Missions to Movements

Who Gets to Be ‘Legit’? BackBlack: The Movement That Proved Community Is the Infrastructure with Floyd Jones

Dana Snyder Episode 222

A lot of movement builders might be thinking, who actually gets to be considered “legit”?

We are celebrating Black History Month, and in a very short amount of time, BackBlack has built massive momentum, which is why I had to have one of my favorite repeat guests back on the show, Floyd Jones.

This incredible case study unravels how they’ve helped move nearly $4 million to Black-led organizations, built a directory of close to 2,000 organizations, and driven tens of thousands of people to take action.

We also talk about the structural realities many Black-led organizations face: 44% have no full-time staff, and most operate on less than $30,000 a year. The real question this episode raises is what becomes POSSIBLE when trust, proximity, and community are treated as legitimate infrastructure?!

Resources & Links

Connect with Floyd on LinkedIn, sign up for his newsletter, and learn more about BackBlack on their website.

LettrLabs is the proud presenter of Missions to Movements.

LettrLabs helps nonprofits build lasting donor relationships through real, handwritten mail that’s fully automated - turning moments of intent into meaningful connection. From thank-yous to impact updates, they help you cut through with mail donors actually open, remember, and trust.

Register now for the FREE Monthly Giving Summit on February 25-26th, the only virtual event where nonprofits unite to master monthly giving, attract committed believers, and fund the future with confidence.

The Mini Monthly Giving Mastermind: A high-touch Mini Mastermind + optional in-person retreat (May 6-8) for nonprofit leaders that have an existing monthly giving program and ready to take it to the next level with 1:1 and peer support. Apply now!

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SPEAKER_02:

Today's episode asks a question that a lot of movement builders might be thinking, and that would be you, but maybe we don't say it out loud. Who actually gets to be considered quote unquote legit? I am joined by Floyd Jones, the founder of Back Black. It is a movement that has challenged long-held assumptions about what credibility and scale and impact are supposed to look like. And what started as a response to a very real gap in support for Black-owned nonprofits quickly became something much bigger. Powered by not a long institutional history, but by community. Floyd is one of my favorite people. He is a repeat guest. We got to meet in studio for this conversation. We are celebrating Black History Month. And in a very short amount of time, Back Black has built massive momentum. They have reached tens of thousands of people. They have mobilized support. They are proving that you do not need decades of legacy or permission to create real impact. And I think Floyd's work forces us to rethink the idea that legitimacy comes from longevity or these traditional gatekeepers rather than from trust and relevance and collective action. So in this conversation, we talk about the early days of Back Black, the additional barriers that Black-led organizations are often navigating behind the scenes, and what it truly takes to build visibility, credibility, and power when you're starting from the ground up. So if you are building something new, or if you were questioning the rules that you were told that you had to follow, or just wondering how community can become your greatest asset, this episode is for you. Let's go meet Floyd.

SPEAKER_05:

The size of your budget has nothing to do with the size of your belief. The first year of Back Black, our budget was zero dollars. But here's the thing: everybody chipped in. Network for Good said, okay, come on over here. We can help you do this. That platform did this. The Gates Foundation helped do a pro bono PR for us our first year. Wow. But that's what the power is. That's what a movement is. The community. The community. It's not one person. If you put the whole team on your back, that's how your back gonna break.

SPEAKER_02:

Hi everyone, I am Dana Snyder. Welcome back to Missions to Movements. This is a special episode as we kick off February as Black History Month. And I am very, very honored that a good friend of mine, Floyd Jones, which many of you might already know, maybe some of you don't have the glorious ability to meet him yet, but he is here with me in studio in Atlanta, Georgia. And I am so honored that you are with us. And so many of you might have known Floyd if you are familiar with the platform Give Butter, but he has gone on to transform what I believe not only in his speaking, not only in the content that you produce and being motivational, inspirational, and very tactical, fundraising, thought leadership, content yourself, and the founder of Back Black, which we're gonna talk a lot about today, community building, movements. But I really want to start and dive right in in this kind of personal switch that happened in how after you left a which many of us do work in a company, going off on our own is a really big leap. And I know we've talked about it lots of times, leaps of faith. Where did the idea, the need for back black come from? And when did you decide I'm ready? And how did you decide to launch fully?

SPEAKER_05:

You know it's so interesting. I was reflecting on this before I even started working at Give Butter. Something in my spirit, and I even told the founder of Give Butter this in our first interaction, I was like, this is gonna be my last job. Like I just said it and I hadn't how did 26, 27-year-old me, I just this is gonna be my last job. I just kind of like knew it. And I think that that's another thing that I'll say, and we're gonna talk about so many different things throughout this conversation. But one thing I want people to know, especially change makers, especially founders of movements. If you watching this, this is you, come on, somebody. Sometimes you have to know it before you will know it. You have to see it before you can seize it, right? And I knew in my spirit, I said, this is gonna be my last, this is gonna be my last job, right? I didn't know when, I didn't know what I was gonna be doing, but I knew that this organization and that position was setting me up for something greater, for helping other people in a bigger and broader and bolder way. And it came to pass.

SPEAKER_02:

And so for context setting, and I'm gonna paint a little bit of a story here for everybody to get us into present day. Backblack. What is it? What is the purpose? What's the mission?

SPEAKER_05:

Yes, back black, our mission is to direct capital, enhance capacity, and raise awareness for black-led organizations. Boom, boom, boom. Come on, one, two, three. But why? Right? We are living in a time when black-led organizations, only 44%. So literally almost half of the Black-led Black benefiting organizations have no full-time staff. Wow. No full-time staff, right? A majority of Black-led organizations are operating under$30,000 a year.

SPEAKER_02:

$30,000 a year.

SPEAKER_05:

$30,000.

SPEAKER_02:

Wow.

SPEAKER_05:

Right? A majority of Black-led organizations are strictly and purely volunteer run. A lot of the organizations that we work with in our community, black-led and black benefiting organizations, the founder is also running the programs team, the volunteer team, and they got a full-time job.

SPEAKER_02:

I'm sure many of you can agree with that right now, that that might be something that you are in the middle of yourself. 100%.

SPEAKER_05:

Wow. And so I, my whole background and my career has been in frontline fundraising. I've always been a frontline fundraiser, right? And the other thing I was reflecting on is every organization that I've ever worked with, the budget was under$150,000 when I started. But now every single fundraising organization I've worked with, the budget is over a million dollars. Wow. Right? Every org. However, I was realizing that the organizations that were most proximate to the problems, that were black-led organizations, weren't seeing that same kind of success. They were being stuck in the same rut over and over and over again, stuck in the same cycles over and over again, couldn't pass certain fundraising thresholds, right? And a majority of nonprofits close after five years in operation. And I said, these organizations are the most proximate to their problems, right? They are the ones who are actually helping and serving the communities on the front lines in a different and closer way. They need the resources.

SPEAKER_02:

Did you know that? Or were you also in part of your role at Give Butter? I know this because I was on a lot of webinars with you. For those that didn't know or haven't seen his face, you hosted, I don't even know if you know the number. Do you know the number of how many webinars?

SPEAKER_05:

No, it was a lot. It was a lot.

SPEAKER_02:

So thousands of people.

SPEAKER_05:

You got to height. We were getting like 3,000 plus people per webinars. For our webinars. And I was like, oh my gosh. I at my height, I would say. I don't know what they're at now, but yeah, so a lot.

SPEAKER_02:

So you were able to be, I know in a virtual sense, and there was also some in-person events that you went to. Did you get to hear some of that through the chat? Like what that was also leading you into this? 100%.

SPEAKER_05:

I saw it. I, you know, I heard it, but I also saw, I also felt it. You know what I mean? Like I felt it. I saw, and also another thing that I would say is I felt alone a lot as a fundraiser, you know, when I was on the front line with grassroots organizations. I was like, where are the people who look like me? Right? Why was I the only person of color entering these big institutional rooms, right? Why was I the only person of color entering these big foundation rooms? Why was I getting a few? 100%. 100%. And I said, you have to rise as you climb. My grandma always said if you walk through a door, you need to keep that door open up for somebody else to walk through as well. And that has always been my ethos. That has always been my mantra. And so since I did ascend and since I did reach these new levels, I wanted to open up the door and help other organizations to climb as well.

SPEAKER_02:

So good. So good. Okay. So not to like give the whole like a teaser away, but will you just give a little snapshot of how Back Black has been doing in its two years?

SPEAKER_05:

Crazy.

SPEAKER_02:

Two years of since inception.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah. Well, I guess we're coming up on two and a half years now. We started August 2023, and it's been such a wild and beautiful ride. But you know, to date, we've helped move nearly four million dollars to Black Led organizations. Million dollars. Millions. Two years. Isn't that wild?

SPEAKER_02:

No, because it's you. And this is what I think is so important. And the point of why I wanted to like bring you in here and hope this like radiates because Floyd is the most, if you can't tell just virtually, radiates the energy that you want to be around and you want to support. And it's like, how do you also embody that as a listener? And so I want to share a brief just like story and I'll let you run with it. Yeah. But we were talking beforehand, we grabbed some coffees and before we hit record, and you had mentioned that in the early days of Backpack, you were at one, the Gates Foundation event. So how did you get the invite to an event like that?

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah. Man, so I it's so funny because every day I was like, How am I here? And not some other people. I was so confused. I remember getting invited to the Gates Foundation and shout out to people like Beth Cantor, shout out to Heather Infantry of the Giving Gap, who said, you know, who was invited and said, Floyd, you need to be in this room, right? You gotta be in a space like this and opening up that door. And that's another thing I will say. If you look at a person, I always say people are your partners, not your piggy banks. If you are looking at a person just for what they can provide for you financially, you are going to miss out. 1000%. Because the amount of people who have opened up doors for me and created space for me at these tables to be able to ascend. Yes. Okay, how many times could the door have been shut for me to lead these webinars that you're talking about? That's right. But people saw something in me and said, you know what, we're gonna open up that door for you. Right? And that allowed me to ascend and allowed me to have a seat at that table. So I was invited through somebody else who was invited, but I took advantage. Okay, I said we're gonna live in here while we're here. Okay.

SPEAKER_02:

Yes. Okay. So then you you were at this event, you got invited. So think about your circles of influence. Who can bring you to things like this? Then I know you didn't just sit at the event. Like have lunch and enjoy and then walk away and take some notes. Tell us what happened when you were at that event.

SPEAKER_05:

Well, to be honest, I kind of thought I was going to do that. I was ready to come in and listen, you know, and you know, just take my little notes and whatnot. But the conversation and the topic of equity in the fundraising space continued coming up. I was sitting in a room with major foundations, major tech platforms. I that I realized that billions of dollars is in this room. Yeah. I was, have y'all seen Hamilton? I want to be in the room when it happened. Like that was me. I was in the room, okay? And we kept talking about equity and fundraising and how do we make the sector more equitable and how do we get dollars to, you know, organizations who need the funding who are led by people who look like me. And I just said, you know what? We can't just talk about it. Excuse me. I literally, someone took a picture of me bringing this up. I love it. And people kept saying, you know, I guess saying, you know, we're sitting in this room and there are billions of dollars in this room. If we want a more equitable sector, we can make it happen. But I also realized, because I was working at a tech platform at the time, we are incentivized to prioritize organizations who are moving a lot of money. Of course. But that's not the only way, right? We look at major movements like Giving Tuesday, right? Where grassroots organizations, right, where small dollar gifts are really fueling the movement. And I said, if we decide to just platform Black-led organizations, if we decide to actually center them, move, actually put marketing dollars behind it. And a fun fact, actually, I feel like the beta version of Back Black started when I started, I helped lead something called Give It or Gives Back. Yeah. And August is Black Philanthropy Month. And I was like, how about we just do something for Black Philanthropy Month? How about we actually platform these organizations? How about we drive down? How we promote thank you. We made the decision to make a difference. If you're a change maker, you have to decide to make a difference. You have to decide that you see a problem and you're gonna make a change, right? And so I stood up and I said, if we want to make a change, we can do that, right? And everyone was like, okay, well, how do we do that? And I said, okay, well, August is Black Philanthropy Month. How about y'all put your money where your mouth is? Don't just talk about equity and fundraising, actually be equitable. And everyone said, okay, well, what do we do next? And so I said, Well, dang, now I have to go and create an organization, right? And so Backblack was literally born, and in five weeks, our first campaign got launched.

SPEAKER_02:

Mike Trap. We just can we just like think about how that can happen in your own worlds, in your own realities. What is the version of that? It doesn't have to be at a Gates Foundation event. Is it at a local Chamber of Commerce event? Is it at a local rally of something? Is that what does that look like in the sphere?

SPEAKER_05:

So now I want to talk about how And one thing I want to just say I want people to understand all you have is all you need to get started. And I always say the size of your budget has nothing to do with the size of your belief.

SPEAKER_02:

Amen.

SPEAKER_05:

The size of your budget has nothing to do with the size of your belief. The first year of Back Black, our budget was zero dollars.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05:

Our first campaign that we ran was not run with the. I said, can you can't? But here's the thing: everybody chipped in to make it happen. Network for good said, okay, come on over here. We can help you do this. That platform did this. The Gates Foundation helped do a pro bono PR for us our first year. Wow. Everybody, but that's what the power is. That's what a movement is. The community. The community. It's not one person. If you put the whole team on your back, that's how your back's gonna break. Did you go out and ask? Oh, a hundred percent. Okay. I said, listen, this is the gaps that we have, but you have not because you asked not.

SPEAKER_01:

That's right.

SPEAKER_05:

And one thing about me, I'm gonna ask, okay. That email is gonna be sent. All right. But it's not a good thing. The worst thing somebody can say is no. No or not respond. Exactly. The worst thing someone's gonna say is no. And I realize that no is not even the worst thing. You know what I mean? And so when I'm reaching out to people, I like give myself, I say, okay, I gotta hit 10 people today. I gotta hit, and even if it's hard, you just do that little thing. Just take the next best step.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

So there's already momentum building. So I think you might be in a place as an organization, as a listener, where you might think this momentum and what he's talking about can take a lot of time that you need to prove something. Prove yourself. What do you think made this two-year growth expansiveness happen so quickly? And I know we talked a little bit beforehand. If you could share about website traffic, the money that's been moved, the directory of, or talk a little bit about just like in two and a half years, the extent that's been curated and cultivated. And why do you think that's happened?

SPEAKER_05:

And a community as a large-yeah, I mean, it blows my mind to this day. Sometimes I'm like, how did we get here? Like, we have over nearly 1900, actually, close to 2,000 black-led organizations in our directory, right? How can people join it? You just go to backblackmovement.org. Okay. And you click join. Thank you. Come on, somebody. It's very easy. But in just a short amount of time, right? Nearly 2,000 organizations. In August, last August alone, we had over 41,000 unique people go to our website in four weeks.

unknown:

It's amazing.

SPEAKER_05:

Over 41,000. We are doing more website traffic than some of your favorite companies. Yeah. Right? And it's global. It's global traction, right? People are actively, we're connecting with some amazing creators. We're getting millions of impressions throughout the month of August, right? And this last August, and please make sure you join our mailing list because we're getting ready to release a report. But we saw over$1.5 million moved to Black-led organizations. We realized that nearly 40% of Black-led organizations who are in the Black Black Directory received funding during August.

SPEAKER_02:

Get in the directory. That's amazing.

SPEAKER_05:

Because what we're doing is we're having a multi-channel effect. We're not only providing grants to Black-led organizations, but we're also asking companies to give to Black-Led organizations. We're asking donors to give to Black-Led organizations. We're doing PR, we're doing press, we're doing social, and we're platforming and promoting these organizations and providing them with the resources that they so desperately need.

SPEAKER_01:

So good.

SPEAKER_02:

How do you think about other orgs where they're like, how are you getting this visibility? What is different about how you're positioning the messaging, the content that feels? Because when you do, if anybody has seen anything you've put out, go to their social channels, you can look. It's very different. It's artistic led. It's how did that even like idea come? And if somebody's like, our stuff does not feel that way, it does not inspire this movement building. How do you change that at the org level for somebody who's listening where it's like, whoa, that's cool. A, how did you come up with that? B, how do we figure out that for us?

SPEAKER_05:

So good. Well, I would just say, and I I really love that you said that, you have to lean into what your strength is, right? So I'm a storyteller. I love telling stories, I love creating content. I'm also an artist, right? Like I love thinking about it.

SPEAKER_01:

Think and sing if you can't tell.

SPEAKER_05:

I love thinking about things from a different perspective. And also the number one thing that I keep coming back to, because even my team, even the team at Backblack does not come from traditional nonprofit spaces, right? They all have different backgrounds that brought them here. Yeah. Right. The number one thing that I wanted was I wanted to create a space where everyone felt like they could be involved. Because the one thing that I realized is that these organizations are impacting their neighborhoods. They're impacting their communities. And right now, there's a disconnect in philanthropy, right? A lot of times people don't feel like they can be a philanthropist. They don't feel like they can make a change in their community. They don't feel like they can actually make a difference in their community. Right. We are living in a time when people are afraid to back anything that's black. They're afraid to say something. They're afraid to say black, okay? We're living in a time that, and I'm like, no, there are still people who want to give back to their community. There are still people who want to invest. And I'm just creating a space where everyone can feel that they're involved. If you're an artist, you can get involved. If you're a creator, you can get involved. If you're a corporate partner, you can get involved. Everyone, there's a space for you here.

SPEAKER_02:

And what you said, I think is really interesting, and probably why the content was so good, because you are a brilliant content creator. Thank you. And this is a level of expertise. And we did talk about before too how you have been running basically everything yourself.

SPEAKER_04:

Right, right. Okay.

SPEAKER_02:

So let's just put that into perspective too, where that is not different from a lot of orgs that you talked about before that are basically volunteer-driven. You are launching into finding somebody, passing over some range. Right. That normally takes a very long time. Speaking also of somebody who took a very long time. I'm going to nine years of business this year, which is nuts. And took me like over Over five years to actually hire someone to help me when I should have way, way earlier. What have you realized about yourself that then hopefully, listener, this can help you too in determining where you needed to let go?

SPEAKER_05:

Come on. One of my favorite books, and I know we'll talk about this through the end, but one of my favorite books is called The Desire Map. Oh, I think that by Danielle Laporte. Okay. And that book was transformational for me because she said, Don't ask what do you want to do? Ask how do you want to feel. How do you want to feel? And when I was doing all of the things, I was like, I'm not supposed to be feeling like this. You know what I mean? And you have to understand. I built something called the four seeds of community building, right? There's a catalyst, communicate, convert, catapult. Everything that I did in that first year and a half, that was catalyst work, right? I was on the social, I was doing the interviews, I was doing, I was talking to the people. I want to be where the people are. Okay, call me Ariel. Like I was all the places, all right? That's what got it started. But that is not gonna sustain a movement.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05:

The spark will start the movement, but it will not sustain the movement.

SPEAKER_02:

You're speaking to my heart with sustainability things sustainable, yeah.

SPEAKER_05:

No, it's not gonna sustain the movement. And I had to, and I realized very early on that I have to stay in my zone of genius, or else this is not gonna work. That's right. It's not gonna, if you're the founder, your community is counting on you. They are counting on you to be your best, not be the best, be your best, right? And I was like, I love a spreadsheet, but that's ain't this ain't my calling. Like it's really not para me. Like it's not for me. You know what I'm saying? Yes, I'm not supposed to be writing every grant, I'm not supposed to be doing all these different things because it's not my zone of genius. You know what I'm saying? And so remember what I said before. My number one intention is to create a space where everyone feels that they can get involved. That has to apply to the staff too. That's right. Right? And so I now we are we are opening up the doors, we are hiring people, we are getting people to come in and live in their zone of genius so that I can live in my and we can be more effective.

SPEAKER_01:

So good. This is so good.

SPEAKER_02:

Where do you think that and part of your C's, I think, is also focused on the storytelling. So I think, and we've talked about this, this has probably been attempted to do lots of times. What makes the storytelling the mission of Backblack so unique? That corporate partners, and maybe it was you as the founder that had relationships, were like willing to finally pay attention and commit.

SPEAKER_05:

I think it's a little bit of both. I do think that some of it is, you know, if you have a relationship, you have to lean into that relationship and try to get the door open. However, I do think that the problem that we're trying to solve is a universal problem. Like there are so many people who want to make an impact, who want to make a difference. They just don't know how. And I always tell people, you are a bridge. You're a bridge between where your people are and the change that they want to see in the world. You're a bridge between where your people are and the impact that they want to have in their communities. These companies that we because we do do a really great job with corporate partners. I think over the last two years, we've gotten over$150,000 in corporate partnership funds that we can grant out or that that's been happening pro bono and all the bang, right? And I realized that people want to make an impact. You can just you just have to be the vessel to make that happen. You know what I'm saying? And so we prioritized that from very early on, and it's been working. So good.

SPEAKER_02:

I always love just being in the same room with you and energy. And this is, I would also say, find the people that do that for you. I think that's really important as we're in this new year. It's like who are the people that energize you, that give you some curiosity, that can open the doors for you, that can invite you to the events, and people that you can learn from.

SPEAKER_05:

Like, oh yeah. Here's the thing about Dana and I, right? The thing that I love the most is yes, I'm here giving energy, but the amount of wisdom, the amount of opportunity, the amount of things that you've poured into me has changed my life, right? And so your circle, you can only grow as much as your circle is. Yep. You know what I'm saying? I would say proximity is your power. So who are you proximate to? That's right.

SPEAKER_02:

And I like predictability as power.

SPEAKER_05:

Okay, come on, somebody.

SPEAKER_02:

A little bit of like sustainable monthly giving in there. Okay, so to wrap us, I wanted to ask your story is so profound to the founders, to the EDs, to you that are listening, what do you hope that it can prove or shed a light on to Black led organizations and just to people overall building movements from the ground up about what's possible?

SPEAKER_05:

Like I said before, all you have is all you need. If you have something that is speaking to you and calling to you, it's calling to you for a reason. Yeah. And you are the change that you need, right? But you have to start. You have to start, you have to allow yourself to get started even in the fear. I remember before we started filming, you were like, you have no fear. I was like, that's a that's I let me tell you, I lifted that mic and I was trembling, okay? But my fear wasn't gonna keep me stuck. Yeah, I wasn't gonna let the fear hold me back. Why? Because I know my community is counting on me, right? And also, is your fear gonna stop you from the life that you are meant to live? From the people you're meant to impact, from the change you're meant to have, you know what I'm saying? See the fear, do it anyway. All you have is all you need.

SPEAKER_02:

What's your Gates foundation moment? Oh, that's what I'm gonna put on the list of this. But you know, I'm also gonna say opportunities like that. Not not the specific, like, right, right, right. 100%. 100%.

SPEAKER_05:

What's your moment? But also it's like, how are you planting the seeds now? So that way when that moment comes, you're ready. You're ready. That's right. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, it's a great point. Great perspective.

SPEAKER_02:

Come on. Okay, to wrap, just because we're in, we're still in the new year, it's just February.

SPEAKER_05:

Listen, it's until March.

SPEAKER_02:

I think you just gave it a little sneak peek, but I want to leave everybody with either a favorite book, favorite podcast, favorite film, something that you think they need to see that's inspiring you right now.

SPEAKER_05:

I would also say the other book that I love is called Essentialism. Okay. The Disciplined Pursuit of Less.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh.

SPEAKER_05:

By Greg McCone. Read that book. That also changed my mind.

SPEAKER_02:

These are two new ones for me.

SPEAKER_05:

They're good books.

SPEAKER_02:

Write them down.

SPEAKER_05:

Write them down.

SPEAKER_02:

Floyd, thank you.

SPEAKER_05:

The best. You're the best.

SPEAKER_02:

Where should people go? It's February. We're not yet in August, but there's always things to do. Corporate partners, black lead ords. What's the direction? You, where can I find you? All the things.

SPEAKER_05:

Well, if you want to stay in touch with me, join my newsletter, FloydJones.co, okay.co. Or if you want to get in touch with Backblack, go to backblackmovement.org.

SPEAKER_02:

Awesome.

SPEAKER_00:

Amazing. Thank you, Floyd.

SPEAKER_05:

Thank you.

SPEAKER_00:

Thank you so much for tuning into today's episode of Missions to Movements. If you enjoyed our conversation and found it helpful, I would love for you to take a moment to leave a review wherever you're listening. Your feedback helps us reach more change makers like you and continue bringing impactful stories and strategies to the show. Don't forget to hit that subscribe button too so you'll never miss an episode. And until next time, keep turning your mission into a movement.