Accelerating Our Streets’ Expansive Vision
When Our Streets began partnering with AmplifyDMC, the organization was at a turning point. With a new executive director and a bold vision for transportation and climate justice, Our Streets was ready to scale its impact—across Minneapolis, statewide, and across the country.
Executive Director José Antonio Zayas Cabán envisioned a future centered on community-preferred highway alternatives, fewer cars, and more livable neighborhoods. He also understood that realizing this vision would require a fundraising strategy as ambitious as the mission itself.
To keep Our Streets’ staff focused on the organization’s grassroots work, José connected with AmplifyDMC to build out its grant-seeking capacity. Within days, he was working closely with an Amplify project manager and grant writer, aligning on messaging and tackling complex federal proposals, including one of Our Streets’ biggest opportunities: the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Reconnecting Communities Program.
Finalizing the highly technical submission while still learning the full scope of Our Streets’ work required speed, trust, and shared vision. Then, as with all grants, we waited.
The Whole “DMC”
As the relationship deepened, Amplify expanded its support beyond grant-seeking, including:
Executive director transition support and guidance
Communications and graphic design support, such as funder slide decks and narrative-forward fundraising tools
Staffing decisions (the “M” in our DMC)
Strategy development
Ampster Allan brought Human-Centered Design expertise to storytelling workshops, helping the Our Streets team uncover powerful new ways to share their message and growing impact.
Along the way, Our Streets’ pending USDOT proposal was never far from our minds. One day in March 2024, Allan’s phone rang and José’s name popped up. Allan had a feeling the news was good.
He was right: Our Streets was awarded $1.6 million from the USDOT to Bring Back 6th Avenue and reconnect a historically Black neighborhood divided by Olson Memorial Highway.
Raising Our Streets’ statewide profile further, José joined Allan at the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits conference in October 2024 to share the AmplifyDMC Grant Readiness framework, a hands-on look at how Amplify works with clients to strengthen their fundraising (extending the theme of integration, the workshop also brought together Amplify clients, with Sue Speakman-Gomez of HousingLink joining José and Allan).
A big win leads to a Big Ask
Buoyed by the Reconnecting Communities grant along with awards from national funders like Robert Wood Johnson and local capacity-building grants from Propel and the Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation, Our Streets continued to chart new paths. Among other efforts, Our Streets rebranded, dropping “Minneapolis” from its name to reflect a broader geographic mission.
But growth meant rethinking traditional fundraising models. A year-by-year grant strategy with modest rewards wouldn’t cut it. Together, we developed “The Big Ask,” a bold and beautifully designed case for support tailored for individual funders. This strategy soon paid off, opening doors to “closed” funding opportunities and unlocking new rounds of philanthropic investment.
Toward a grand vision
In January 2025, Our Streets renewed and expanded its contract with Amplify. We stepped in to provide systems support during staff transitions and helped build out long-range strategies. With the Big Ask in circulation, we partnered again to develop the “Grand Vision,” a theory of change and philanthropic roadmap aimed at building a truly sustainable funding model.
“Our work and relationship with Amplify has grown in step with Our Streets’ own organization,” shares Executive Director José Antonio Zayas Cabán. “We consider the Amplify team an essential part of what we’re trying to accomplish. They have taken the care to not just support us with immediate needs and individual grant applications, but to think with us about our grand vision for the future.”