Zachary Murray is using the Purpose Futures Fellow to incubate Groundcover, a project powered by  The Guild. Groundcover's mission is to seed and develop community-owned and community-controlled real estate that allow marginalized communities to collectively steward assets in their neighborhoods as a pathway to self-determination. Groundcover assembles the right mission-aligned, non-extractive capital stack for each project, develops the project in partnership with the community, and then creates a Community Stewardship Trust to allow residents in the community to purchase shares of properties in their zip code.

Zachary Murray is the Organizing Director at The Guild. Prior to his work at The Guild, he led UpSouth/DownSouth Community Development, a consulting practice that provided capacity building, leadership development, and technical assistance for new and emerging Community Land Trust efforts. Previously, Zach was a program manager with the Oakland Community Land Trust where he worked to promote resident-centered solutions, community ownership, and permanent affordability through policy advocacy, technical assistance, and fundraising. Zach was a state and local policy specialist with Grounded Solutions Network. A graduate of Cornell University, Zach’s passion for community development and justice using race and place as a lens is inspired by his upbringing in Baltimore, MD.

More about the Purpose Future Fellowship