ABOUT DENNIS MAURICE
“I have travelled through education, social justice, arts, religious, CDFI, and transportation industries with one mission: To be a lighting rod for equitable & inclusive community development...
If I do this right, my life will be washed in the light I shine.”
- Dennis Maurice
Dennis Maurice Dumpson is an author, thought leader, strategic consultant, and racial equity practitioner. He is Founder and Principal Consultant of #InvestBLK, a boutique racial equity & strategic planning consulting firm specializing in strategy development, training, and coaching for nonprofits and leaders. Prior to #InvestBLK, Dennis served as a Diversity Teaching Fellow & Lecturer with Community College of Philadelphia.
Previously, he served as the first Director of Community Engagement & Outreach at the Philadelphia International Airport; Managing Director of Development & External Impact at KIPP Philadelphia Schools; and Vice President of Development at Opportunity Finance Network. He has also served in a variety of multi-disciplinary consulting roles for organizations including the Philadelphia Museum of Art, La Salle University, Lincoln University, Montgomery Child Advocacy Project, CORA Services, and KIPP Philadelphia Schools.
As a thought leader, Dennis has been consulted and published widely on the topics of racial equity, justice, and anti-Blackness, including articles in the Washington Post, Socialist Worker, CBS Money as well as his books: What My Colored Eyes See (2009) and Black Washed: A Collection of Essays, Poems, Dreams, and Letters Addressed to Black Folk (2021). He will soon release his forthcoming book Other Side of Soil: A Manifest on Black Life before Hashtags (Very Black Books, 2022). Previously, he served on the Board of Directors for the Greater Philadelphia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, YMCA — Columbia North, and Arch Street Preschool.
Dennis holds a BA in Philosophy (concentration in English Literature) from Lincoln University of Pennsylvania. He also holds an MBA in Global Finance with executive fellowship & residency in Santiago, Chile and São Paulo, Brazil from Saint Joseph’s University and is a doctoral student of the PhD in Education for Social Justice program at the University of San Diego.
Previously, he served as the first Director of Community Engagement & Outreach at the Philadelphia International Airport; Managing Director of Development & External Impact at KIPP Philadelphia Schools; and Vice President of Development at Opportunity Finance Network. He has also served in a variety of multi-disciplinary consulting roles for organizations including the Philadelphia Museum of Art, La Salle University, Lincoln University, Montgomery Child Advocacy Project, CORA Services, and KIPP Philadelphia Schools.
As a thought leader, Dennis has been consulted and published widely on the topics of racial equity, justice, and anti-Blackness, including articles in the Washington Post, Socialist Worker, CBS Money as well as his books: What My Colored Eyes See (2009) and Black Washed: A Collection of Essays, Poems, Dreams, and Letters Addressed to Black Folk (2021). He will soon release his forthcoming book Other Side of Soil: A Manifest on Black Life before Hashtags (Very Black Books, 2022). Previously, he served on the Board of Directors for the Greater Philadelphia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, YMCA — Columbia North, and Arch Street Preschool.
Dennis holds a BA in Philosophy (concentration in English Literature) from Lincoln University of Pennsylvania. He also holds an MBA in Global Finance with executive fellowship & residency in Santiago, Chile and São Paulo, Brazil from Saint Joseph’s University and is a doctoral student of the PhD in Education for Social Justice program at the University of San Diego.
“We must get to the other side of inequity in this life and I hope my work is one of the bridges that gets us closer to freedom, justice, equity, and honesty.”
-Dennis Maurice
PORTFOLIO
Throughout my career I have raised $38MM in capital and developed programming and initiatives that support the sustainability, transformation, and racial & social equity of communities across the country. My work as a fundraiser has led to significant partnership development and has always been driven toward ensuring that communities are valuable partners, not just recipients of good will. My contribution has been and continues to be driven by an defining an equitable narrative for communities with unmet needs.
Developed the funded concept for the Opportunity Fellows Program at Opportunity Finance Network in partnership with BBVA Compass. This program convened diverse leaders in the CDFI industry to learn about facilitating and leading systemic change (i.e., change in practices, norms and values).
Initiated Opportunity Finance Network’s partnership with the W.K. Kellogg Foundation’s Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation (TRHT) initiative to shape their work providing capacity to organizations dedicated to racial equity.
Secured $50,000 in funding from Sanofi-Aventis to support 30 youth (96% people of color) to be trained as community mappers and diabetes awareness educators. The high school and college students were paid a livable wage to develop programming to educate Promise Zone communities in Philadelphia (particularly the Frankford section of the city that, at that time, had the nation’s 2nd highest poverty rate). They also worked with a community health agency to test more than 140 people for diabetes, in a community that is 64% Black and Hispanic and 28% White, which acknowledges disparity. They took all this information and presented it to Philadelphia’s City Council to shift their work toward policy changes.
Developed the Roots Matter Campaign to build insight and community with LatinX artists in Philadelphia.
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Developed a hiring strategy to recruit applicants for temporary employment and internships from underrepresented communities at the Philadelphia International Airport. This hiring program included building relationships with HBCUs, Hispanic Serving Institutions, nonprofits that serve economically disinvested neighborhoods, and community colleges, which led to increasing the hiring of BIPOC communities by more than twenty-five percent. Moreover, these opportunities, while entry level, were assigned a livable wage of $12.20 per hour. This was valuable because traditionally interns are predominantly white and Asian, from Ivy League or top-tier schools, and/or hand picked by members of council, which excludes large populations of students from underrepresented communities. Moreover, we searched intentionally for graduate students from a larger community’s catchment.
I am a published author centering my writing on Black lives, the construct of race, gender and sexuality, community, and spiritual health. My latest book, Black Washed, is a collection of essays, poems, dreams, and letters addressed to black folks, which will be released this year. My first book, What My Colored Eyes See, was released in 2009 and is available through most online retailers.
Produced & Directed an episodic documentary about the life of a Black woman who lost her job and love for dance.
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