Root & Bloom Consulting designs and applies community-centric strategies to maximize the impact of leaders and communities of color.
Why choose Root & Bloom Consulting?
Commitment to liberatory frameworks. Leaders and organizations have power - too often this power is used to duplicate harmful tools of white supremacy, to value and prioritize capitalism in all its forms, and at times they can even be complicit in the very systemic harms they claim to address. However, non-profit leaders and organizations also have the power to co-create liberatory practices that align with their organizational and community values. It is my aim to work with you in interrupting noxious management, training, and fundraising practices to build leaders and organizations that resist colonialism with visionary imagination and courage.
I know the Bay Area. I am the proud daughter of immigrants from Mexico and El Salvador. I grew up in the Fruitvale neighborhood in East Oakland, and maintain strong roots to my community here in Oakland and in the Bay Area. I have worked with many Bay Area organizations including Street Level Health Project, Men Creating Peace, El/La Para Translatinas, Oasis Legal Services, and more.
I have the experience. Throughout my decade of working in non-profit organizations, I have worked closely with leaders and organizations from a diverse array of agencies - including queer rights organizations, immigrant rights organizations, housing/tenant rights organizations, legal services, and more. I have the unique perspective having worked as an in-house Director of Development and Communications, a consultant, and as a Board Member myself. I have served on several Boards and currently serve on two Boards focused on faith-based queer advocacy and wellness.
I offer a big picture perspective. I provide my clients with an expert, external, and fresh perspective on their objectives and goals. I employ a local and regional perspective to gear my advice, management, and direction around one common goal: maximizing your impact.
“It is our duty to fight for our freedom.
It is our duty to win.
We must love each other and support each other.
We have nothing to lose but our chains.”
— Assata Shakur
VALUES
Collective Liberation
We are confident in the fecundity of collective power to liberate our people. We are empowered to build resilient communities, and work with one another to create a better world - free of racism, queerphobia, classism, ableism, and all oppressive structures that seek to harm and erase us. We are committed to collaboration, communication, and trust-building, rejecting white supremacy culture in all its insidious ways.
Radical Authenticity
We show up as our whole selves and invite you to show up as your whole selves as well! We promote transparency and genuineness in our relationships, abandoning common harmful work practices at the door. While we affirm the vital importance of our work together, we approach our work firstly as human beings with compassion for one another. We acknowledge that mistakes and shortcomings may occur, and we are willing to learn and grow from them.
Resilient Joy
This work of liberation can be downright hard - unpacking our own traumas both past and present. Trauma that is our own, communal, and generational. In the midst of pain and struggle, we bravely center joy. It is an act of defiance to center joy when the world tells us we are unimportant, when the struggle for freedom seems to be dashed. We boldly declare that we are here and that we deserve carefree, unmitigated, genuine joy.
Uncompromising Hope
We do this work because we have radical hope that another world is not only possible, but is already happening . While oppressive systems seek to crush us at every turn, we affirm the reality that new life is steadily springing forth despite our many challenges. We fundamentally believe that our struggle for freedom will be won/has been won/will continue to be won.
“The master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house.”
— Audre Lorde
about Belén
Belén Morales is a non-profit strategist specializing in board management and community-centered resource development. They have ten+ years of experience in non-profit Board management, resource development, fundraising and communications strategies, individual donor programs, team building, and fundraising event planning.
In 2021, Belén started Root & Bloom Consulting to work with bourgeoning non profits where she co-creates liberatory practices for non-profits and leaders to maximize their impact and advance their missions.
Belén holds a Bachelor of Arts in Biblical Studies from Patten University (Oakland, CA) and a Master of Arts in Systematic and Philosophical Theology from the Graduate Theological Union (Berkeley, CA). Their research focused on the intersection between theology, race, gender, and sexuality. Belén brings a similar intersectional lens to non-profit work, where she advocates for access to resources and uplifts the voices of those at the margins.
Belén is the child of immigrant parents from Oaxaca, Mexico and El Salvador. She is hella proud to hail from the great city of Oakland, California. They enjoy reading, dance parties, and spending time with their niblings.
Faith-Based Work
Belén is an advisory board member with Ministerio Latino, her home church. Our mission is to embrace and empower the LGBTQ+ Latine community. It is a space to be fully ourselves, to celebrate the Divine in and around us. We seek to heal from religious trauma while co-creating and engaging in healing spiritual practices as a community.
Belén is the treasurer on enfleshed’s board - enfleshed creates and facilitates spiritual resources for collective liberation through prayer, liturgies, art, meditations, teaching, and other resources.
Read my contributions to enfleshed’s Moments for Common Nourishment below:
“Belén’s contributions to the working board of enfleshed have been truly transformative. She proactively offers her skills and expertise in areas of board management such as fundraising and financial management — not just offering advice, but digging into the work. They bring joy, authenticity, and tangible strategies to our work together, and they have consistently demonstrated a deep commitment to their values, our organization’s mission, and the well-being of our staff".”
- Allison Brinkhorst, enfleshed Board Chair
