Vineyard Momentum Unleashed: Our Strategy at Work

When Leverette Weekes built the Momentum Summit in honor of our co-founder, Wenda Weekes Moore, we designed it with a simple idea in mind: gather Minnesota's thought leaders on Martha's Vineyard during Black Philanthropy Month, one of the most important gathering points of the year for Black thought leadership, attracting entrepreneurs, executives, philanthropy, and funders. As a boutique executive communications and coaching firm, we wanted to give our clients more than just a seat at that table during this high-profile week, so we built them an event framework to lead the conversation. This year, our work with the McKnight Foundation shows exactly how that partnership framework with our clients comes to life.

McKnight came to us to help plan a brand activation on the Vineyard during Black Philanthropy Month. As the partnership grew, McKnight saw an opportunity to do even more: they became a Momentum Summit sponsor and, upon recruiting Rashad Robinson (one of the most influential civil rights strategists of the digital era) to headline their event, opted to fold that event into the Summit itself, tapping into our existing network to fill the room and tapping into our years of experience on the island to produce not just any event, but the right event.

From left: Van Jones, Rashad Robinson, Tonya Allen

That partnership builds to a marquee moment on August 13, when McKnight President Tonya Allen sits down for a fireside chat with Van Jones — another relationship McKnight brought to the table. Their conversation will center on democracy: what it takes for communities to shape their own futures, and how institutions like McKnight can support community-led solutions while staying accountable to the people they serve.

Together, the two conversations put McKnight's thinking on democracy, civic power, and equity in front of exactly the audience they came to the Vineyard to reach — with Leverette Weekes providing the platform, the production, and the network to make it happen.

It's the outcome we set out to create when we launched Momentum Summit: our clients arrive with relationships and ideas worth amplifying, and we give them the capacity to do it at scale. McKnight had a strategy of leveraging their agency partner to unify their presence, elevate their contacts, and deepen their standing in a community that matters deeply to their mission.

This is what we do. And this August, we’ll see you on the Vineyard.

Client Wins

Simone Hardeman-Jones

GreenLight Fund Twin Cities’ Executive Director (and LW client) Simone Hardeman-Jones is booked and busy with back-to-back speaking engagements. In August, you can find her at the Blacks in Philanthropy Summit, followed by the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation “Rooted, Ready, & Rising” conference in September, the Independent Sector National Summit in October, and former client Minnesota Black Collective Foundation’s Collective Summit in November.

Duchess Harris, LW’s client and a panelist at this year’s Momentum Summit “Period to Post-Menopause” event, delivered opening remarks at “Leadership Through Service and City Commission”, the second session in the Civic Engagement Education Series in the City of Brooklyn Park. The events are designed to strengthen civic knowledge, amplify community voices, and foster a more inclusive local democracy. Click here to learn more.

Momentum Summit 2026

We’re in the home stretch! Join us on the Vineyard and register today!

Words Create Wins

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