Annual Impact Report
2025
A Letter from Leadership
To Our Beloved Community of Witness Bearers,
As we take time to pause and remember the important moments within 2025, we do so grounded in gratitude and sharpened by clarity. This year required courage—about the state of our world, the role of faith within it, and the responsibility we carry as people committed to justice, truth, and liberation.
At The Witness, we have always understood that this work is not to be the voice but the microphone. We exist to provide opportunities for voices emerging and established to tell their stories and bear witness to injustice. We also hold the microphone to bear witness to our brilliance and who we are becoming. This takes shape in podcasts and gatherings where community members find belonging and solidarity. It grows through spiritual practices that sustain us and support our Witness Fellows. And it is made possible through a community willing to show up again and again, with courage.
As we step into the next chapter of The Witness Inc., we do not as an outlet, but as a movement. In the year ahead, we will launch two new podcasts, expand our Media Suite to reinstate and include blogs, digital resources, and learning tools, host justice-centered pilgrimages, gather again at The Justice Table, train our second class of Witness Fellows, and more.
The empowerment of the Black Christian community becomes increasingly critical with each passing day. Thank you for walking with us, believing in this work, and bearing witness alongside us.
With hope and resolve,
President and CEO, The Witness Inc.
KEN & ROSE
MOUNINGThe Justice Table: Where We Bear Witness-Together
In October 2025, The Justice Table commenced. We hosted a private pilgrimage for 14 community members to bear witness to our past, present and discuss the future.. More than an event, The Justice Table is a commitment to creating space where stories are honored, faith is exercised, and community is formed.
This year’s gatherings reaffirmed a core truth: justice work must be relational before it can be transformational. One attendee reflected:
“We came to know about The Witness through the Pass the Mic podcast. When we first listened to the podcast, it spoke to us while in a place of hurt and frustration as members of a church led by a pastor who refused to acknowledge systemic racism in America. As we continued to listen, we learned more about The Witness Inc., its history, and plans for the future. What has excited us recently is The Witness’s commitment to identifying and supporting people of faith doing impactful work in their local communities and financially supporting their visions through The Witness Foundation. We believe in The Witness and this mission and know this work will impact many lives for years to come.”
Stories shared at the table revealed the grief we’ve carried and hope for a more just future.
“Not My Jesus”: Faith, Truth, and Public Witness
The “Not My Jesus” campaign marked a pivotal moment in our work this year. At a time when the reputation of Jesus has been co-opted to deploy the justification of harm, this campaign invited faith communities across The Witness to stand together publicly to claim who Jesus truly is?
This campaign wasn’t just about a signature, it was a reminder that none of us are alone and that together we can reclaim the truth. As we conducted this campaign, we began to think of ways we can revisit our learning platforms.
Ten x 10 and Chasing Justice
As part of our commitment to embodied formation, The Witness is honored to partner with Tenx10 and Chasing Justice to offer racial justice pilgrimages for emerging youth leaders. Together, we are reimagining pilgrimage as a justice-centered practice that invites participants to encounter history honestly and allow it to shape their faith and responsibility.
Twice in 2025, we convened two incredible cohorts of BIPOC emerging leaders who were committed to developing Gen Z disciples at the intersection of faith and justice.
At a time when so many people felt isolated, unheard, or overwhelmed by the state of the world, strategic partnerships like these reminded us that we were not doing this work alone. Together, we expanded our reach and deepened our impact among Black Christians who live and lead in the balance of action and spiritual formation.
Why Bearing Witness Matters More Than Before
We live in a moment where people are being shaped by competing narratives about truth, power, and justice. In such a moment, storytelling is not optional, it is essential. At The Witness, we understand storytelling as both a spiritual practice, resistance and truth telling. It is how memory is preserved, distortion is challenged, and new futures are imagined.
Expanding the Media Suite
In response to what we’ve heard from our community, The Witness is expanding its Media Suite to ensure stories travel beyond rooms and across geography. In 2026, we will launch:
Three new digital experiences
Can I Get A Witness, a podcast hosted by Danielle Marck featuring curated conversations featuring the witness of Black Christian faith leaders, writers and tastemakers.
The Black Christian Experience with G. Tyler Burns is a podcast created to hold space for the stories that have shaped Black Christians. Each episode is an invitation for our listeners into thoughtful dialogue around our shared perspectives and lived experiences, from church life and leadership to justice and culture. The Black Christian Experience aims to amplify the voices that speak with clarity and courage about the realities we navigate daily. This is for us, our stories, our perspectives, and our stories.
Footnotes, a Tisby Media production, filled with a collection of digital essays, historical commentary and educational resources.
A revitalized blog, hosted on our website and Substack, offering essays, reflections, and theological commentary.
These platforms extend the table—allowing community members to listen, learn, and reflect wherever they are.
Dr. Jemar Tisby, Danielle Marck &
G. Tyler Burns
Partners
We are beyond grateful for our partners who collaborate in the work of justice with us:
Fellowship: Forming the Next Generation
In 2025, we officially launched the second class of the Witness Fellowship. We are excited to welcome Lora Smothers and Charlotte Crabbe.
Lora Smothers
Lora Smothers is a visionary educator with 15 years of leadership experience in educational and faith-based organizations. Her career highlights include owning and directing Freedom to Grow Unschool, giving a TED Talk about natural education, hosting the Groundbreakers conference for microschool leaders, coaching school starters in the US, Canada, Kenya, and New Caledonia, and publishing a book chapter on education as a vehicle for Black liberation. In 2021, Lora began her boldest venture yet--launching the Joy Village School, Athens’ only private school centering Black joy and thriving.
Charlotte Crabbe
Charlotte Crabbe is the Founder and President of Cultivate Vibrance. Her leadership has been visionary, strategic, relational, and results-oriented. Her experience is diverse, from leading a nonprofit in New York City to conference and event planning to creating a DEI program that successfully created pathways for emerging leaders of color. Most importantly, she is a daughter, an auntie, a runner, a community builder and woman of faith.
Closing Reflection: Thank You
As we celebrate all that God has done, we return—once more—to gratitude.
Thank you for reading. Thank you for listening. Thank you for standing with us in a year that asked for honesty, courage, and faith that does not look away. Because of you, stories that needed telling were told. Tables were extended, prayers were lifted, and the work of liberation moved forward—not all at once, but faithfully.
As we step into the year ahead, we know this work cannot be done remotely. It requires a relationship. It requires conversation. It requires a community willing to stay present—to wrestle, to learn, to imagine, and to act together.
We invite you to take the next step with us now.
You can connect directly with a member of The Witness team. Whether you want to learn more about upcoming programs, explore partnership opportunities, ask a question, or share what resonated with you, we would love to hear from you. Reach out and start the conversation.
Whether you are a donor, pastor, organizer, storyteller, or supporter—we want to know you, walk with you. The road toward justice and liberation is long, but we do not walk it alone. The table remains open. The story is still unfolding.
There is room for you here.
With gratitude, hope, and steadfastness,
The Witness Inc.