The Fund

The primary goal of the Open Road Fund is to enable Black individuals, their families, and communities across Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota to build community and intergenerational wealth.

The Open Road Fund is a unique giftgiving program designed for individuals and groups of individuals. Nonprofit organizations may not apply. Individuals may invest their grant award funds into a business. Gifts from the Open Road Fund may not be used to establish or fund nonprofit organizations.

Submission Limits: You may only submit one application to the Open Road Fund per year. You can either apply as an individual or as a member of a group, but not both. You also may not apply as a member of multiple groups.

Eligibility for the Fund is restricted based on ancestry, geography, and age.

An eligible applicant must be: 1) a Black person who is a descendant of African people who were kidnapped and subjected to chattel enslavement in the Americas; 2) age 14 or older; 3) A resident of Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, or any of the 23 Native nations whose territories are occupied by those states.

To register for the Open Road Fund, applicants must submit Identifying Documents to verify their identity. Access the list of accepted documents here. Previous Open Road Fund Awardees will not be eligible for the Open Road Fund and may not apply again.

Individuals or Groups can apply for the Open Road Fund. Groups can be a collective of two to five people. All members of your group must be eligible for the Open Road Fund in order for the whole group to qualify.

When you apply as a group you MUST work on a single group project together. Each member of the group will receive $50,000 that they will be expected to invest together into their wealth-building project.

This year we will only advance group wealth-building projects focused on Economic Power (example: business or cooperative development, commercial real estate development, or investing) or Housing (example: acquiring or developing multi-family homes your group members will live in). An outcome of group projects should be the creation of both personal wealth and collective benefits to Black communities in the region.

The first person on your group application will be automatically designated as the primary contact for your group. Unlike last year, each of your group members will not need their own individual accounts. You will be able to share the application login with your fellow group members, so that they can fill out their sections on their own. To make things easier, you should also consider planning a day for all group application members to fill out the application together, in person.

If you have any questions about applying as a group please contact our team via email at ORFsupport@nexuscp.org.

The Open Road Fund uses an equitable random selection process to choose applicants for award. We developed a computer program that randomly selects finalists from the pool of eligible applications who have completed registration.

The selection process is observed by Open Road Fund Advisory Members and Nexus Black Staff members. After applicants are selected, their responses are reviewed by our selection committee for eligibility, completeness, and alignment with our funding criteria. Only eligible, complete, and aligned applicants are invited to participate in the second round of our application process. In cases where selected applicants do not advance, withdraw, or otherwise drop out of the process, we select another finalist from the eligible applicant pool using the random selection tool.

This year you will need to include a photo of your ID to apply. We understand that this will present a barrier to some eligible applicants, and we did not make this decision lightly. We want to ensure that all recipients are a part of and connected to our community–and we want to discourage fake applications from hackers and bots.

The Open Road Fund is specifically for Black people descended from African people who survived the Transatlantic Slave Trade, who also currently live in Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota. Requiring IDs is one way we are making sure we are reaching this community.

We will accept a variety of ID types. Types of identification we accept include: State issued ID or Driver’s License, School ID, Tribal ID, U.S. Permanent Resident Cards, and more. To access the full list of documents we accept please click this link.

If you have any questions about ID submission, please contact our team at ORFsupport@nexuscp.org.

When you register, you must use your personal email address. Do not use the same email address for more than one person and do not use an email provided by your employer or another organization, in case you lose access to it. Sharing email addresses can cause errors that prevent your application from being selected. Losing access to your email can prevent us from contacting you with updates, which may result in disqualification.

This year, Open Road Fund finalists that are randomly selected to participate in round two of the application will need to submit two letters of support. The Letters of Support must both come from Black community members. Only one letter of support can be written by a Black family relative.

We want to ensure that all recipients are a part of, connected to, and supporting our communities. The letters should be less than one page, double-spaced. The letter should explain 1) how they know you; 2) why they believe in your wealth building plan; and 3) talk about the ways that you are connected to our shared community.

Only the 100 finalists that are selected to move forward to the second round will be asked to provide the letters of support. You will not need to submit them during registration, but you should think of a few people to write these letters in the event you are selected.

If you have any questions about letters of support, please contact our team at ORFsupport@nexuscp.org.

This year, all finalists will be required to have a bank account and valid mailing address to receive funds. If you do not have one at the time of application, you may still apply. However, if you are selected for an gift, you will need to set up an account before we distribute your gift.

We understand the complexities and barriers that exist in banking for our community, and we did not come to this conclusion enthusiastically. Unfortunately, we learned in 2023 that other types of accounts—like Chime, Venmo, Paypal, and Cashapp—simply are not built to accept gifts this size.

If you are an adult receiving a gift by direct deposit, the bank account will have to be in your name. We cannot deposit the funds into the accounts of family or friends.

If you are under 18, we will need to deposit your gift into a parent or guardian’s account. We can also mail you a check so you can deposit it into your account yourself.

The Open Road Fund can only distribute funds to gift recipients via direct deposit or check. If you have any questions about this or any other part of the application please contact our team via email at ORFsupport@nexuscp.org.