A Beneficiary of Philanthropy, (Part I) — Robert F. Smith Impact

On May 19, 2019, Robert F. Smith made history with his generous gift to the 2019 class of Morehouse College. Mr. Smith pledged to pay the student debt (valued at $40 Million) for the entire class of approximately 400 students via his family foundation. When I heard the news, I wasn’t shocked because I have long studied his philanthropy, and was a first-hand beneficiary a few years ago.

I first learned about Robert F. Smith in 2016 while reading about private equity and venture capital (in a former life I wanted to be a VC!), and was impressed to read of his trajectory and accomplishments. The next year I was personally invited to the Culture Shifting Weekend, Millennial Tech Breakfast held in Silicon Valley through a sponsorship provided by Mr. Smith. This Millennial Tech Breakfast, and conference as a whole, brings together a hand-selected network of business people to assist one another in venture creation, networking, and deal making. The level of black genius in the room is matched by only a few other convenings. Special thank you to Andrea Hoffman for the invitation!

In preparation for the Millennial Tech Breakfast, I spent more time researching Vista Equity Partners (Robert F. Smith) and came to understand his approach to business and community. This research included watching a few videos, including this one from a 2017 Fireside Chat at his B-School alma mater Columbia University (I encourage you to watch it). After completing my research I was enamored with the company’s approach to acquiring enterprise software companies (via private equity), as I spent three years managing a marketing automation software named Marketo which his company would later sell for $3 Billion.

Understanding this approach to business/philanthropy and witnessing such a monumental gift to one of our most important HBCUs, I encourage us all to think about how we can also impact our communities in our own way.

After the Robert Smith/Morehouse announcement was made I reached out to an esteemed investor/philanthropist to get his take on the gift. This is what he said:

“All of those students should take out whole life policies with Morehouse as the beneficiary for at least the amount of their debt relief. That would significantly help to change the game…this is just my two cents…. By doing so this will make Morehouse more stable by having the future bequest and will allow for this gift to become more sustainable.”

This makes good sense, I think. Do you have any food ideas on how to double-down on community philanthropy in your own community? If so, please leave word!

I was asked to deliver a keynote speech by Piedmont Business Capital, during the 2019 Juneteenth celebration hosted at the International Civil Rights Museum in Greensboro, NC. I chose to talk about “Becoming Your Own Community Reinvestment Act”.

This talk was designed to encourage the audience to think about ways we can better support local business endeavours through collective and cooperative economics. I shared my journey in the creation of Knox St. Studios, a place that connects and equips current or aspiring entrepreneurs, students and community members, located in the Walltown Neighborhood of Durham, NC. At the onset of this journey, I decided that I would create a diary to document the process of acquiring property, renovating it, and securing community support/partnerships to reach our goal. You can read the diary here. *Special thank you to the Mechanics & Farmers Bank, the nation’s second oldest Black-Owned Bank for their support.

Just last week, we met our initial crowdfunding goal to open up our studio. We have hosted two community and ecosystem programs and plan to roll-out many more, and warmly welcome more support. If you are interested in supporting our work, please call on us. This includes individuals, corporations, foundations, and whomever else that wants to build community and opportunity with us.

Our Non-Profit and For-Profit teams are always thinking about ways that we can be good stewards of the resources/talents that we have been given. We are committed to paying it forward. That said, if anyone wants to learn more about Knox St. Studios (Entrepreneurship & Wealth Creation) and/or our community engagement work for Life on Autopilot luggage (Youth Creativity & Exploration) please reach out!

Stay tuned for more of our thoughts on community impact philanthropy!

-Talib Graves-Manns

Read more article on our work via these links.

The White House — SXSL Edition — Black Wall Street

Banking on the Unbankable — Harvard Presentation [Recap]

Do It for the Culture