Breakin’ It Down was founded in 2003 to engage diverse nonprofit and fundraising professionals in empowering conversations about the present state and future of the nonprofit, philanthropic, and fundraising sector and its impact on under-represented and underserved communities in the Chicago area. At that time, the field was undergoing noticeable professionalization, making nonprofits and the under-represented and underserved they sought to help more vulnerable to new institutional pressures and expectations as well as goal displacement, resource dependencies, and career quality of BIPOC professionals in the field. Ever since, it has been at the forefront of mobilizing, empowering discourse, and information-sharing with a racial equity lens. It brings together seasoned and emerging nonprofit professionals and administrators, academics, community activists, students, and other stakeholders who serve under-represented and underserved communities, with experts and distinguished philanthropic, nonprofit, and community leaders for a day of speakers, plenary panels, workshops, and professional speed networking with funders. This important event's interactive agenda focuses on key challenges in the field, encouraging professional excellence, promoting professional opportunity through networking and collaboration, and exploring best practices and different sustainability strategies. Participants leave with an increased understanding of a substantive range of pertinent issues and an increased ability to be agents of change in our field. In 2019, the Denise Stennis Awards were established to pay tribute to the memory of Denise Stennis, a community leader, mentor, friend, and founding member of the BID conference. The Awards recognize an individual in the field and a nonprofit organization who are serving under-represented and underserved communities in the Chicago area, who have integrated racial equity with sustained strategic collaborations, and who lift pragmatic, action-oriented, and tenacious change makers. The objective of the Denise Stennis Awards is not only to recognize those who do contribute but also to inspire others to make similar contributions to the field.It is our hope that the conference will ignite human potential and galvanize philanthropic and community leaders, educators, policymakers, and professionals to keep taking the steps to advance racial equity in the field. In particular, we hope to embolden BIPOC community members and students to pursue careers and leadership in the field of nonprofit, philanthropy, and fundraising.