We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Lyord Watson Jr.. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Lyord below.
Lyord , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?
The Penny Foundation is a community chest based out of Birmingham AL. The concept for the Penny Foundation began back in 2003. I joined a group of friends to start a giving circle named the Birmingham Change Fund. Through that process I began to learn about organized philanthropy. In 2007, I went to seminary, and as I was completing my studies, I began to study models of ministry from various pastors. I came across the name of Rev. William Ruben Pettiford. Reverend Pettiford was a pastor of the 16th street Baptist Church in the late 1800s. In 1890, he led a group of Birmingham residents to create the Savings Bank. The Penny Savings Bank was the first bank state of Alabama that was created by black people and run by black people.
Rev Pettiford took up an offering for the church. Then he took up an offering for the bank. He went to other churches and to the offerings for the bank. They pooled their resources together, thereby creating the assets needed to start the bank. It was these two inflection points that created the concept of starting the Penny Foundation. The Penny Foundation pays homage to the work that Rev Pettiford did in the late 1800s and pooling resources to create institutions to support the black community. The Foundation continues to build upon the principles of community philanthropy which takes into consideration that even though someone might not have a lot to give, everybody has something to give. If we all give something, we can accomplish the change we want to see.
The reason I felt that the foundation would work is because I was not creating something new. I was taking models from the past and using them in the present so that they will be relevant in the future.
What excites me about this work is that we are continuing the long legacy in the history of African Americans creating financial institutions to support the black community.
Lyord , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
My name is Lyord Watson Jr. I am a social entrepreneur with a vast amount of experience in civic service. My academic background is in business management I also have a Master’s Degree in Divinity. In addition to being the founder and CEO of pay foundation, I am also the Minister of Education at Tabernacle Baptist Church located in the historic Smithfield community I have served as an elected official of the Birmingham Board of Education from 2013 to 2017 and have served on several different boards and throughout the Birmingham metro community.
The thing you need to know about me is that I love people. My desire is for people to live holistic, healthy lives. For communities to have the basic building blocks needed for a healthy quality of life to provide a healthy quality of life. I Iove what I do because I love helping people.
The Penny Foundation office has several different services. We house donor-advised funds to support nonprofits, charitable organizations, and individuals who are interested in legacy. We provide fiscal sponsorship services for people who have great ideas or dreams about how they want to impact their community but may not need to start a nonprofit just yet. We’re a platform for businesses that want to make impactful investments in the black community.
Our staff, consultants, contractors, and volunteers all understand the social, historical, and political landscape within the black community. We tried to tackle issues, not symptoms. Both need to be addressed, but we recognize tackling issues is much harder. It takes more time, and work is much riskier, but it’s necessary.
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
I’m not sure that I have a lesson that I have had to unlearn as much as I have a lesson that I have to remind myself about continually. I was 30 years old before I ever said the words out of my mouth to myself “I am talented.” I think that was a turning point in my life, not that all of a sudden I became arrogant, but in order to work on behalf of other people, in order to grow, you know your dreams, and your visions you have to have confidence in yourself. Even now, sometimes I’ll doubt myself. I will have issues with self-confidence and need to remind myself that I have talents and skills.
The other answer I would give to a question about unlearning lessons is I think one of the most important things is you have to be able to manage your emotion and your mind. When you are an entrepreneur or when you are a social entrepreneur there are a lot of things pulling at your time and that will be pulling at your energy.
I’m not saying that you should not be emotional or have emotions, I am saying that you cannot allow your emotions to become a drain of the energy that you need to continue to move forward. In building your business or working towards your dream. Inevitably something will happen, some event, some setback from something will happen that will trigger you, and it’s going to cause you to have some emotion.
The emotion is going to lead to a thought, and based on that thought, you’re going to do some type of action. That action is going to cause another event eight that even is positive, then the cycle will change. If the event is negative, then it will trigger another emotion that will trigger another thought that will trigger another action, and you will find yourself in a never-ending cycle.
When these events happen, not if these events happen, you have to have the self-awareness to process the events and process your emotions and focus your thoughts on the task at hand to keep you from wasting time and energy that you cannot get back that you need to move forward.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
Penny Foundation did not start overnight. It took six years, and two failed attempts to get it off the ground. Even when we open our doors in 2017, people either did not fully understand the need for a black-led community foundation. So one of the things we have had to do and continue to work on is educating our customers and donors so that they can begin to see and understand our value.
When we open our doors in 2017, we did not have any money. Community foundations are one of the most complex types of nonprofits. Generally, when community foundations are started, there is an existing endowment or resources. However, the Penny Foundation was built from scratch.
In 2018 we had about $23,000 in revenue. In 2019, there was about $67,000. In 2020, there was about $167,000. In 2021 there was about $560,000 in revenue. In 2022, we estimate that we will end the year above $1 million.
From the time I first had the concept or thought of starting a foundation that focused on the African American community until now has been about 12 years.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.pennyfoundation.org
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thepennyfdn/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thepennyfdn/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/penny-foundation-inc/about/?viewAsMember=true
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/thepennyfdn
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@pennyfoundation3506
Image Credits
Patrick Johnson, Black Angle Media