We were lucky to catch up with Jeffrey Dehaven recently and have shared our conversation below.

Jeffrey, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Was there a moment in your career that meaningfully altered your trajectory? If so, we’d love to hear the backstory.

I was invited to a funeral in South East LA by the General Secretary of the National Baptist Convention, USA Dr. Calvin McKinney. He knew that I had helped stabilize a burial insurance program that was originated many years before. The funeral was for the parents of a young girl’s parents that had been killed in a car accident. They were a struggling family financially and it took almost 90 days to raise the money just to bury her parents. What most don’t realize is when a person passes in a community of color there is a celebration of transition. These families don’t have much but what they are rich in is respected and tradition.
Obviously the worst feeling in the world is to love someone that passes away, the second worst feeling in the world has to be the inability to bury them in dignity and without financial stress to the family. It’s heartbreaking to watch and no doubt humiliating at one of the worst times in your life. Many times these communities are recognized that they need help, very few times does anyone really make a permanent change. I had to do something.

Jeffrey, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I’m a man of faith. I pray almost daily with my good friend and advisory board member Bishop Harry L. Seawright. You hear this all the time “God has a plan” Well, nothing could have been more true for me. Since that day in South East LA something stuck in me. It wouldn’t leave my thoughts. I couldn’t understand why this affected me so deeply. I know now it was God speaking to me, stirring up my spirit to find and use the tools he gave me to create a permanent change in these struggling communities lives. This work has made me a better businessman, friend, father and husband. Our faith defines our direction, it’s up to us to embrace its glory.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

As I said earlier, these communities are often promised the moon and the stars, many times it comes from individuals that had grew up there locally. Don’t get me wrong their efforts are wonderful but we need permanent solutions, with real dollars in order to move these mountains. There are far too many photo opps and not near enough consistency when it comes to turning this giant ship in the right direction.
Years before I started this quest, I had a more than comfortable life. During the six years I spent building this program we as a family spent our savings, college funds, liquidated assets and did without in order to bring this together. I remember sitting at my desk slumped over with my hands on my face wondering how I was going to find the money to complete this program and deliver it to these families. Just then I felt a gentle hand on my shoulder, I looked up at my wife Kim standing there. She smiled ran her hand through my hair and placed her wedding ring on my desk. And said” get what you can for it, keep this going these communities are counting on you.”
So the long answer to your question is “my communities” they have seen and felt my commitment. I’m so honored to have earned there trust. We have gotten to know each other and true life long friendships have been forged. They know I will never quit on them and that my place is standing next to them in this struggle for financial stability.

Can you open up about how you managed the initial funding?

Funding any start up is a tall order no matter what the product, no matter what the cause. It’s a none stop merry-go-round that you seem to never get off of. When I set out to build this we met with family offices, VC groups, activist and the debatable “philanthropy groups.” I wish I had a dollar for every letter I have written to Gates, Buffett, Soros, Bloomberg, French-Gates, Mac Scott, Bezos, Zuck we even submitted to Shark tank.
Celebrities are the worst of the bunch, most put on a good show but when the lights are gone so is the action. Sorry, I know this sounds bitter, not at all. We are extremely blessed, this is just the playing field we have been given. I’m not sure why all these folks go through the trouble of setting these funds up, You have a better chance of winning the lottery than getting anything more than a form letter from them.
The real tragedy here is that if any one of them had join me at that fateful funeral , millions of peoples lives would be changed overnight. But it was like the same conversation put on a loop. We would pitch our mission, people would all get really excited and tell us what amazing people we are. There were many times they stated “we don’t even need a return we just want to see this program change these lives.”
Well, they were just polite conversations. Everything has to fit nicely in a tight box for these groups. Unfortunately for my communities that doesn’t work. We need alliances, mission driven individuals, with mission driven brands.
Which is a large part of why we funded this with friends and family. I realized if I was going to deliver a real solution to these communities, I was going to have to do it alone. We wasted precious resources and time developing elaborate pitch decks or the famous “one pagers” for these groups to only be told “you have a wonderful project but it doesn’t fit in our charter.” Nobody should have a charter that prohibits funds to help people of color create a more secure financial future.
I get it, these folks have a defined set of requirements that need to be met in order to get their investment dollars. I don’t understand why they can’t tell you that in the first meeting. If praise was a commodity we wouldn’t need capital. But we have real issues that needs permanent solutions and that takes real dollars, compassion dollars.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.empowerusllc.com