Build the Community: Sustain Neo Jazz Cultural CTR

Support Builders of the Highway Foundation as we sustain and secure the Neo Jazz Cultural Center—a home for family, community, culture, and cooperation in New Orleans.

For over a decade, Builders of the Highway Foundation has been doing more than programming—we have been building infrastructure.

Since 2011, our work has been rooted in supporting family, community, culture, and cooperation in New Orleans by creating spaces where people can gather, organize, create, and build something meaningful together. At the center of that work is the Neo Jazz Cultural Center.

This is not just a venue. It is a base of operations—a space where artists create and perform, community members gather and connect, organizers build strategy, cooperative leaders develop systems, and movements are born and sustained.

Over the years, this space has served as both an anchor and a catalyst. It has provided stability for community work to take root, while also supporting the growth of movements, organizations, and leaders across the city. Organizations like Cooperation New Orleans have been supported through this ecosystem, using the Neo Jazz Cultural Center as a base for collaboration, strategy, and development. This is what real community infrastructure looks like.

The Work Today

Today, through Builders of the Highway Foundation and the Neo Jazz Cultural Center, we are actively cultivating a vibrant ecosystem rooted in cultural expression, community education, grassroots leadership, and cooperative development. This work brings together artists, organizers, families, and entrepreneurs to build shared experiences and systems that strengthen our communities. At the same time, we are expanding into new areas such as land-based and agricultural cooperative learning, deepening our commitment to long-term sustainability and collective growth.

Why This Moment Matters

Spaces like this do not sustain themselves. Without intentional investment, cultural spaces disappear, movements lose their grounding, and community work becomes fragmented. We are at a critical moment where we must not only continue the work—but secure the space that makes it possible. This campaign is about ensuring that the Neo Jazz Cultural Center remains a stable and protected home for community-rooted work in New Orleans.

The Campaign Goal

This GiveNOLA Day, we are launching a $75,000 preliminary campaign as part of our Build the Community Campaign.

Part of a Larger Vision

This campaign is part of a broader effort we are leading through Builders of the Highway Foundation: the Community Ownership Initiative. Our vision is to move beyond simply operating community space and toward a future where spaces like the Neo Jazz Cultural Center are stabilized, secured, and transitioned into models of community-rooted ownership and stewardship. This work is about building long-term power, permanence, and access for the communities we serve.

How Funds Will Be Used

This campaign will support community ownership planning, property stabilization, ongoing programming and staffing, and the completion of key renovations needed to strengthen the space and expand its capacity to serve.

What Your Gift Makes Possible

When you give, you are helping to secure a permanent home for family, community, culture, and cooperation in New Orleans. Your support sustains a space where artists and cultural workers can thrive, where organizers and cooperative leaders can build, and where community can gather with intention. It also moves us closer to a future of community ownership—laying the groundwork for long-term stewardship, completing critical renovations, and supporting plans for future expansion, including the potential acquisition of adjacent space.

Join Us

Join us on May 5 at the Neo Jazz Cultural Center for:

Build the Community
A live artist showcase and GiveNOLA Day fundraising activation

No cover
Live performances
Light food
Community connection

Take Action

👉 Give today
👉 Share this campaign
👉 Join us in person