In July, Nexus Founder & CEO Repa Mekha headed to the North Shore for the Minnesota Council on Foundations (MCF)’s inaugural Ubuntu Leadership Summit. The two-day gathering brought together BIPOC and LGBTQ+ philanthropic leaders to connect, reflect, and root in ubuntu, which means, “I am (only) because we are.”
“Ubuntu is an ancient Southern African philosophy about how to live life well, together. The concept is found in almost all African Bantu languages, rooted in the word ‘bantu’—meaning ‘people.’
It is best captured by the proverb ‘Umuntu, ngumuntu, ngabantu’—a person is a person through other persons. … Ubuntu tells us we are bound together by our shared humanity. It encompasses everyone, regardless of race, creed, or color. It embraces our differences and celebrates them. Ubuntu is not simply a way of behaving—it is a way of being.” [Minnesota Council on Foundations]
The summit was also an opportunity to celebrate MCF’s 2026 Ubuntu Leadership Award winners, including Nexus’ Repa Mekha, McKnight Foundation’s Kayrn Sciortino, Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies’ Ted Chen, and organizational honorees Blandin Foundation, Women’s Foundation of Minnesota, and Headwaters Foundation for Justice. (Pictured below from left to right.)
“What makes these honorees extraordinary is not simply what they have accomplished. It is as much about who they are. How they lead. With humility, with courage, and with a deep belief that we are community-made. Their leadership reflects the very best of what ubuntu asks of us: to show up for one another as whole humans and to build cultures where everyone belongs, especially when it is hardest to do so. We are better because they are among us.” [Awale Osman, MCF Director of Organizational Learning and Leadership Development for Equity and Belonging]
Repa shared, “I embrace Ubuntu as a guiding principle that holds me responsible for how I live life. This award serves as a reminder that the gifts that are channeled through me have always belonged to more than me. I receive it with a deep sense of collective courage, pride, and dignity. I am because we are! May the Ancestors be pleased.”
The summit also featured a fireside chat between Repa, Kayrn, and Ted. The three discussed their paths to leadership and what everyday ubuntu looks like—through relationship, through community, and through showing up for the people around them.
Photos by Atomickphotography.