The WildSeed Wellness Coop presents

Sustaining Leaders 
In Philanthropy 


with Erika Totten and Aaron Goggans

Reserve Your Spot >>

Resource Yourself
So You Can Better
Resource Our Movements

For Black Women in Philanthropy

For Everyone in Philanthropy

 

Sustaining Leaders In Philanthropy (SLIP) is a 8-month leadership development program that supports cohort of program officers and executives in philanthropy to be equipped to meet the challenges and opportunities of this political moment. It runs from mid-May to mid-December 2025. 

Through ongoing community healing, peer support, one-on-one liberatory coaching, and collaborative strategizing spaces, SLIP provides you with the space to reflect, reset, and lead with clarity and confidence. 

We believe it's important to both honor the unique experiences different groups of people in philanthropy have while also bringing together people across different lines for sector-wide collaboration and reform from within.

So the community healing and peer support will occur in three different Caucus Spaces - with Erika Totten facilitating the space for 1) Black women and the space for 2) BIPOC folks, and with Aaron Goggans facilitating the space for 3) white participants. The Collaboration Spaces will bring together all participants for collective visioning and planning. 

If you want to learn more, please sign up for the Interest Meetings below.

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Why This Program

This program was initially created a couple years ago in response to the unique challenges Black women in philanthropy face — balancing the demands of their roles while maintaining boundaries and finding space to rest and recharge. 

And now, in this current political moment, our communities and movements are under even more explicit attacks - and so is philanthropy for supporting those targeted. Everyone, including philanthropy, needs the support of an organized philanthropy more than ever to protect and resource ourselves in the face of these very real threats. 

We know that effective leadership requires sustainability, and as philanthropy is faced with new threats and challenges, it’s clear that this kind of support is needed across the sector. 

Everyone doing this work deserves a space to replenish, reflect, and strengthen their ability to lead with clarity and impact. 

Given this political moment, we all need to fortify ourselves — understand why we are still in these positions and what our commitments to ourselves and our communities are. 

So we can serve movements through more strategic, effective, and sustainable philanthropy.

Who This Is For

This is for you - if you work in philanthropy and:

  • Are feeling overwhelmed and need a place to rest and resource yourself 

  • Want help navigating healthy boundaries while facing seemingly endless calls to give from an empty cup

  • Want to say the truth of what you’re experiencing in philanthropy without fear or judgement and have it be received with understanding and compassion

  • Need to emotionally process what’s coming up for you and release what’s not yours and doesn’t serve you

  • Want to strategize with other values-aligned people in philanthropy in how to keep our communities safe and supported so you don’t feel like you’re alone in this fight

  • Want to create a purpose centered, movement focused vehicle to help transform philanthropy from within. 

Your role in philanthropy is even more important now than ever, because you:

  • Are the frontline of resourcing the critical work and infrastructure that’s necessary to make society work for everyone 
  • Understand how easy it is for under-resourced and marginalized communities to slip through institutional cracks
  • Are constantly navigating the tension between transformative change and the constraints of philanthropic institutions that often uphold the very systems you seek to dismantle

Cultivating our wellness together is a form of collective action. 

Please join us. 

What You Will Get

  • Learn a liberatory framework and practice tools for emotional wellness and liberation in a caring community
  • Collaboratively identify the root cause or pillars causing shared pain points within philanthropy
  • Collectively vision how we can shift the conditions and our roles within philanthropy for greater impact
  • Identify the obstacles with others to making these needed shifts and develop strategies to overcome them together
  • Get one-on-one liberatory coaching on how to implement those strategies in your unique position

How The Program Works


In this 8-month program from May - December 2025, you will participate in:

  • 8 Monthly Caucus Spaces for community healing to process stress, learn tools for emotional wellness and the practice of liberation - for 1) Black women and 2) BIPOC, facilitated by Erika Totten and for 3) white participants, facilitated by Aaron Goggans
  • 4 Collaboration Spaces for all participants, facilitated by both Erika and Aaron
  • One Individual Liberatory Coaching Session with Erika or Aaron
  • Light Community Connection and Support between live sessions via a group chat

Live Virtual Sessions

The program is designed to be primarily engaged through monthly live virtual sessions. This supports the participants in the Caucus Spaces with getting the most benefit from the program by regularly practicing tools for emotional wellness and liberation - with the live skillful guidance by Erika and Aaron and in the presence of a supportive community. Only the Collaborative Spaces will be recorded for future reference.

The Caucus Spaces are held on the following days of the indicated week:

  • For Black Women: Wednesday's at 7 - 9 pm ET / 4 - 6 pm PT
  • For BIPOC: Thursday's at 7 - 9 pm ET / 4 - 6 pm PT (or 1 - 3 pm ET / 10 am - noon PT, depending on feedback at the Interest Meeting)
  • For White Participants: Tuesday's at 7 - 9 pm ET / 4 - 6 pm PT

The Collaboration Space is held on Wednesday's at 7 - 9 pm ET / 4 - 6 pm PT.

Schedule

  • Week of May 19-23th: Caucus Space - Identifying the Challenges We Face 
  • Week of Jun 23-27th:  Caucus Space - Introduction to the Liberatory Framework
  • Week of Jul 14-18th: Caucus Space - Identifying the Lies We Tell Ourselves At Work and Their Root Causes 
  • Wed, Jul 30th: Collaboration Space - Looking at Philanthropy as a System from All of Our Perspectives 
  • Week of Aug 11-15th: Caucus Space - Establishing Our Liberating Truth
  • Wed, Aug 27th: Collaboration Space - A Collective Vision of Shift in Philanthropy
  • Week of Sept 8-12th: Caucus Space - Practicing the Framework and Peer Support
  • Wed, Oct 8th: Collaboration Space - Devising A Shared Strategy for Philanthropy
  • Week of Oct 20-24th: Caucus Space - Identifying Your Role + Aligning Your Work Within Shared Strategy
  • Wed, Oct 29th:  Collaboration Space - Moving Forward Together
  • Week of Nov 10-14th: Caucus Space - Integration and Practice 
  • Week of Dec 8-12th: Caucus Space - Closing 

Testimonials from
Past Program Participants


"I have done executive coaching and group coaching before, but it was nothing like this. Erika made me feel seen. She moved at the pace of our group and our conversations and modeled and reinforced healing practices. My 1:1 coaching session with her was transformative.

I have been telling people in my circles, "Healing does not need to take long. That is a lie!" Erika truly helped me liberate my own thinking and being, and I am so grateful."

- Jenny W.

 

Testimonials from
Past Program Participants


"When I started this program, I didn't think I could stay in philanthropy.

Now I feel like better equipped to stay for much longer!"

- V. Davis

Testimonials from Past Program Participants


"Erika is honest, caring, loving, and patient and it showed in each session. The tools she gave are helpful for everyday use! Loved having an accountability partner and how Erika held us accountable to our own healing!"

- Monique J.

Testimonials from
Past Program Participants


"The key practices I'm taking away from this program is being able to identify and confront the lies that are told about me as a Black woman and that I tell myself; understand the root of the lies helps me to release them (all tied to white supremacist, capitalistic, patriarchal ideology, norms, and practices); and replace the lies with the truth of who I am individually, as a Black women, a leader, and in community with others."

- Safi J.

Meet the Facilitators

Erika Totten 

Erika is a Co-Creator of the WildSeed Wellness Coop and the Minister of Embodied Liberation, Pleasure + Joy at the WildSeed Society. She’s a spiritual life coach and facilitator and on the Leadership Council of Harriet's Apothecary Healer's Collective. She’s also a Co-Creator of Black Lives Matter: DC where she focused on centering healing and visioning within the Black liberation movement. Erika has 20+ years of creating and facilitating healing spaces all across the world for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color of all identities to process racial stress and trauma, and to experience embodied liberation, pleasure & collective Joy, in the midst of dismantling systems of oppression.

Aaron Goggans

Aaron is a Co-Creator and Steward of the WildSeed Wellness Coop and the WildSeed Society. He is an organizer, writer, activist, facilitator and coach. He is also a Co-Creator of Black Lives Matter: DC where he focused on building movement infrastructure and developing movement strategy. Aaron has 15 years of experience facilitating people creating a vision for a better world and organizing to transform our current world to be in alignment with that vision.

Frequently Asked Questions

Past Funder Clients of Erika and Aaron 

Program Investment

Please choose the program registration rate along the sliding scale below based on the category that best describes your organization.

Funders with Grantmaking Budgets of:

If you'd like to personally pay out-of-pocket as an individual, please email us at [email protected] to learn how. 

Please know that your investment in SLIP not only covers your own healing and strategizing work, but also subsidizes WildSeed Society’s more radical work that's difficult to get funding for. This includes crisis care for frontline organizers, mutual aid for communities, and financing organizing for federal government and tech workers. 

Together, we can both respond to the crises of our current times - while also shaping a more liberating future for the next generation.