Open Road Fund FAQs
Open Road Fund Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
This year, the Open Road Fund will accept applications starting on June 19, 2025 at 9:00 AM CDT. The application will close on July 21, 2025 at 11:59 PM CDT. Sign up for our e-newsletter to receive updates, or follow along on Instagram, Facebook, or LinkedIn.
Yes, but you will still need to submit a new application. We allow applicants to reuse their responses from previous years, especially the long answer questions about ancestry and wealth building. But you will always need to submit a new application to us each year that the fund is open.
If you would like a copy of your most recent Open Road Fund application, you can request that by contacting us at ORFsupport@nexuscp.org. We will email your most recent application to you as a PDF.
No, Nexus Community Partners will not publicly name all gift recipients. People receiving funds from us may choose to share their status as a finalist if they wish. After the gift distribution process is completed, recipients can opt in to allow Nexus to share their names. Out of a duty to care for and to protect the privacy of all grantees, especially those under 18, we are not requiring that their names be made public.
What we will share each year is a report on applicant and recipient demographics and lessons learned from them. If and when Open Road Fund gift recipients decide that they do want to share their stories, we will publish articles and videos about them through our website and social media channels.
Over the next six years (until 2031), the Open Road Fund will give $50,000 gifts to at least 600 Black residents of Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota.
We are only able to accept electronic applications at this time. We are thrilled to be receiving thousands of applications. However, given this high volume of interest, we are unable to review paper applications. We understand that this is a real barrier for eligible applicants. We encourage people to ask for support from their communities, and we hope to add capacity in future years.
Applicants for the Open Road Fund must be at least 14 years of age. They must be residents of Minnesota, North Dakota or South Dakota. And applicants must be a descendant of the Transatlantic slave trade, including the Caribbean, North, Central, and South America.
When applicants are selected for a gift from the fund, we will verify their identity using a background checking tool. This tool may or may not provide information that verifies an applicant’s lineage as a descendant of enslaved Africans. We are not expecting ORF applicants “prove” their lineage to us. For many of us, due to the violence of enslavement and its aftermath, we cannot identify a specific enslaved ancestor. Instead, what we hold is a deep connection and generations of relationship to Black communities formed during the Maafa, which is a culturally meaningful name for the Great Tragedy of African Enslavement in the Americas. We use Maafa to refer to the historic kidnapping of our ancestors. It is also known by terms such as the Middle Passage, The Transatlantic Slave Trade, or Negro Enslavement. At times we use Maafa instead of these terms because it decolonizes the ways we think about chattel enslavement by centering its impact on our people, not the status of enslavement forced upon us by violence.
What’s important to us is protecting these funds from ineligible applicants who falsely identify as a descendant of enslaved Africans or residents of Minnesota and the Dakotas. We will focus our energy on thoroughly investigating any applicants who give us reason to suspect they are ineligible and have falsified their application information.
The Open Road Fund is open to applicants who are at least 14 years of age, and residents of Minnesota, North Dakota or South Dakota. And applicants must be descendants of the Transatlantic slave trade, including the Caribbean, North, Central, and South America. We are not expecting ORF applicants to “prove” their lineage to us or to name specific ancestors. For many of us, due to the violence of enslavement and its aftermath, we cannot identify a specific enslaved ancestors. Instead, what we hold is a deep connection and generations of relationship to Black communities formed during the Maafa (also known as the Transatlantic Slave Trade).
We will verify the identities of applicants selected to receive gifts using a background checking tool. This tool may or may not provide information that verifies an applicant’s lineage as a descendant of enslaved Africans. What’s important to us is protecting these funds from ineligible applicants who falsely identify as a descendant of enslaved Africans or residents of Minnesota and the Dakotas. We will focus our energy on thoroughly investigating any applicants who give us reason to suspect they are ineligible and have falsified their application information.
The Open Road Fund is for descendants of the Transatlantic slave trade, including the Caribbean, North, Central, and South America. We designed this fund specifically to address the intergenerational impacts of slavery on our people. We refer to Black people’s collective experience of enslavement and oppression in the Americas as the Maafa. We made the decision to focus on descendants of the Maafa because over the 500 years of disaster our people have experienced, we have received little relief or restitution.
You may notice that we use words and concepts from continental Africa, even though the fund is not open to African Immigrants. We do this as a way to reconnect with our ancestry and with the languages our ancestors spoke before enslavement destroyed that connection. It can seem like cultural appropriation, but for us, it’s a way we ground in our lineages and attempt to heal.
We understand that people are frustrated that African immigrants are not eligible for the Open Road Fund–that is valid. African immigrants are our kinfolk. For us, Pan-Africanism is not about erasing differences between African people, it is about Africans banding together to support one another’s liberation as a unified and diverse community. The ongoing impacts of the Maafa is what makes the Open Road Fund’s focus on Black descendants of the enslaved necessary–it is a rare opportunity to stabilize families who share our particular lineage. While we are distributing nearly $40 Million in gifts, this is not a significant enough amount of funding to truly address the full scale of suffering people of African roots have endured. We can only achieve that by continuing to work together as a people. As we are able we will share grant opportunities for African immigrant communities. Nexus also frequently hosts opportunities that are open to all BIPOC communities. We also welcome invitations to collaborate on projects to secure more funding for all African people in the region.
The Open Road Fund will use a random selection process to select finalists. Our team and community members will review your registration application. If your application is eligible, your name will be entered into the selection process. We will use a computer program to select 100 people for a gift. After finalists are selected, we will verify their identity and they will be invited to submit their wealth building plans. Finalists will also need to submit two letters of support from Black community members, Our committee will review all wealth building plans and letters of support. Once finalists’ application materials are approved we will move into gift disbursement.
Yes, individual Black business owners will be able to apply on behalf of their businesses. You may only apply to the fund once: you cannot apply for both yourself AND your business. The Open Road Fund’s resources can be used for several wealth-building projects, including housing, education, financial well-being, healing, and economic justice—and we encourage all applicants to identify the area of focus that best suits their path to building Black wealth. The focus here is only building wealth for Black people, households, and communities.
No, nonprofit organizations cannot apply. In addition, projects to establish nonprofit organizations will not be considered for a gift. The Open Road Fund goes directly to Black individuals and families to build wealth. We prioritize funding projects that directly contribute to improving impact the lives of Black folks who still face barriers to buying homes, starting businesses, saving for their future, and so much more. We encourage members of our community who have prioritized helping those around them to take advantage of this opportunity to refill their cup, and build a base of financial stability so that their work in community can grow.
Yes. You may apply as a group of 2 to 5 people. In order to build Black wealth that endures, we encourage folks to apply together to work on a wealth building project that could potentially increase the impact of an Open Road Gift in ways that benefit Black communities in the region.
Yes. These resources can be used for several wealth-building projects, including housing, education, financial well-being, healing, and economic justice—and we encourage all applicants to identify the area of focus that best suits their path to building Black wealth.
No. You may apply every year the Open Road Fund is in operation until you are selected for a gift. If you receive a gift from our Fund, you may not apply again. The Open Road Fund application process will open on or around Juneteenth of every year until 2031.
Yes! Applicants may only receive one grant from the Open Road Fund. Because we expect an abundance of applicants, you might not be selected in the first year. However, you are welcome to reapply in the spring of 2025, or until you receive a grant from the Open Road Fund.
No. There are no income caps or minimums in order to apply for the Open Road Fund.
Building Black wealth allows us to forge paths toward liberation on our terms. It’s the key to rebuilding our communities and reclaiming our right to self-determination. When we have access to an abundance of resources, we can foster collective healing, safety, care, and mutual aid.
No. The Open Road Fund is not reparations. The fund’s resources aren’t enough to correct all the harm done to the Black community over the last 400 years. However, it is a step in the right direction towards cultivating wealth and prosperity.
Since 2022, we’ve worked with a dynamic group of local community members who made up our advisory committee, and who were responsible for designing what has become the Open Road Fund. Nexus staff and advisory committee members hosted information sessions with Black community members in Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota to hear their thoughts on how these resources should be distributed.
The Open Road Fund is a community fund for Black descendants of the Transatlantic Slave Trade in Minnesota and the Dakotas. NDN Collective’s Collective Abundance Fund is for Indigenous people residing within Minnesota and the Dakotas. Both Nexus’ Open Road Fund and NDN Collective’s Collective Abundance fund were resourced by the Bush Foundation as part of an effort to close racial wealth gaps between white communities and Indigenous and Black communities.
