s most cherished traditions. Each year deepens our solidarity, empowers us with new insights, and builds our individual and collective power.
2025 Connect + Reflect: Cross-Racial Solidarity in Action
April 2025 | Houston, Texas
Our most recent Connect + Reflect gathered us in Houston, the most ethnically diverse metropolitan area in the country. Here, we centered donors of color and their desire to drive systemic change, providing a space to connect with values-aligned peers and shape their giving strategies to make the biggest impact.
2025 Speaker Highlights
Lina Hidalgo
Harris County Judge
Ta-Nehisi Coates
Prize-Winning Journalist & Author
Kendrick Sampson
Actor & Activist
Aaron Tanaka
CEO, One Project
2025 Conversations
Cross-Racial Immigration
Experts in the field of immigration examined the realities immigrants in the United States experience, highlighting the similarities and differences in the challenges they face and uplifting strategies to reclaim power.
Solidarity in Action
This panel featured organizations that have built solidarity into the fabric of what they do. They shared victories, challenges, and best practices to ensure that we are empowered in our diversity alongside each other.
Keynote with Ta-Nehisi Coates
Ta-Nehisi Coates delivered a powerful keynote, reading from his latest book The Message and engaging us in a conversation about historical and contemporary cross-racial solidarity across the world.
Mapping a 50-State Strategy for Racial Justice Power Building
Organizers from all over the country joined us in envisioning what a 50-state strategy for racial justice power building entails, exploring how we can strategically support movements across the nation with funding that effectively invests in communities of color.
DEI Takeback: What We Can Learn From CFJP
This lively discussion highlighted the importance of reclaiming language while continuing to urgently prioritize movement work. We also heard updates from our HBCU Green Fund fellows on their upcoming report surveying the impact of for grantees of DOCN’s Climate Funders Justice Pledge.
Our Most Memorable Moments
Attendees ground in Houston’s grassroots movement work, with an offsite visit to the Houston Climate Justice Museum (HCJM).
The DOCN audience enjoys the energizing spirit of our opening night welcome dinner.
Speakers discuss strategies for building solidarity across communities, highlighting our commitment to cross-racial, cross-class unity.
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Arts + Culture Night was full of barbecue, comedy, spoken word, visual art, and lots of dancing.
Members lead an interactive strategy-to-action session in service of racial equity.
Attendees gather to share powerful and intimate stories about cross-racial solidarity during our Story Slam, fostering deeper connections and understanding.
Connect + Reflect Through the Years
Each year is a celebration of the depth of our connections and the strength of our community. And with every gathering, our power grows.
2024 Connect + Reflect: Planting the Seeds of Power Building
June 2024
Tacoma, Washington
2024’s Connect + Reflect gathered us on the ancestral land of the Coast Salish: the Duwamish, Suquamish, Stillaguamish, and Muckleshoot people. We centered donors of color and their desire to drive systemic change, providing a space to connect with values-aligned peers and shape their giving strategies to make the biggest impact.
Speakers
Mele Miller
Margaret Huang
Maxim Thorne
Imari Jones
Isabel Wilkerson
2023 Connect + Reflect: Radical Resources
April 2023
Atlanta, Georgia
The third Connect + Reflect brought our community together in Atlanta, GA—the Blackest city in America. We grounded together at an epicenter for civil rights and Black history to deepen the solidarity within our community, expand our strategy for racial justice, and uplift the lived experiences of our cross-racial community.
Speakers
ALOK
Ibram X. Kendi
Monica Simpson
2022 Connect + Reflect: Returning to the Birthplace of DOCN
April 2022
Santa Ana Pueblo, New Mexico
The 2022 Connect + Reflect rooted our community in a shared mission to build the collective power of people of color to drive systems change and advance racial equity. We reconnected in DOCN’s birthplace after two years of being separated to organize around a shared analysis and strategy for racial justice.
Speakers
Nikole Hannah Jones
Angela Davis
Mari Copeny
Urvashi Vaid
2019 Connect + Reflect: Inaugural Gathering
February 2019
Santa Ana Pueblo, New Mexico
This inaugural gathering represented the seed of DOCN’s mission being planted among our early members. What was originally envisioned as a simple meeting of the minds became hallmark programming and a sought-after gathering space within philanthropy.
by invitation only
Connect + Reflect is an invite-only retreat for people who share these three traits.
Identify as Black, Indigenous, or as a person of color.
Possess a deep desire to advance racial equity and racial justice.
Have the capacity to give at least $50,000 annually personally, or have the authority at your organization to move at least $50,000.
If this describes you, we hope to see you at the next Connect + Reflect.
Are you ready to build powers alongside values-aligned donors and racial justice leaders?
Join us at the next Connect + Reflect.