What Our Praxis Lab Is
The Praxis Lab is Melanate.’s research and experimentation space — where fundraising practice, narrative strategy, and movement needs meet in real time.
Grounded in Black women’s leadership and designed for the broader field, the Lab strengthens equitable, values-aligned institutions. We focus on rewriting the root narratives of resource work, building technical skill alongside collective wellbeing, and ensuring movement infrastructure is durable enough to hold power across generations.
Rather than offering quick fixes or one-size solutions, we focus on what movements need to endure: aligned leadership, shared language, and institutions and ecosystems capable of holding power without collapse. Through the Lab, we translate movement values into institutional practice.
Designed For
Praxis Lab is built for those committed to moving resources with integrity, rigor, and a deep sense of historical responsibility. We bridge the gap between technical skill and movement wisdom for a more liberated economic future.
Resource
Stewards
Fundraisers, program officers, and others who steward capital—those working to align practice with movement strategy.
Narrative Strategists
Communicators and cultural workers rewriting the language of wealth, power, and community accountability at their roots.
Institutional Leaders
Executives and board members building durable, values-aligned architecture to ensure movement stability and endurance.
Infrastructure Builders
Practitioners creating the relational and strategic systems that hold collective memory and stabilize how wealth moves over time.
Field Partners
Funders and community architects looking to deepen their impact through intergenerational exchange and collective care.
What Happens Inside the Lab
01 / NARRATIVE
Critical De-Linking
Examining the historical origins of capital to break mental cycles of extraction and accumulation.
02 / PRACTICE
Applied Strategy
Prototyping resource workflows that prioritize community stability over institutional transaction.
03 / RELATIONSHIP
Trust Architecture
Building the relational infrastructure needed to hold power and move capital across networks.
04 / DURABILITY
Field Codification
Translating experimentation into evergreen frameworks for movement-led stewardship.
Customizable Sessions
Praxis Lab engagements are customized in response to institutional context, leadership composition, and capital strategy. Rather than offering a fixed curriculum, we design applied workshops, strategy sessions, and learning series anchored in the themes below—drawn from our field research, leadership cohorts, and advisory experience across movements and philanthropy.
Foundations of
Resource Strategy
An applied exploration of wealth work as movement infrastructure—mapping how capital has historically moved and how strategic stewardship strengthens long-term economic durabilit
Leadership Pipelines
& Institutional Influence
Designing and strengthening leadership pathways that expand decision-making power, stabilize institutions, and support durable resource strategy across generations.
Narrative Power
& Cultural Strategy
Reframing dominant narratives around wealth, belonging, and responsibility—shifting culture from extraction and urgency toward stewardship and long-term accountability.
Institutional Stability
& Ecosystem Durability
Strengthening governance, accountability structures, and internal systems to ensure capital deployment aligns with values and sustains movement infrastructure over time.
How Praxis Lab Engagements Work
01. Inquiry & Alignment
We begin with a shared assessment of movement needs and organizational readiness to ensure values-aligned collaboration.
-
Executive Advising
For leaders aligning strategy, governance, and capital flow.
-
Customized Workshop Series
Designed around your team’s real challenges and goals.
-
Cohort-Based Immersions
Multi-organization learning experiences focused on shared transformation.
-
Field Strategy Design
Support for networks and coalitions building long-term infrastructure.
Engagement Formats
02. Strategic Scoping
Designing a bespoke engagement model that integrates narrative, practice, and resource strategy.
03. Lab Immersion
Deep-dive sessions into sessions, framework application, and collective strategic exchange.
04. Implementation Support
Active guidance as organizations bridge new frameworks into their day-to-day wealth and fundraising practices.
Inquire About a Partnership →
Please allow 3–5 business days for our leadership team to review your inquiry and respond with potential engagement pathways.
05. Network Integration
Connection to the broader Melanate. ecosystem for sustained learning and intergenerational exchange.