How the Black-led Jordan Brand steers Nike’s landmark $140 million Black Community Commitment initiative
After the 2020 murder of George Floyd, Michael Jordan and his brand stepped up with $100 million in grants and the goal of changing the narrative of African Americans
WASHINGTON — Inside the Blackest building in America, behind the closed doors of the Oprah Winfrey Theater, Sarah Mensah stepped onstage in a pair of Cherry Air Jordan 11s, set to speak on one of the most impactful philanthropic pledges in sportswear industry history.
Mensah, a Black woman who became the first female president of Jordan Brand last year, delivered closing remarks for Nike’s Path to Progress ceremony, which the company hosted at the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington.
The moment served as a check-in for Nike’s 10-year, $140 million initiative known as the Black Community Commitment. Nike and its two subdivisions, Jordan and Converse, launched the project in 2020 as a direct response to the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police.
In the past four years, Michael Jordan and his brand, notably led by a predominantly Black team of executives, have steered Nike’s landmark program, which aims to advance racial equity and eradicate systemic racism across the United States.
“At Jordan, we have a very important role in helping our community grow,” Mensah told the audience during the ceremony Feb. 21. “To fly in the face of fear is the first step to progress. That’s what roots us in our journey — to be bold, intentional, and focused on challenging systems that threaten our opportunity to create a more equitable future for Black Americans.”
Nike’s initial four-year, $40 million contribution to the commitment will be complete by the end of 2024, according to the company. More than 125 Black-led nonprofit organizations have benefited from grants. However, Jordan’s work is far from over.
According to Mensah, as February, the Jordan Brand has invested more than $30 million in nearly 140 local and national organizations. With six years and approximately $70 million remaining in its original pledge, the Jordan Brand will continue to operate as the driving force of Nike’s Black Community Commitment.
Michael Jordan wouldn’t have it any other way.
“If not the Jordan Brand, then what other brand?” Mensah told Andscape. “I think, from a very authentic and meaningful place, we stepped in under Michael’s leadership in 2020, and that action has extended.”
Ahead of Nike’s four-year check-in, the Jordan Brand created a book distributed internally and to grantee organizations, illustrating its efforts so far through the Black-led nonprofits and grant recipients.
The 77-page Jordan Black Community Commitment Family Album highlights the brand’s grantees, including ColorCreative, the Ida B. Wells Society for Investigative Reporting and the sports journalism program at Morehouse College. It also features vignettes surrounding work by Jordan Brand athletes and collaborators, from filmmaker Spike Lee and former NBA player Carmelo Anthony to Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Mookie Betts, Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott, Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum, WNBA guard Kia Nurse, WNBA forward Aerial Powers and BMX pro athlete Nigel Sylvester.
On Page 5, there’s A Letter From Michael Jordan, written by Michael Jordan, explaining how he and his brand plan to complete the $100 million commitment made after Floyd’s murder. This is the first time the letter has been released publicly.
“It truly saddens me that we are living in an increasingly divided world, filled with anger, distrust and misinformation,” Jordan wrote. “As I’ve grown older, my appreciation has grown for the truth, grace and caring that can come from sharing stories of the Black experience.
“When I think about the legacies we all leave behind and what we wanted to ensure was made possible through the Black Community Commitment’s work is the opportunity that we have to educate, while also challenging the narratives that impact the everyday lives of Black people,” Jordan wrote. “This is heavy and hard work. Change does not happen overnight. I am proud to support the efforts of our Black Community Commitment grantees and our Jordan Family members who are spreading love in their communities.”
In 2020, Nike CEO and president John Donahoe sent a two-page letter to all Nike employees.
“As we’ve watched racial tragedies expose prejudice and injustice in our cities over the past few weeks, I can’t stop thinking about the individuals impacted: Ahmaud Arbery. Christian Cooper. Breonna Taylor. George Floyd,” Donahoe wrote. “The horrible killings and racist actions serve as a sickening reminder of what too many people live through every day in America. It is absolutely wrong what’s happening in our communities, to our friends.”
“Let me be as clear as I can: Nike is opposed to bigotry,” Donahoe wrote. “We are opposed to hatred and inequality in all its forms, indirect and overt. While Nike cannot solve injustice, I believe we have a responsibility to work toward addressing it to our best ability.”
Following Donahoe’s letter, Nike unveiled the Don’t Do It campaign, introduced by a 50-second, black-and-white ad featuring only text with the powerful ending statement: “For once, don’t do it.”
“A lot of the early conversations we had surrounded how painful it was that it took the death of George Floyd to wake the world up,” Melanie Harris, Jordan Brand vice president and general manager of North America, told Andscape in February. “But, those of us who are Black Americans, and children of Black people who’ve told generational stories, know that these are long-standing issues we face.
“It’s difficult, right?” Harris said. “Because, you hate for a tragedy to catalyze change. At the same time, it reinvigorated the shared sense of responsibility that many people have.”
On June 5, 2020, Nike officially announced its $40 million commitment to support the Black community across the U.S. over the following four years. The pledge’s naming was tactical, according to Harris, who was Nike’s vice president of corporate strategy at the time.
“Commentary around the word ‘commitment’ is important to me,” Harris told Andscape. “I was talking to John [Donahoe], and we were reflecting on when we first decided to make the initiative. We wanted it to be not just a donation, but a commitment.
“There are only a couple institutions that truly have the power to make change: politicians, people with a lot of money and those with a stage,” Harris said. “Nike has one of the biggest brands in the world, especially in terms of impacting culture. So, what I hoped to do four years ago was for Nike to commit to using its platform on top of our ability to provide funding. And, you saw Michael Jordan, personally, felt the same way.”
Yet, for Jordan, Nike’s four-year, $40 million pledge wasn’t enough.
So, the Jordan Brand devoted an additional $100 million — $50 million of which came personally from MJ — over 10 years, bringing Nike, Converse, and Jordan’s collective Black Community Commitment to $140 million worth of grants to be distributed to hundreds of Black-led organizations.
“MJ is all-in,” Harris told Andscape. “And he really takes his ability to have an individual impact seriously. As general manager of Jordan, I have a responsibility to protect the brand’s legacy. But, at the end of the day, it’s Michael’s name. The common perception is that once someone achieves certain levels of success, that person is disconnected from the world. But this, his personal commitment, says that he’s in it. He believes in the impact and responsibility that he personally has. And that inspires all of us who work on the brand.”
From 2020 to 2023, then-Jordan Brand president Craig Williams led the brand’s involvement in the Black Community Commitment initiative, as the company checked in annually with publicly released updates about the organizations receiving grants.
Last year, Mensah, an executive at Nike since 2013, took over for Williams, who was promoted to his current role as president of geographies and marketplace for Nike. Formerly the Jordan Brand’s general manager of North America from 2015-18, Mensah became the first woman and African American to be named Jordan Brand president.
“To come back to Jordan and step in this role, it’s centering,” Mensah told Andscape. “I feel very much so on my own path of personal purpose. It’s really the fulfillment of a career dream for me to lead a brand like Jordan.”
Mensah now guides a team of Black executives that oversees the multibillion-dollar Nike subdivision. The Jordan Brand’s leadership team includes Harris, vice president and general manager of North America); Tonia Jones, global vice president and general manager of women’s division; Rashad Williams, global vice president of streetwear footwear; Vanessa Wallace, head of brand marketing in North America; and Jason Mayden, who was appointed as Jordan’s chief design officer in December 2023. Mayden was a global design director for the brand from 2012-14.
That’s not to mention Larry Miller, current chairman of the brand’s advisory board, who was Jordan Brand president twice, from 1997-2006 and 2012-2018; longtime vice president Howard White, the longest-tenured Black executive in Nike history; and Michael Jordan.
“It has to be one of the most diverse leadership teams ever created. It’s women, men, and, of course, Black folks,” Mensah told Andscape. “But we have people who represent every facet of diversity — ethnic diversity, neurodiversity, diversity of religion and of thought. And I’m so excited because I’m a believer that diversity truly breeds innovation. And innovation is what we are all about at Jordan Brand.”
Mensah also stepped in to guide the brand amid the administration of the Black Community Commitment.
A month after Mensah’s official July 1, 2023, start date as Jordan Brand president, the last of four Minneapolis police officers convicted in Floyd’s murder was sentenced. The officers, who were convicted on both state and federal charges, received a combined total of more than 40 years in prison for killing Floyd.
“This role, at this particular time, intersects with my personal purpose,” Mensah told Andscape. “This is one of the most, if not the most, inspirational brands in the world. It’s particularly inspirational because it’s rooted in the idea of Micahel Jordan, who is a person who tapped into his inner greatness and found a way to transcend all the things that people who look like us encounter. We have a mission to inspire MJ’s same ability of interconnectivity to greatness.
“So, in this role, I feel like I have the mission and mandate to help people.”
During February’s Path to Progress ceremony, Donahoe discussed his company’s Black Community Commitment.
One line from his speech particularly stood out.
“Simply put, there is no American history without African American history,” Donahoe said.
Following the Nike CEO, leaders from the grant recipient nonprofits, including the Legal Defense Fund, a performing arts school in Memphis, Tennessee, and the Lewis College of Business, the country’s first and only historically Black college that focuses on design — described how funds from the Black Community Commitment have contributed to organizational growth. The most resonating testimony came from Jason Reynolds, a board member for StoryCorps, which records stories to be archived in the U.S. Library of Congress. Later this year, StoryCorps will launch its Brightness in Black project, which will collect stories about the Black experience in America.
“Our history is this country’s history, and therefore it needs to be told from the people who are living it, who have lived it and will live it going forward,” Reynolds said. “With the BCC grant, we’re hoping to not only inspire narrative change in terms of what everybody thinks of us, but change what we think of ourselves. How do we create narrative change at home for us to let our children know that they can grow up and take flight?”
For Mensah, who referred to Reynolds in her closing address, the Jordan Brand’s responsibility at the forefront of Nike’s Black Community Commitment aligns with the purpose of an organization like StoryCorps. And at least for the next six years, Jordan will continue supporting Black organizations and Black people.
“I don’t think the commitment has to stop at 10 years,” Mensah told Andscape. “The Jordan Brand’s commitment to the Black community is infinite — literally. It’s central to who we are as a brand.”