Kindred Motes grew up in Somerville, not knowing where he wanted to end up or how he was going to get there. One parent delivered letters for the United States Postal Service and the other worked on an assembly line. They had not graduated from college — and neither had anyone else in his family.
With support and mentorship from those in his community, Motes went on to graduate from Birmingham Southern College, work in communications for numerous high-profile philanthropy organizations and eventually start his own consulting firm.
Now, as KM Strategies Group celebrates its one-year anniversary, Motes wants to give back to the place that raised him.
He and his team will present one organization in the Deep South that is addressing “critical equity and justice issues” with the first Social Impact Award this summer. The winner will receive a $30,000 general operating grant given as a cash donation and $15,000 of pro bono consulting from KM Strategies.
“The South and southern movements are not foregone conclusions; they are just underinvested in,” Motes said. “That, to me, was the driving impetus: both to honor the legacy of all the people who have done incredible movement work over time here, but also just to reinvest in the same communities that invested so much in me.”
Some of the issues that Motes hopes applicants focus on include ending extreme poverty, striving for economic justice, providing essential services to rural areas and advocating for human rights.
“It doesn’t just have to be organizing or advocacy, some people are leading human rights advocacy by art, or by film or by literature,” he said. “We wanted to really try and be as supportive as we could to a number of different organizations, but we didn’t want it to be so broad as to be impossible for organizations to determine whether they qualified.”
To be considered, KM Strategies Group requests that applicants be from organizations that have annual operating budgets of less than $5 million and operate in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee or West Virginia.
Historically, these states have received far fewer philanthropic investments than the rest of the country. Foundations nationwide invested 56 cents per person in the South for every dollar per person they invested nationally between 2011 and 2015, according to a report from the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy.
“Intentionally or unintentionally, it’s very misguided,” Motes said. “A lot of the social causes and the needs that exist are highest in the Deep South and in Appalachia. It’s where 56% of Black Americans live. It’s where more than six and 10 of LGBTQ Americans live.”
Understanding the need for Southern investment himself, Motes felt a strong sense of guilt for having left the region in the years that followed his departure. He knew pursuing his career outside of Alabama was best for him, but he couldn’t — and didn’t want to — shake the memory of the people he left behind.
Even in conversations with human rights advocates and philanthropists, Motes remembers hearing people talk about the South in a derogatory way, dismissing its efforts for positive change.
“Too often, I think I didn’t say anything,” he said. “Over time, I realized that it wasn’t enough to just remember where you come from. You have to actually bring it to where you are, and invest in it and pay things forward that you got from there.”
With his firm’s philanthropic ventures, he’s hoping to do just that.
Applications for the Social Impact Award opened May 10 and will close on June 30. KM Strategies Group will announce the winner in August after a team of representatives from organizations including the ACLU of Alabama, Global Citizen, The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, The Asian American Foundation and The Tow Foundation reach a decision.
To apply, visit kmstrategiesgroup.com/impact.
Hadley Hitson covers the rural South for the Montgomery Advertiser and Report for America. She can be reached at hhitson@gannett.com.