Most people celebrate America on July 4th. We are inviting you to help build it on July 5th.

On July 4th, 1852, Frederick Douglass was invited to celebrate American freedom and independence.

He delivered his speech on July 5th.

On purpose.

The promise of America had not yet been extended to people who looked like him. So he asked a question that still echoes:

What, to those not yet free, is your Fourth of July?

America is turning 250.

That question is still being answered.

And right now, the progress we have made toward answering it is being quietly walked back.

There is something you can do.

What your gift helps scale

Sister Cities Project has already built the foundation:

38+ EcoExchange gatherings bringing people across racial, geographic, and economic lines into real conversation.
400+ participants engaged through dialogue, listening, and community-building.
140+ Black women entrepreneurs connected through EcoHub.
150+ youth trained through Shawn McClondon’s earlier workforce development model.
A growing system connecting relationships to entrepreneurship, youth opportunity, school equity, and measurable action.

Now we are ready to grow.

Help us raise $300,000 by October 2 to fund the next major phase of SCP’s work.

The problem beneath the problem

Black and white Americans often live in the same cities — sometimes only twenty minutes apart — in completely different worlds.

Not because of cruelty.

Because of distance.

And you cannot solve a relationship problem from a distance.

That is the insight at the heart of Sister Cities Project.

How it started

In 2020, after the murder of George Floyd, Shawn McClondon — a Black man living in Solana Beach, one of San Diego’s wealthiest coastal communities — posted a simple message on Facebook:

“If anyone wants to get to know someone who’s Black — talk, ask questions, even become friends — here’s my number.”

His calendar filled for three weeks.

What he found was not only cruelty.

It was distance.

People who genuinely wanted to understand had never been given the space, the structure, or the invitation to try.

That realization became Sister Cities Project.

What Sister Cities Project does

Sister Cities Project closes the distance between resource-rich and historically underserved communities — and turns proximity into understanding, partnership, opportunity, funding, and advocacy.

We do this through four connected parts of our ecosystem:

(Eco)Exchange™ — Where understanding begins
Structured, facilitated conversations that bring people across racial and geographic lines into the same room. Not to debate. Not to perform. To listen, to witness, and to leave different than they arrived.

(Eco)Hub™ — Where Black women entrepreneurs grow
Black women are among the fastest-growing groups of entrepreneurs in America — and among the most under-resourced. EcoHub surrounds them with mentorship, shared services, visibility, and real networks.

(Eco)Agency™ — Where young people find their future
Paid, meaningful work for Black youth and young adults, connected to mentors, businesses, and career pathways that help them build skills while staying rooted in their own communities.

Equitable Schools Fund™ — Where equity starts
Coastal San Diego schools can raise hundreds of thousands in private dollars every year. Twenty minutes away, some schools have no PTA, no foundation, and no access to that same pipeline. Same city. Same public system. Completely different realities. We are building the bridge.

Why now

When formal structures of equity are stripped away, what remains is what Sister Cities Project has been building all along:

People who know each other well enough to refuse to let each other fail.

Relationship outlasts policy.

Community outlasts administration.

Understanding, once built, does not unravel easily.

This is one of the most powerful ways to mark 250 years of America:

Close the distance between yourself and someone whose America has looked different from yours.

Not to fix anyone.

Not to save anyone.

But to finally, genuinely, meet each other — and build something together that neither could build alone.

Your gift helps us build the next three years

We are raising $300,000 to grow Sister Cities Project from a powerful San Diego model into a scalable movement for understanding, equity, and shared prosperity.

Your gift helps us create more rooms where people cross the distance, more opportunities for Black entrepreneurs, more paid pathways for young people, more school equity, and more active partners who move from goodwill to action.

Frederick Douglass spoke on July 5th because July 4th did not yet fully belong to him.

We are doing this work so that one day, it belongs to all of us.

Choose July 5th. Help us close the distance.

Sister Cities Project is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. All contributions are tax-deductible as allowed by law.

The Day After: A July 5th Campaign to Finish the Promise

Most people celebrate America on July 4th. We are inviting you to help build it on July 5th.

Campaign Ambassadors