FAQ
Most frequent questions and answers
The social sector faces many challenges but the primary issue for many organizations is the lack of a recurring revenue base.
What does this mean? Many financial supporters of social organizations make what we would call, “one-night stand gifts”.
What is a one night stand gift? We define a “one night stand gift” as one where a supporter writes one big check and the organization never hears from them again. While this team is certainly not against one-time big checks (welcome@blackamericafoundation.org if you want to send one), these one-time big checks don’t help social organizations with what they really need, revenue predictability. Revenue predictability is needed so that our social organizations can adequately plan for the future.
While financial supporters of social organizations certainly have the prerogative to write that big check, we want financial supporters across the sector to consider more dating and marriage and less one-night stands. What our social organizations need is a recurring revenue base. The perfect “social investor” in our eyes is one that makes a monthly commitment while also making sizeable gifts from time to time.
Our Founding Campaign Director has worked in every part of the sector. (e.g. programs, volunteering, nonprofit strategy consulting, board, nonprofit fundraising consulting, capital campaigns, board leadership). The commonality in all of his social sector experience was the lack of a true recurring revenue business model. This is the baseline for most businesses, yet revenue development departments in social organizations often don’t function this way.
Consider some of the fundraising challenges that the sector faces:
- The traditional annual giving model is less effective for social organizations without a primary earned revenue source and recurring financially stable constituent base
- The traditional portfolio-based major giving model, alone, is laborious and not predictable enough for social organizations to adequately plan for the future and incrementally achieve their ultimate visions.
- Special events are inefficient, usually result in a financial loss when staff time is considered, and the “major gift” revenue that often follows the event could be made in more efficient ways
- Current direct mail tactics are timeworn and appeal to an aging demographic, though we believe internally there is an opportunity for resurgence
- Digital nonprofit marketing is outdated and has not kept pace with newer inbound and content marketing developments
- Planned giving is the biggest opportunity in fundraising yet far too many organizations have not yet created robust programs, and those that have only focus on blanket marketing efforts
- For many, applying to modern foundations is akin to playing a cruel labor-intensive lottery
- Consistent cuts in government funding have made this revenue source unreliable.
- Social organizations have not adequately appealed to the bottom lines of businesses to drive revenue.
- Social organizations with brand recognition can more easily secure unsolicited one-time donations, but have a tough time securing a second donation
- Social organizations that struggle with everything mentioned above are typically bad candidates for capital campaigns, what many see in the sector as a fundraising solution, because they do not have the most important thing that a campaign needs to succeed, an existing base of committed supporters.
These are the challenges the entire sector faces. There’s an old saying in some African American communities that is often applied to the broad-stroke disparity of nation’s economy: when America catch a cold, Black America gets pneumonia.
The deck is already stacked against social organizations that serve the neediest citizens. These social organizations are not positioned to move the mountains our society desperately needs moved.
The goal is to build a sustainable revenue generating institution.
Learn more about the corporation by visiting blackamericacorporation.com
We believe that this important institution should be built to last and in order for this to occur, reliable predictable revenue is needed. This revenue reliability will allow flexibility to plan for the future and provide breathing space to focus on the vision and take the long view.
The social sector currently faces challenges because it doesn’t have the space to explore big ideas because many organizations have to start all over at $0 each year. This is not predictable. It’s not stable. It’s not designed to freely explore big ideas like the private sector. The social sector should boom as if it were Silicon Valley since social sector unicorns provide actual social benefit.
Further, social sector organizations are discouraged from being opportunistic in their revenue seeking whereas business has much more flexibility.
Finally, the social sector discourages performance based and percentage-based commission fundraising. This has arguable merit in traditional social sector fundraising, but The Black America Corporation is charged with generating revenue from the sales of social products and functions as a business. Businesses excel when there is flexibility to pay affiliates, independent marketers, and originators based on performance.
Social investments made directly to The Black America Foundation through memberships and fundraising tours are tax-deductible and will follow standard social sector AFP fundraising guidelines.
If you would like to learn more about the challenges the social sector faces click below to listen to The Above Goal Podcast with Ken Jones, a short five-episode series about the sector recorded last Summer.
The Black America Foundation spends the money that it earns from memberships and through annual transfers from the Black America Corporation.
Both. It has to be about both.
A social business is one that exists for the sole benefit of generating return for social organizations, whereas traditional businesses exist to generate return for shareholders.
Learn more about the corporation by visiting blackamericacorporation.com
Those that are only interested in social investments can contact us directly at welcome@blackamericafoundation.org and we we will provide more information about how you can make an unrestricted tax-deductible gift to the foundation.
First, consider making a commitment to this effort as a Benefactor. The most important thing that you can do at this stage is make a monthly commitment so the ecosystem can build a sustainable recurring revenue base.
Second, send your feedback on this draft case for support (what you’re reading) to welcome@blackamericafoundation.org, we want to hear from you. This is a live document.
Third, consider joining our email list and connecting with us on the digital conversations we will soon facilitate.
Finally, when we come to your city while on a fundraising tour consider participating in your city or regional campaign.
Yes. We don’t require that you notify us of your legacy contribution. If your gift qualifies for the Diamond Circle (Individuals that commit more than 50% of their estate to The Black America Foundation) or The Black Diamond Circle (Individuals that commit 100% of their estate to the Black America Foundation), please consider notifying us so that we can include you in celebration events and opportunities to network with other circle members.
No. You are free to publicly celebrate being an 8 Benefactor, or not.
The Black America Foundation does not publicly acknowledge social investments. The Black America Corporation does not publicly acknowledge benefactors. The mission is always front and center at The Black America Foundation. Not executors. Not benefactors. Not social investors.
Disclaimer: Supporting projects as a benefactor of The Black America Corporation or making a social investment to The Black America Foundation, may not absolve you of your real or perceived “sins” in the eyes of the public. While we are grateful to all benefactor and social investors, we urge you to reconsider your contribution if generating “ROI” or increasing “brand value” is the only goal.
Yes. The Black America Foundation is governed by leaders that work on the front lines for change.
Social investments to the The Black America Foundation.
Social products offered by the Black America Corporation.
Business products offered by the Black America Corporation.
No one can morally “own” an entity like The Black America Corporation. This is freedom, not a transfer of ownership.
The Black America Corporation is currently a client of The Agency, a From Lothrop Street house brand, and is not seeking investors or shareholders.
A follow-up question might be, well, who owns The Black America Foundation? No one person can legally “own” a public charity. Read this well-written article for more information about foundations.
During the next phase of this project succession, trust, legal, tax, audit, risk and business strategy experts will be consulted to help craft a solid structure worthy of this vision for the future.
It isn’t. This sector is full of amazing dreamers and visionaries that work tirelessly for causes that they are passionate about.
First, the traditional social sector was not designed to be a solution to all of societies ills and should not be tasked with trying to ambitiously solve all of societies ills. Some would argue that it’s the job of the government to do this, others would say it’s the private sector. The social sector is still caught in the middle of this decades long debate.
Second, a general apathy toward Black America and Poor America suspends success for most social organizations trying to make an impact in our neediest communities.
Finally, our goal is not to indict the social sector but change it for the better. We want to pioneer new ways to generate sustainable revenue for causes.
We can no longer depend on a social sector fundraising model to serve the least among us when that same model is only able to generate incremental funds for real change. Black America and Poor America simply does not have the time to wait.
Great question! First, keep in mind that the foundation is the face of an ecosystem that presently includes a digital radio network and a corporation. The innovation is in the ecosystem model. The Black America ecosystem prioritizes generating sustainable regular revenue by offering social products.
This ecosystem is designed to avoid the common fundraising limitations that are faced by traditional social sector organizations.
When performing our root-cause analysis we tried to ask “why” until we knew “why”.
The “why” to discriminatory lending practices may be that the economic system was built with Black Americans in mind.
The “why” to criminal sentencing may be that the criminal system was built with Black Americans in mind.
The “why” to school to prison pipelines may be that education systems were built with Black Americans in mind.
The “why” for lack of healthcare and maternal/fetal death rates, may be that nothing was built for us.
Many Black Americans stumble daily over all the “why’s”, which is why we insisted on listing them out fully as a conversation starting point in the building of this ecosystem.
We are convinced that there is talent in our communities with bright ideas on how to address the root causes of our generational narrative, the goal of the foundation is to source those ideas and fund them vigorously.
The Agency is a From Lothrop Street house brand that shares in the success of driving revenue for businesses. The Black America Corporation is the only social benefit cause/company in The Agency’s portfolio.
The Black America Corporation is a revenue center, meaning it gains revenue from social products like Black.Radio or Class.
The individual social product brands in The Black America Corporation portfolio are profit centers meaning these projects are responsible for revenues and costs.
Social venture projects of The Black America Ecosystem (e.g. community centers, fellowships, physical spaces) are cost centers funds for these social venture projects can be disbursed from the corporation or the foundation depending on the nature.
The Black America Corporation itself will maintain a product-focused functional structure. The management of revenue generation for social products of The Black America Corporation will be led by teams and directed by strategists, all hired by The Agency which manages The Black America Corporation brand.
The Black America Foundation, on the other hand, is a standard social organization run by a board. Internally, our team has jokingly referred to the foundation as a spending center. 
The Black America Foundation will be led by an exceptional group of transformational governing leaders directly tasked with solving local and regional problems. This may include creating new programs when needed, funding and trench partnering with organizations and talent already doing good work, fostering local partnerships, and mobilizing the weight of the foundation to make larger and/or real-time impact when needed.
The benefit of this structure is again that it is built with long-term sustainability in mind.
Note: Some nuances of this planned business infrastructure may change after experts are consulted.
The Agency is a house brand that shares in the success of driving revenue for businesses.
The Black America Corporation is a current client of The Agency. The Agency manages The Black America Corporation brand. There are no employees.
The Agency is powered by task-providers, service-providers and strategists hired on a contract or retainer basis to work directly on projects designed to generate revenue for clients. Depending on the nature of the project, team members may receive incentives, bonuses, royalties, project profit sharing, and performance bonuses based on their individual contributions and achievement.
Racism is a system. White Supremacy is that system. Black Supremacy has never existed. So reverse-racism does not exist.
Here is a brief reminder of some things Black Americans have been told:
- Black Americans have been told to solve their own Black-on-Black crime issues first, and respect will follow.
- Black Americans have been told that since they were born in America they’ve won life’s economic lottery and that they should take advantage of it.
- Black Americans have been told, even when they hold their dead children in their hands, that they don’t know how good they got it.
- Black Americans have been told that they have nothing but opportunity in America.
- White Americans have told Black Americans that they are tired of being blamed, tired of Black Americans having a victim mentality, and generally tired of dealing with a people who only want something from others.
- Whenever Black Americans tell White Americans about their actual lived experiences, in America, White Americans tend to get defensive. Tears flow, because who wants to believe they are an unwitting oppressor? The common refrain from White Americans when this accusation is made is that they are colorblind, don’t oppress anyone, and don’t intentionally hold anyone down. The usual recommendation of White Americans is that Black Americans should go focus on themselves.
- Black Americans have been told that no one can solve this problem but Black America.
This initiative will seek to ease the pain and poverty in our communities instead of continuing to wait for substantive political change that may never come.
The American relationship with the Negro has always been rocky. But many have hung in there. Through slavery, Jim Crow, water hoses, Ronald Reagan and, surprisingly, Donald Trump, they’ve hung in there. Some White Americans say that Black Americans are whining and that Black Americans should shut up while White America makes it great again. The response is sometimes to call these White Americans ignorant bigots, but siblings fight, and we are fellow Americans living in one house.
And this house – it’s beautiful and historic and full of potential – but it’s also unsafe. The foundation, the wiring, the support beams – sometimes it seems like our arguments are about paint colors and marble vs. granite, when the whole thing is liable to fall down or burn down around us. Because it’s not about taste and culture or skin color – it’s about respect and safety and community and empathy. Plus, we still need to have a national conversation about that attic full of monuments to White Supremacy that still needs to be cleaned out.
Things are at a boiling point. This house can feel pretty unbearable at times, and some Black Americans have considered bailing. It is our belief that for the vast majority of Black Americans this is a non-starter. These Black Americans will never leave. They will not give up on this place. Their ancestors have worked too hard on America for them to give up on it. They could never dishonor their legacy by leaving. They can’t.
Racism is a system. White Supremacy is that system. The system was created as a tool to build the Southern economy. Laws, regulations, customs, etc were all built with “Negroes” in mind.
White Supremacy, in America, is a system that was created to uphold the social, political, and economic system of American chattel slavery.
This system was built long before we were born. White people are beneficiaries of that system.
Allies either help dismantle the system or they don’t.
Sadly, systems are designed to last forever. Supremacy was originally taught as a means to uphold a system. Now, that system simply cycles. It cycles socially, politically, economically, legally, and mentally.
There are no allies. Ultimately, you will be judged as a preservationist, enabler, or a dismantler.
MLK argued in his final book, Chaos or Community: Where do we go from here, that we need a revolution of values. We must have truthful and candid conversations about the legacy of slavery in our country.
Here are three other recommendations we offer:
Disassociate racism from ignorance and prejudice. People aren’t racist, institutions are racist.
Fight ignorance and prejudice with every fiber of your being. Start with your network. Start a book club. Start a movie night. Have candid truthful conversations about race with other White people.
Finally, we’d say that the movement for racial justice needs actors more than it needs allies. You have the opportunity to act in your community right now by mobilizing your peers. If you have the chance to personally communicate or collaborate with a Black person you can be a good ally by simply listening, putting your personal emotions on the back burner, and being fully receptive and responsive as they describe their real lived experience.
Patriarchy is a system of laws, customs, and ideas designed to uphold male supremacy.