Opinion | The Minnesota Business Coalition for Racial Equity is sunsetting. Our work is not.

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In 2020, following the murder of George Floyd, more than 80 companies across Minnesota came together to establish the Minnesota Business Coalition for Racial Equity (MBCRE).

The coalition was founded under the leadership of James Momon, a Minnesota-based equity and inclusion leader, with a shared commitment to advancing a new and courageous approach to racial equity in the business community. From its inception, the MBCRE set out to confront the deep inequities that have long shaped the lives of Black Minnesotans.

Over the past five years, the MBCRE’s members, as business leaders, have aligned to take collective action against the racial disparities embedded in our economy and institutions.

Today, the community faces a renewed moment of strain. Access to resources has grown more precarious, public commitments have winnowed and many Black-led initiatives are being asked to do more with less — precisely as the need for trusted, community-rooted responses grows more urgent.

As the MBCRE nears its sunset on Dec. 31, leaders are charged with rebuilding momentum in a significantly changed political landscape.

This endowment is intended to help counter that reality — uplifting the partnerships the MBCRE has built and sustaining initiatives that face challenges and uncertain conditions today. As the Collective carries the work forward, we have the rare vantage point of seeing both the distance the MBCRE has traveled and the road yet ahead.

In the early days of the MBCRE, members held “filter-free Fridays,” confronting uncomfortable truths together. Meeting via Zoom (because the pandemic was still very real), leaders pushed past corporate niceties to challenge one another and examine racial gaps embedded in hiring practices, leadership pipelines, philanthropy and policy. Those conversations were as necessary and transformative as they were difficult.

From there, working with tri-chair colleagues, Reba Dominski and Lee Anderson, we created a long-term strategy anchored in four pillars: workplace, philanthropy, allyship and policy. The four groups met regularly to compare best practices and develop tools for businesses across Minnesota to advance equity in practical, measurable ways.

Now, as this valued MBCRE era draws to a close, there is deep humility and gratitude for what the coalition has accomplished and for the member leaders who helped lay the foundation for continuing change.

These achievements were the work of a coalition, and yet the efforts were particularly propelled when Tiffani Daniels, then a brand manager at General Mills, joined as our managing director in fall 2021. Together, the MBCRE achieved a host of tangible outcomes, including:

In its brief five-year existence, the MBCRE taught us lessons that will live on:

We close this chapter with gratitude — to the founders who had the courage to act, the partners who showed up month after month, and the leadership and communications team who fueled the coalition’s day-to-day work. The greatest thanks go to the community itself, which held the coalition accountable.

In the coming months and years, we ask business leaders across the state to continue supporting this important work by investing in the Black Collective MN and the Black Economic Prosperity Endowment.

The MBCRE’s legacy will live on, and with continued collective action, Minnesota can become the state it aspires to be — one where health, wealth and opportunity are shared by all.