Wayfinder Foundation

The Foundation had a website, but it was unavailable as of at least January 2026. ¹

Activities

Without a functioning website or public presence, there is little available information about the Wayfinder Foundation’s activities. An online fundraiser by the Foundation describes its work as training and networking female, racial-minority activists. ²

Archives of the group’s website describe its “signature” Community Activist Fellowship program, which funded female, racial-minority activists who were “using their social, political, and financial capital to challenge the status quo and to disrupt business-as-usual within systems that perpetuate oppression.” ¹

From 2019 to 2024, the Foundation disbursed $700,052 in grants. Throughout that same period, the Foundation’s executive director, Nekima Levy Armstrong, earned almost $1 million from the Foundation. ¹

In 2023, the Foundation co-hosted an event on education and criminal-justice reform with the activist group Racial Justice Now! ³

In 2022, the Foundation launched a campaign and Change.org petition demanding the prosecution of former NFL quarterback Brett Favre for his alleged role in a Mississippi welfare scandal, in which Favre was accused of having been involved with the misallocation of $5 million in government welfare funds toward building a volleyball facility at his alma mater, the University of Southern Mississippi. ⁴

The Foundation runs an off-shoot group called Moms for Liberation that opposes the “systemic racism and oppression” caused by so-called “book bans” in public schools. ⁵

Leadership

According to the Wayfinder Foundation’s 2024 tax return, Nekima Levy Armstrong Pounds (commonly referred to as Nekima Levy Armstrong ⁶) was the group’s executive director. That year, she earned $215,726 in income. ⁷ From 2019 to 2024, Armstrong earned nearly $1 million in compensation from the Foundation. ¹

While managing the Foundation, Armstrong has also worked as the CEO of Dope Roots, a cannabis company, since January 2025 and as the owner and principal consultant of Black Pearl, a diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) consulting firm, since 2018. Also in 2018, Armstrong co-founded the Racial Justice Network, a civil-rights group. Armstrong was previously a professor at the University of St. Thomas School of Law and the University of Illinois College of Law. Armstrong was also a previous president of the Minneapolis chapter of the NAACP and a 2017 candidate for Mayor of Minneapolis. ^{7  1  8 9}

Armstrong was involved in protests against Target’s efforts to roll back its DEI programs. ¹

Armstrong is the author of a children’s book, J is for Justice. Armstrong’s website describes the book as promoting “antiracism” and the Black Lives Matter movement. ¹⁰

In January 2026, Armstrong co-organized the storming of the Cities Church in St. Paul Minnesota to protest the pastor, who was associated with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Armstrong was later charged with violating the federal FACE Act, which protects religious worship. ^{1  11 12}

As of 2024, Dakarai Aarons was the chair of the Foundation. ⁷ Aarons has worked at the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative since 2018; since July 2025he has held the position of senior director for organizational engagement. He founded the Aarons Family Giving Fund, a donor-advised fund that primarily supports journalism. ¹³

Funding

From 2018 to 2024, the Wayfinder Foundation received grants totaling over $2 million from the Walton Family Foundation. ¹

In 2023, the Foundation received a $20,000 grant from the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation. ¹

From 2021 to 2023, the Foundation received two grants worth a total of over $20,000 from the American Online Giving Foundation. ¹⁴

In 2022, the Foundation received a grant from billionaire philanthropist MacKenzie Scott. ¹⁵

The Foundation held a fundraiser on GiveMN with a goal of raising $10,000, but only raised $425. ²