Full Transcript of this episode:

Emily Race 0:12

Welcome to the Founding Mothers Podcast, where we are exploring new ways of living with one another and our planet. I'm your host, Emily Race.

On today's episode, we'll be talking with Dr. Jackie Bouvier Copeland.

Dr. Jackie Bouvier Copeland 0:25

We consider ourselves a people's movement. People who said you're not waiting for government, you're not waiting for companies to do the right thing because this is an emergency for humanity.

Emily Race 0:39

An award-winning innovator, Dr. Copeland bridges diverse disciplines and communities to heal people, society and the planet. She is founder and chief executive officer of The Women Invested to Save Earth Fund (WISE), also the backbone organization of other global Black initiatives she has created, such as Black Philanthropy Month and Reunity. The WISE Fund is a financial inclusion, equity and innovation enterprise blending advocacy and blended capital to support Black, Indigenous, and allied entrepreneurs and activists, including all genders, with promising solutions to the world’s most compelling challenges. Her work has reached at least 20 million people, and she's recognized as a history maker included in the Congressional Record for her significant civic contributions.

Educated as a cultural anthropologist, diplomat, impact designer, and creative at Georgetown University and University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Copeland was also trained in social finance at University of Oxford. A certified life coach, she is certified in board governance at Santa Clara University. Her sustainability company, Renewell, is releasing the Blachant Project, a healing arts initiative rooted in her global Black Heritage, a songwriter and vocalist using the sobriquet Bouvier, Dr. Copeland's Blackhand project includes her debut jazz spirituals album, a healing journal, and other products designed to promote personal wellness during these turbulent times for all people.

Jackie, thank you so much for being with me today on this podcast. I'm thrilled to get into the conversation with you. And I know that you are the creator of many different initiatives. You've birthed many things into the world. But today we're here to talk about specifically The Wise Fund.

Dr. Jackie Bouvier Copeland 2:40

Thanks for having me, happy to talk about what I've been up to all this time.

Emily Race 2:45

Yeah, let's hear it. I'd love to start with you giving some context on what the WISE fund is.

Dr. Jackie Bouvier Copeland 2:53

The WISE Fund is my latest effort to positively contribute to the issues of the time in our world. WISE actually stands for The Women Invested to Save Earth Fund. I have worked in philanthropy, not just as a way to fund nonprofits, but as an inclusive movement to promote love of humanity in all of its forms, which is the root word or meaning Greek meaning of philanthropy.

For me, it has always meant addressing the root causes of suffering in the world, and promoting social justice. The WISE Fund combines my long experience in fundraising, and the art and science of giving money, making money and using it for good purposes.

With two of the most pressing issues: one, the fact that women and people of color, who are innovators, equally qualified to others, only get 1-2% of the world's innovation capital. That is pretty much the percentage, whether we're talking about funding from foundations in philanthropy, or from Venture funders. So it's almost as if half of the population of the planet who could address our most compelling concerns as a species, really does not have the capital necessary to bring your ideas to market and scale them. Big problem for humanity, especially at this time of crisis. So, funding equity for women in particular, and people of color because they are the two most left out and underfunded demographics.

And then secondly, although I have been working on social justice for much of my career, which includes gender, and racial justice, social, gender, racial justice, are also all impacted by the health of our natural environment. In fact, if humanity had social justice tomorrow, the planet would still be dying. I'm not of the school that does the, “Impact Olympics” where people argue about whether health or gender justice or racial justice, or whatever is more important. These issues are all interconnected, because we have one fate as a species and as a planet. But if we were able to flip a light switch and have perfect social justice for every single person on the planet now, future generations would be endangered.

For much of 2020, on the one hand, we had the racial uprisings, we had COVID, we saw domestic violence rates rise across the world dramatically with COVID. We have what I call the pandemic recession, and increasingly, natural disasters, some of them just related to our antiquated “environmental infrastructure”, like what happened in Texas, where the lights unbelievably, for some people, just went out.

I live through wildfires in California and had to self evacuate, including my mother. So these are issues that are in everyone's living room, whether they choose to acknowledge it or not.

So I asked myself as a person who had been so fortunate to have opportunities I've had — given my very, very humble background — I always made a point of “How am I going to create things so other people don't have to endure what I had to endure just to have a basic chance in life?” And to really question, are you doing enough to make a difference at this particular moment in time, where if you're a conscious person, you have to admit that humanity and Earth are in trouble. And whatever we've been doing to try and make a difference isn't working quite the way we collectively thought it would work.

And I'm a mom, first and foremost. I hope I have grandchildren soon— my child is getting married— but I need to be able to look them in the face and say, “Grandma did everything she could”.

So I quit my job. One of the things I did was I created The WISE Fund and its mission is to find diverse innovators, particularly women and people of color — but not even exclusively, because if there is a male led organization that doesn't fit the demographics, but has the secret to solving these problems, we would fund it as long as it's inclusive of women and people of color in leadership and in terms of impact.

Our mission is to find and fund the world's most innovative environmental technologists who, if supported, their models could be scaled, and really help communities address our environmental challenges. In doing that, and actually executing that mission, we look specifically for organizations that have accessible and affordable technological innovations. And that is so important because everyone knows about solar power. But the majority of Americans cannot afford to $15,000-$20,000, or more, often, to install a solar system for their home. So here we have this great technology that was not designed to be affordable and accessible. Maybe it was designed to be environmentally impactful and profitable.

And I believe that companies should make profit. But I also believe that people should come first, and the environment, which makes our markets possible. So we will only fund affordable and accessible technology designed to address the world's most pressing environmental issues, but in a way that becomes an economic engine for women.

And that's important because this is technology. And in the crisis of the environment, what are drivers of our economic future. And I think in some ways, some of the fastest and smartest ways to help economy struggling across the world, recuperate from COVID, and the current recession.

And then all the research shows that you get a stronger multiplier or ripple effect across an economy in a society if you're investing in women, because the first thing we do is make sure our children are taken care of. And we share our expertise and our resources more broadly with the entire community. So that is one of the other reasons women are key.

We look to fund innovative entrepreneurs whose technologies or strategies are also improving public health. They are providing clean water, or they are leading to cleaner air, developing smarter environmental infrastructure in a community.

I like to say that by supporting the WISE Fund and our innovators, we get a 4 for 1 impact.

We are impacting the environment. We are positioning diverse innovators, who unfortunately, according to the numbers are still locked out, not because of merit, but because of the human package they come in. And I don't even think it is always outright discrimination. There are these myths that become hardwired in organizational cultures that are used to seeing business success come in the package of a man or a white person; they don't understand that innovation is just part of being human. So what we're doing is not rocket science.

One of the other benefits is that we're bringing diverse innovators to the seats. So they can no longer say, “Oh, well, we can't find innovative, qualified women and people of color.” I mean, I can't go anywhere where I can't find qualified women and people of color everywhere.

And then in addition, we are supporting companies that produce jobs, often in the communities that are most locked out of economic opportunity, have high rates of poverty, but also have innovators.

In the short and long term, we're starting to see that the companies we support are producing better public and even social health.

I can give two examples, if you'd like. There's one example of an innovator whom we support — and interestingly, most of these companies are one and a half to two years old, so they've been growing up during COVID — the first one is a woman named Kristal Hansley who founded a company called WeSolar, about 18 months ago. She is the only black woman in the US to own a solar company. She uses a model called Community Solar, where she builds solar farms, and then everyday people of any background can purchase solar through her company without having to install a solar system. She works out these arrangements with cities, whereby you don't even really see any difference. There's nobody climbing on your roof, installing solar panels. You still get a bill from your utility company. What changes is the source of your solar, and you see your bill go down, and you have the confidence of knowing that your household electricity isn't contributing to the decline of the planet and increasing your carbon footprint.

Then another company is in South Africa, working in townships there that are some of the lowest income regions of the Republic of South Africa. They have a challenge in that, due to the severe poverty, there is a higher incidence of underground economy, activity and crime that manifests, in part, in high rates of homicide and rape. This entrepreneur, a man named Kai Madlala, an NG young engineer, very concerned about this problem, noticed that what the communities had in common is little to no public lighting. Many of these crimes were happening in dark alleys, or as people came home from work and needed to traverse very dark streets. There was a challenge with even the few public lights being stolen by poor families. So he developed a recycled light made with— I have to explain it deliberately because it's so ingenious that I don't want to miss anything — he uses the refuse left over from the harvesting of sugarcane, to make a plastic casing for a solar powered public LED light that also embeds a Wi Fi connection. He installs them in township facilities such as public school playgrounds, so they illuminate the school grounds but also the surrounding community. The company is called Energy Efficiency. In just two years in the two townships where he's installed these lights, there has been a dramatic decline in crime. He hires women and trains them to be solar engineers and to manufacture the lights. He's created a STEM education program for the children of the women working for his company.

The only thing limiting Kristal and Kair is the fact that they need additional capital to be able to scale their business. They have waiting lists for customers, and they just need funding to grow.

So we basically go out to the public in the US to raise grant dollars. We also have a new impact investing program where someone who wants to earn interest on your support of the WISE Funds companies can do so. We connect these brilliant entrepreneurs with people in the American public. It can be grants or investments of any size.

We consider ourselves a people's movement. People who said you're not waiting for government, you're not waiting for companies to do the right thing, because this is an emergency for humanity. And so that's basically how we operate.

We also are the lead organizer for 10 year old initiative called Black Philanthropy Month, that has engaged about 19 million people. Its basic purpose is to promote a culture of giving and support by and to black-led organizations throughout not just the US, but in the world.

I mentioned the underfunding of specific communities, and also to make the public aware of the long and culturally unique tradition of giving to all causes in black communities. When I say black, I mean African descendant, or however self defined by communities across the world. It's a very exciting movement, because most people don't even know that philanthropy is part of black culture, really hard wired into it, that it benefits black communities, but communities of all backgrounds throughout the world.

African Americans give the highest proportion of their income in philanthropy compared to other groups, proven by various studies now for almost 30 years. So we're trying to promote an economy of giving, not just financially but time, talent, treasure, and voice that can be used as a positive engine to address the challenges we all face today.

Trying to also curb what I see as sometimes any merging sense of “giving fatigue” across many communities, a new level of stress — this has been a very difficult time, during COVID, for many people, people from communities that have some of the highest rates of infection and mortality, combined with very public murders of men, women, children, trans people who are black. It can be very depressing, but we're trying to remind people of what they can do, and provide them concrete vehicles to make a difference in their lives and the world.

Emily Race

One thing that's really sticking out to me is how we define innovation. Going back to that topic of who we collectively view as an innovator, and what the WISE Fund is doing, it sounds like, is saying, “Wait a minute, all of these people are innovators. And actually they're the best ones to innovate, simply because in many instances, it's black, indigenous people of color that are most impacted by the climate crisis in disproportionate ways.”

Dr. Jackie Bouvier Copeland

And women.

Emily Race 24:50

Thank you for that addition. Having said that, they would be the best ones to then come up with the solution.

Dr. Jackie Bouvier Copeland 24:57

It's common sense, isn't it? But you know, culture and perception are so powerful. We even have aphorisms, we say that “Necessity is the mother of invention”, right? It's very, very true. However, when we look at who we're going to fund, somehow this logic has crept in that innovators and philanthropists too, which is a form of innovation — are rich people. They are men. They are from the global north at a minimum, and they are white, however defined preferably.

So we end up with this system that self propelled; and most people, all people, work with the networks they know. So its culture, systemic racism and sexism, and human nature, perpetuating an unequal system that really is self destructive. Because there's absolutely no way to solve all of these complex problems if we exclude more than half of the human population from the means of production. It just doesn't work that way. And it makes no sense.

Furthermore, they're all markets as well. Wouldn't you want to tap into new markets? Even if I were going to use classic capitalist logic, racism, sexism, are illogical, from a classic capitalist perspective, objectively speaking; it limits access to markets, it sets up exploitative, but self destructive practices that over exploit human and natural resources, destroying the very communities and markets that companies need to be perpetually profitable. So we're also trying to present a different economic model that says that you can balance corporate interests with human and planetary interests, and create a nature based economy that we all can live in, and at least survive, if not prosper, together.

Emily Race 28:17

That's really the vision, right? The goal would be to prosper, and not just to be in a survival state at all.

I got really clear on the innovators that the WISE Fund is helping to support, and thank you for sharing those two stories, because it really helps to paint the picture for the impact. Can you speak at all to the people who are helping to fund these innovators?

Dr. Jackie Bouvier Copeland 28:43

Yeah, we have a diverse group of funders. I’ll give you an example. An individual gives $100 to become a member of the WISE Fund. And it's open to everyone. We actually have an interesting membership program. For that $100, you would also get a year's worth of life and career coaching, through a partnership we have with a tech company called Flourish, that provides best in class online coaching, and a really cool tool to help any person assess their overall level of well being in terms of social relationships, finance, career. I'm not going to get too deep into that, but that is growing, because it only takes $100 to be a member. And then we use most of that $100 to directly fund our innovators.

We actually we have six types of donors or investors. That's one type. Then there are those who just send us money. They say, “You're the expert, you use it any way you want to use it.” We also have foundation and corporate sponsorships, as well as programmatic or general support grants that we receive.

In October, we launched our first impact investing fund called the “People's Impact Fund”. Most people have probably heard of impact investing, where a big investment house is now trying to provide corporate, socially and environmentally responsible investment options for their investor. We're trying to do that, too. It's completely legal for a nonprofit to establish such a tool and various states have provisions whereby a nonprofit can create a social and environmental impact fund. So we have one, I'm very proud to say. And we've received our first investor, who provided us with a half a million dollars to support the Energy Efficiency company in South Africa, which I mentioned to you. Really happy about that.

And I encourage other people, you only need to have $100, because part of our philosophy is that people of any economic means can make a difference using what they have. Most of the impact investing funds, you have to have at least a quarter of a million dollars, if you go to one of the big financial houses. They're so large, they don't have the time to deal with a smaller investor.

But that's where we come in. Bring whatever money you have, we put it together in the pool. And together, we make a difference for companies like Energy Efficiency.

We also have now a campaign we're doing — I happen to be a jazz vocalist — and I really believe that people should give all their talents in whatever way they can to help others in the world. That’s my philosophy of living and I try my best to walk the talk.

Last year, in particular, I have this practice. It's a long story, but let's just say I come from a culture and a lived experience where music is not just entertainment, it is a way to tap into the positive energy of your history, of your ancestors, of the Divine, however you define it, and convert pain into mobilizing energy for a better future. In my personal life, since I was eight years old, I have written and sung songs that became like prayer or personal meditation, especially in times of intense change, joy or trauma, to get me through various difficulties that all people experience in varying degrees. Especially those moments where there are these invisible hands of the market that seem like they're beyond your control, like a COVID or this horror, I'm realizing that there are people who hate you no matter what, just because of your skin color, and seeing a person who happens to be that background, murdered, as in the case of George Floyd. People who look like folks in your family, I mean, all these major historical events have personal ramifications.

I found myself singing more during COVID for myself, and others. I have this tradition. I'm the one who calms down cranky babies with a song in my family or sundowning elders. And through a series of coincidences that it would take me a day to explain, I was basically mentored by these wonderful people, who have Grammys and so on, and encouraged to make real a secret dream to do an album of jazz Healing Songs, that takes some of this personal practice I have, which I have been doing, even without a name, since I can’t remember, and share it with other people.

I feel like I was called to do that, for a variety of reasons. So that was the genesis of this new album. I call this practice black chanting. It is built in my particular African American tradition, which in part comes from South Carolina. My mom's side of the family is Gullah Geechee from the Charleston, South Carolina area. And then I've lived and worked in Nigeria. I'm a cultural anthropologist that studies aesthetics, music, rhythms, Africa, South Asia and traveling all over the world. Forced to go to Catholic schools as a youngster, and I will admit, I'm old enough that, even though I'm not Catholic, the masses were in Latin. And they did Gregorian chants, exposure to Buddhism. And so all of it is mixed in what I call black chanting.

The first song came out on Giving Tuesday. There will be new singles that come out on Martin Luther King Day, Black History Month, and Women's History Month in March. The full album comes out on my 60th birthday. The net proceeds from the sale and streaming of the individual singles and the album will be used to support the WISE Fund and Black Philanthropy Month.

Emily Race 38:39

Thank you for presencing us to the healing power of music and and how that connects to your own lineage and ancestry, but also how ways of giving can extend beyond just the immediate ways that we think, like swiping a credit card or handing someone cash. I’m hearing here is giving through music, as well as that secondary sale of the music to to contribute financially.

Dr. Jackie Bouvier Copeland 39:07

Yeah. I think all communities do it, but it's actually part of black culture.

That's what I was saying; often people don't have money, but they have wisdom, or they have some skill that they can impart to someone else. When I was growing up, if you ascended the economic ladder, you have more money than the people in your family, when meeting a person for the first time, you would never say “What do you do?” Because the whole idea is that automatically reduces a person to money or class status. And in a community that was not given equal opportunity, we had to judge people as people, just based on their inherent human worth, and things they might be able to contribute to the world in their own way.

Black philanthropy means somebody who's a barber giving kids a book. It means giving anything of yourself that you can to help someone else, and shape the future. No matter whether you're an American born in Nigeria, in South Carolina, and Philly, LA, that is a cultural tie that binds people. It's in part why every time someone does a study, Black Americans give a higher proportion of their income, and even their time, in what some might call philanthropy, or volunteerism, even if they don't use those words.

So, yes, definitely giving voice through advocacy or singing, encouraging someone, that's all philanthropy to us.

Emily Race 41:21

Regardless of whether someone is directly connected to black culture or not, I think there's something that we can all take away from this conversation, starting to reshape the ways that we think about giving in general.

Dr. Jackie Bouvier Copeland 41:37

Yeah, and it's actually pretty radical, once people have that consciousness. Because what it means is you don't have to sit home and be depressed, or angry, that these things are happening in our country or in our world, whatever these things are to you. You have agency. You can make a difference, because there's this philanthropy that was the backbone of the abolition movement, that made the civil rights movement possible. And think about all of the other movements that have essentially modeled themselves, whether they knew they were doing it or not, on this particular black approach to human rights, and giving and support. That's millions of people over decades and eons living this way.

I mean, to me, that is the most essential form of power, which is love in action, over millions of people, and millennia. To me, that is what black philanthropy is.

And adding the singing to it, remembering that I was mostly in the closet about my singing for various reasons; the encouragement I got from these musicians to do it was a form of giving. They didn't have to. Then me trying to pay it forward as best I could with their help in executive producing and singing and doing most of the writing for the album. I couldn't have done it without them. And then the people who listen, even if they stream it, a little bit of money, per stream — which is going to be my new social justice issue. I didn't know that musicians only got less than a penny for every stream. There's so many ways funding inequity manifests itself and undermines people's ability to support themselves, their families and their communities.

So I will keep being me, giving what I can give, calling out the issues and inviting others to join.

Emily Race 44:22

Well, you are truly an inspiration to me, and I'm sure anyone listening to this.

I'd love to hear your vision for the world, that WISE Fund is helping to contribute? What would that world look like?

Dr. Jackie Bouvier Copeland 44:40

I want everyone to realize that they are a change agent. They can be a philanthropist, a giver and an innovator or support those who are. Even with the major challenges facing the majority of people on the planet, if we put together our ideas, and our resources, we can absolutely shape not just history, but our future, and make it into one that we want for our children and future generations.

My vision is that through the WISE Fund, we will become a united front of humanity, ensuring that there is funding equity for all innovators, so that together, we can literally save the planet.

Emily Race 45:54

What would be a tangible action or an inquiry that our listeners could take from here to help bring that vision to life?

Dr. Jackie Bouvier Copeland 46:03

They can support the WISE Fund. We are quite serious about funding equity for innovators. It is a key to addressing the challenges we're facing. So check us out, give or invest at the wisefund.org.

Emily Race 46:27

We'll put that in the show notes for everyone as well.

Dr. Jackie Bouvier Copeland 46:32

Thank you. And that includes streaming music.

Emily Race 46:38

For sure. I'm looking forward to listening to what's already released and for what's to come.

Dr. Jackie Bouvier Copeland 46:46

Let us know how it struck you.

Emily Race 46:49

You're speaking to another formally closeted musician over here. I’m recently coming out of my own shell in terms of connecting to music, so thank you for modeling what that can look like.

Dr. Jackie Bouvier Copeland 47:04

Great. It's wonderful. As healing as it is for us as artists, it also is for other people.

Emily Race 47:13

Well, again, much thanks to you, Jackie. Thank you for all that you're creating in the world and for being a living embodiment of the vision that you have spoken about here. We look forward to connecting with you again in the future.

Dr. Jackie Bouvier Copeland 47:28

I will continue to do my best with others.

Thank you for inviting me and thanks to everyone who's listening and thinking about supporting our work together. We can do it.

Emily Race 47:42

Yes, we can. Thank you.

Dr. Jackie Bouvier Copeland 47:45

All right. Take care. Happy holidays.

Emily Race 47:46

Bye bye, you too. Bye.

Emily Race 47:58

Thank you for listening to this episode of The Founding Mothers Podcast. This podcast is produced and hosted by me Emily Race, and edited by Eric Weisberg. If you want to support the show, please leave us a rating or share this episode with the important people in your life. We'd also love to hear from you if you or someone you know would be a great guest to share about their vision for the world. You can email emily@founding-mothers.com or visit www.founding-mothers.com/podcast