In May of 2019, Matt Prestbury and his wife, Kelly, officially launched The Black Fathers Foundation . The foundation has three main foci:

• Being a FUNDING organization, economically assisting Black men, their families and other organizations that work with them.
• PARTNERING with other organizations to create a resource network for fathers and their families, and to host events for them as well.
• Creating CONTENT, both online and off, that allows Black men to continue to show and tell who they are.

Matt and Kelly’s first actions were to hold three events: an inaugural gala, a “parents’ night out” and a movie screening/panel discussion.  Over one-hundred attendees dined and danced at the gala, which was held in downtown Baltimore and honored six deceased fathers as well as a pioneer in the field of fatherhood, who received the first Foundations of Fatherhood award, and others attended the “Parents’ Night Out” and the screening and discussion of the film, “1982.”

In January of 2020, they kicked off a series of networking mixers to be held at Black-owned establishments known as Happy Hours.  Aside from these events, TBFF has partnered with several organizations in Baltimore City for the following:

• a game night for families
• serving food to the homeless men and women of Baltimore
• a virtual fatherhood conference during Father’s Day weekend
• the selection of micro-grant recipients on Father’s Day
• an annual Family Summit and Pancake Breakfast for the community

The Covid-19 outbreak was a gift and a curse to the team. They began filming content to put on the Black Fathers TV YouTube channel, including Foundation Conversations, an ongoing panel discussion series featuring fathers in different walks of life, as in-person events came to a complete halt. An emergency fund was also established for fathers in need.

However, during all of this, the team discovered they had been dropped by their fiscal sponsor due to no fault of their own, and that was after dealing with other funding hold ups--as many other organizations can attest to--during Covid. The team spent many days and nights figuring out our next steps and is now poised, with more members in place, to tackle the process of gaining independent non-profit status and going full throttle with the work.

Here’s where YOU come in!

Our future involves continuing work in our three areas of focus FUNDING, CONTENT, and PARTNERSHIP. We want to have another Gala, Parent’s Night Out, and so much more…Don’t you?

As always, WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT!

Please consider donating funds to help us further our mission, as we go for nonprofit status and become an independent entity serving fathers across the country! The work cannot go on without YOU!