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So welcome to the good community. We're nonprofit professionals, philanthropists, world changers and rabid fans who are striving to bring a little more goodness into the world.
So let's get started. Hey, Becky, what's happening?
I'll tell you what's happening. Dr. Tim is in the house. Are you all ready? Are you ready to talk about economic justice? We are about to talk about cross sector collaborations, and we're about to do it with one of the most joyful organizations and human beings in the great state of Mississippi. So let me back it up and introduce Dr Tim Lampkin, he's the founder and CEO of Higher Purpose Co. it's an amazing economic justice nonprofit that's prioritizing economic opportunity and black communities across Mississippi by supporting the ownership of financial, cultural and political power. Jon, like mic drop, we are, like, one of those things would excite me, but the fact that you're doing all three of those, Tim is just awe inspiring. And so Tim has over two decades of community economic development experience. He's managed the statewide racial equity grant making program for the Mississippi Humanities Council, which won casual the 2018 National Humanities Schwartz Prize and the Obama Foundation also selected Dr. Tim in 2023 to join the inaugural cohort of USA leaders. He has so many awards. He has so many recognitions. He is a teacher, adjunct professor. He is president of an incredible impact venture company. He's doing all the things, all the wear everywhere, all once, all the time. So Dr. Tim, we are just excited to drift off of your energy, your enthusiasm, your joy. Welcome to the We Are For Good Podcast. We're so glad you're here.
Thank you so much. Super excited to be here, glad this is happening, and excited to just tell you a little bit about our journey and get to know folks through this platform.
Yes, we want to know about this idea and how it manifested and took off. But before we go into any of it, we want to get to know Tim. Like, take us back to little Tim growing up like, how did you get into this work, and where did you get this heart for justice and equity work? We want to know all about it.
Yeah, great question. People don't really ask me that much. So my journey really started in Chicago, the west side of Chicago, seeing what was happening there, and getting the opportunity to travel during the summer to Mississippi to visit grandparents. So I had that break to really see, like, Wait, there's a whole another world outside of West Side of Chicago, and to really be among a community that was really self sustaining, right? And so that was really remarkable to see. My grandparents had a car washing business, and they had a garden, and they had connections to other folks in the community that had other businesses, and we would all kind of come together on certain days of the week to support each other, whether it's to, you know, community cleanups or community fairs or after school programs. And so that's what really sparked it. And last year, I actually said that I really believe that I am trying to recreate that childhood experience in real time now by giving people something that was so precious to me. And so that was the beginning. We then moved to Mississippi permanently when I was in middle school and I started to understand the deep history of Mississippi, and I was blessed to have a deacon at my church, Reuben Smith, who had been involved with the social justice movement, working with other civil rights leaders, really was a strong advocate for education, and he took me under his wings to really mold me and mentor me in a way that said, hey, what you're doing is not just for you. You're doing this work for the broader community. And so that really instilled in me that everything that I have, everything that I do, is not for me. It's, it's really to be a blessing to others. And so that was the beginning, and I can remember it so very clearly, how I just really just jumped into what I didn't know at the time was community economic development. So that was, that was high school, and then the pathway just continued to to grow from there.
God bless the Reubens of our world, right?
Seriously, and your family that was laying all these seeds within you, you know, too. Like, here's the story of community, this belief that community is everything. It's a value that we uphold here. It's a value we celebrate here. But I love that you're you found a way to live that out in a really meaningful way. And so I wanted to connect the dots. So you kind of, you know, got us up to college, like, what was it like to establish Higher Purpose Co. I look at, like, the programs we're going to get into, some of these programs that you're running today, but like, catch us up, like, tell a little bit of the history of starting that initiative and where it's at today.
Well, the biggest thing for me is, once I got to college, I went to HBCU, Mississippi Valley State University, which was originally a cotton patch, and there were so many people involved with organizing what then was Mississippi Valley State College. And my mentor actually went to this institution to become a teacher and advocate, but I really started to understand the impact of organizing and learning the deeper stories of Fannie Lou Hamer and Medgar Evers, and IT Montgomery and the list goes on and on, all these folks that had really taken upon themselves to really organize, in my opinion, for the right thing. And so that seed was really planted then. And then there was, there was a short moment where I took this kind of different pathway to work in a larger city. And that was really, it was a good decision, but also it was a lesson learned, because I recognized that kind of the corporate America model wasn't really for me. And I remember calling very clearly to my mentor probably about 6am in the morning, I was living in Mobile, Alabama, and I said, Hey, you know, I'm just not happy, like I'm just not fulfilled. And he said, Come back to Mississippi, dive in deep. You know, there's a lot of things that you can do. And that really became a launching point for me to really create my own kind of identity in the community economic development space. Fast forward to 2015 I was kind of thinking about these other programs and projects, and kind of presented this to my current employer, which is a CDFI at the time, and I said, you know, I think there's a way that we can be more impactful. There's a way that we can really change people's lives, and we can start around business ownership. And so I took this idea, and, you know, I'm pretty sure people have seen versions or heard versions of this story where it's like, I took the idea and they said, you know, it's a good idea, but we don't want you to do it.
Yeah, the head pad.
I said, Okay, that's fine. Well, I'm gonna resign, and I'm going to put all of my energy and effort to build this thing that I truly believe in. And then fast forward, later in that year, I was able to be invited to the White House to talk about this kind of vision for the delta. And then in 2016 we launched Higher Purpose Co.
I mean, talk about listening to your nudge and taking the great leap of faith and to just think about that kind of a beginning. Dr, Tim, like you just went for it, and what is standing there today is such a beautiful, vibrant, community, centric organization that has such thriving tentacles into so many different programs. I mean, I I'm so proud of you, and I'm so happy this exists in the world, and it's so joy filled. So can you highlight some of your programs and the partnerships that are in Higher Purpose Co. because many of them have significantly advanced economic justice in your region. They have elevated human beings, ideas like talk to us a little bit about it.
Well, you know, I could talk all day about our work, so I'll try to be brief but also impactful. So, you know, what we recognize is that we had to become what we believe as kind of a void field fillers. So, you know, we. Talk about our work as being solutionaries and really thinking about how we can organize. And so one of the biggest things that we saw is that there was a disconnect around just community education. And so as people know, there's a lot of information out there about how to start a business, how to grow a business, but we, what we really understood that there needs to be a way that we can kind of almost cipher through the information and really provide it in a digestible way. And so community education really became a very core element of our work, leaning into supporting business ownership, working with farmers and artists and entrepreneurs, particularly first generation entrepreneurs. So that was really critical for us. The second part that we recognize is that in order to really bring viability to these businesses in our communities, that we had to also be a capital convener and capital matchmaker, and so we launched the Higher Purpose Funding Network in 2019 With support from the SurdnaFoundation and a few other foundations that were saying, hey, you know, you have this crazy idea, Tim, how are you going to make it work? Well, since 2019 we've deployed over $1.5 million to businesses, and that has been direct grants. That's been loans, long guarantees, leveraging philanthropic capital to be a regranting mechanism for businesses. You know, one of the things that I get really excited about is that the way that we're able to kind of humanize the capital access experience, right? So when we think about traditional financial institutions, and there's a lot of data out there that shows that a lot of particularly Black and brown communities get denied access to capital, or they just don't even apply because of their fear being denied and that rejection. And so we've made a lot of progress in terms of integrating joy into our process, even when people apply for funding, we have motivational quotes and aspirations to really soften and really make that experience really liberating, not necessarily something that they're dreading, and so our funding network has been really exciting to see, and we've been able to create more impact over the years with that. One of our newest programs is Higher Purpose Food, and this is a procurement commitment to farmers and food entrepreneurs. We just launched this in the last six months, and we're really excited to be tapped by the CDC Foundation to really be a part of a national hunger and nutrition collaborative where we're working in conjunction with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the White House to really convene about, how can we shape the systems that really create access to, I mean, to hinder access to quality fresh food? And so that initiative has been really exciting, and we're really leaning more into these national models that allow us to be more impactful, not just in the state, but across the region, as we continue to make impact.
Okay, I am so, so amazed at what you've done and the way you are leveraging partnerships to fuel more growth within your community, which fuels more grants. I mean, like you can literally, I feel like I can see the ripple of this funding starting to create economic possibilities, and you're doing it on such a big scale. Tim, I mean, working with the CDC Foundation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, these are really big organizations and granters, and you have built this relationship, and we are so proud and excited that this is in the world. Bravo.
Thank you so much. Yeah, it's, it's been a really interesting journey. I mean, we're almost nine years into this work. Who, who would have thought it years ago, like starting this? And I think the other beauty about this is that we've been able to not just, you know, provide joy, that it's, it's, it's wrapped up in real impact. So when we talk about, you know, job creation, you know, we looked at our numbers from, you know, 2021 we've created over 400 jobs in the state, right? When we think about creating personal assets, you know, we did our membership survey, about 40% of our members had increased their personal assets, right? And so it's not just about, you know, kind of one thing, it's really creating a ecosystem of economic opportunity. And. That I really get excited about. And you know, the biggest project that we are working on right now is the Higher Purpose Hub. You may have saw this and some of the media that we received over $2.2 million from the federal government to establish this Economic Opportunity Center. And this is really the combination of all those years of really doing our programs, but now we have a home where we'll centralize our services and programs, but we're also offering other amenities that will be able to uplift the community, such as a public art gallery, a Civil Rights Museum, a food hall and market, as well as we're working with several other entities to be housed inside our hub. So we're really thinking about this as a a space, the hub being a space, and also a strategy for the organization, to think about this as a regional economic opportunity hub for Mississippi and across the Mid South.
Gosh, I mean, yeah, we completely celebrate that grant coming. And I was going to ask you about that, so I'm glad you brought it up, because, my friend, I feel like you're activating at such a direct level, you're speaking to the impact that's happening within families, within the community. Can I ask you about something that really struck me looking at y'alls work too, is that your desire to really shift the narrative, you know, some of the preconceived beliefs and biases that are out there. This is work that I think, you know, we're really passionate about. We sometimes call it marketing as mission. Is like, how do we tell a story that's also like helping to change people's minds about issues and maybe educate people and just open doorways to more healthy conversations about how we can do this together. Would you talk for a second about what's worked as you've thought at a bigger macro level of like, how do we shape the community's perceived? You know, understanding of some of these issues too.
Well, that's a great question, and I often get that question, and I respond by saying, we first had to change the stories we were telling ourselves as as the organization, right? As when we organize, we say, what are the stories that we've been told, and then what are the stories that we need to tell to really kind of debunk the preconceived notions. So we started there, and that was really critical for us, because we cannot go and be advocates for a new story if we're still believing that the old story is true and so it's
So good.
So that was Yeah. So that was really important for us, like, let's tell ourselves the different stories and really allow that to be rooted in who we are and what we do and how we move and the culture of our organization. And that's why, when people see my team, they're like, your team is so happy. Why? Because we believe in a different story. We believe in a different narrative about Mississippi. So I think that's the first point. The second thing that we did was we started to really change who the narrators were, right? We actually put ourselves in position so we can tell different stories, but also creating a platform and opportunities for the communities that we work with and members of our community to actually be kind of keepers and advocates of their own stories, right? So one of the biggest stories that that we came out with early we talked about the Young Family Farm. They had been married like 25 years, had 40 acres of land, had moved away from Mississippi up north and came back. No one knew who they were. Right. No one knew that they were making their own wine in the Mississippi Delta. We put that story out there, and that story just blew up. Why did we do that? We wanted to make sure people understood that underneath all of the drama and these other lies about Mississippi, that there's a lot of good work happening, and if you only see, you know, the glass, you know half full, you're gonna miss a lot of joy, a lot of promising, promising opportunities being created. And so we've done that through, you know, written articles. We've also done several short documentaries about our work, highlighting the different organizations and entities that we work with, and so that's really part of us, our strategy through Higher Purpose Film, that's a key piece of our work, where we're not just waiting for someone to come in and tell our stories. We're telling our stories very consistently, and we'll be doing more of that as we continue to go into the next couple of months, because we want to make sure that no one get it gets it twisted about what's happening in Mississippi, and we're going to continue to do this work with folks helping us, but by by all means necessary, this is not something that we're waiting on someone to help us with because we're going to do this work regardless, because we truly believe in the transformation of our communities. And I think the other beauty about this is that our work is super intergenerational. You can come to anything that we're having, and you will see a college student in the room. You will see someone in their mid career, professional area, you'll see someone that's 70 in the room being in the this space, pouring into each other, being soaking up the knowledge and the connections and the resources. And so I think that's the other thing about what we're building. It is not just silo to one particular generation that we're touching everybody in the family, and that that is a story that we want to continue to lift up as well.
Okay, we have chills. There's so much to be gleaned here, because I do think people may have come to hear the incredible story of what your nonprofit is doing to create this economic justice and to really start to scale opportunities. But what I think they're going to get as the icing on the cake is for you to say we believe in the transformation of our communities. We own this story. We are driving the narrative, and we really believe in this notion of collective power and how it can build community. And you're right. It starts in grounding people in their values and what they care about. So thank you for talking about how to be not only a liberatory leader, but how to be someone that owns our narrative and uses it to scale others. So I want to talk for a second just a little bit more about this economic justice and cross sector collaborations, because we want to give people some practical tips, like, what would you recommend for nonprofits that really want to go deeply into this economic justice movement and really start to build sustainable community wealth models in their regions. Can you have some tips for them?
Well, you know, one of the things that we have been doing over the last year is really looking at what the community needs and also our capacity. I think I've seen so many times where the need doesn't match capacity, and then both entities and parties are disappointed at the end, right? Because the nonprofit or the social impact firm, you know, commits to something and doesn't have the capacity, and then the community gets excited about it, and then it doesn't come out the right way, and there's this, you know, big sense of, like, disappointment. So what we've been really trying to do is scale rightly and timely, to move with the with the community. And what I mean by that is that, you know, we've been doing this work quite some time, and there's still a lot of learning, and also unlearning that needs to happen, and so being able to right size our scalability has been really critical to also match the need of the community. The other part that we've been able to do is understand that this work that we're doing is not just in a silo here in our state, it's also leaning on national partners, regional partners, to be a learning organization. And I think a lot of organizations do not spend enough time just learning, not not evaluating, but learning. And there's both can coexist, but I am. I'm truly advocating for more organizations to spend time just learning, and I think that provides us a different type of position, because we're not just thinking about what's happening in Mississippi. We're thinking about, okay, if we make this decision, how is this going to impact our friends and our partners in Arkansas and Louisiana in Georgia? How are we thinking about our statement or our position on this particular issue? How is that going to be a ripple effect to our colleagues in DC that we're having conversations with? So I think that learning and understanding where your leverage points are in your ecosystem is also really critical. I think the last thing I would say is, and this is just kind of a tried and true for me, is that we also have to make sure that we're continuing to do things with the community. And I want that to land, because I've seen so many people say we're doing these things to, or doing these things for instead of with, because if there is not a true understanding that people. That you are serving, that understand that you that you are going to be in it with them. It is a difficult uphill battle, in my opinion, to really get the trust, the type of impact and the resources that you truly need. So you know that is something that I have been taught for for quite some time, and I am still seeing a lot of organizations make mistakes as it relates to doing community development, economic development work where it is very self serving in some regards, it is not truly rooted in the community needs. And so I think doing a temperature check is always relevant, particularly where we are right now in our country, to say, hey, are we doing the right work with the right people at the right time? And if we're, if it's not an immediate yes, then it causes for us to go into deliberation with ourselves, with our partners, to really understand, what are we really trying to do? What problem are we really trying to solve? Because I think that also gets us into thinking about this work on a systems change level, versus thinking about this as kind of a how do we how do we address kind of the byproduct of the main product a problem? It's more about what is the main problem that we're trying to to solve? So I could talk about this all day, but, but I hope that was helpful to folks that are listening and seeing this.
I mean so many things that I think would be whole episodes to talk about, but I think prepositions matter. You know, it's like, is it for, is it with, how are we doing this community engagement piece of our work? And I love that you're leading with curiosity. The idea of just always learning like, I think that is so key. Yeah, so beautiful. Well, I mean, I wanted to ask you about cross sector collaborations. Clearly, y'all are incredible at that, but you struck a chord in me a few minutes ago when you talked about the intergenerational aspect of your work, that your community gathers and there's people across generations sitting and sounding getting curious with each other and talking to each other and helping each other. What advice would you have in building a community that really bridges that? Because I think it's a barrier to many shops, you know, you tend to be kind of put ourselves in pockets with same generation and same kind of mindsets. How has it worked for y'all?
Well, I'll be very transparent, you know, we were doing our work mostly for, you know, adults, right? Looking at probably the 35 to 45 age range, not necessarily trying to.
Us Jon. That's us. I know we're your target audience, yes.
Not necessarily going after that demographic, but that's who we originally were attracting. And then in the pandemic, we saw a huge shift in older population coming and being more interested and curious about our work as we came out of the pandemic here in the last two years, we noticed that there was more young people saying, hey, you know, I'm in college, and I heard about your organization. How do I get plugged in? And so we started to have these really internal conversations around, what does that look like? How do we create an on ramp, on ramp to, you know, youth being engaged with our work, and how do we create spaces, safe spaces for everyone to exist and feel heard and feel seen, and so we've been able to do that in a couple different ways. And one of the success stories is actually our business summit that we've been doing for the last nine years. And this year we actually made it intergenerational, where we had youth in their own track of programming, and the adults had their own track of programming. And it was just really beautiful to see that we were all talking about business ownership in a way that folks can really receive it and understand it. And so we had over 500 people to come out to our annual Money, Purpose, Success Summit that we've been doing, and we're really excited to do it and again in 2025 and beyond. Because for us, it's really about creating a platform and really building that agency where people can see entrepreneurship, business ownership, not as a second thought, but a potential Plan A for them, because so many young people in particular have been trained and socialized that you're going to, you know, graduate from high school, graduate from college and go work for someone else. And I'm not saying that that can that's not a pathway for some folks, but what we're trying to do is least provide some exposure to the possibility of being a business owner, and also these other elements that we talked about in terms of leaning more into this economic justice model. So that's been really exciting to see. And this weekend, you know, we're excited about what we're doing here in Clarksdale, Mississippi for our Higher Purpose Fest, which is focused on food and music and wellness. And we're expecting over 5000 people to come out to this festival. And again, this is another intentional way to really build economic opportunity, but also to create these intergenerational experiences for folks here in Mississippi.
Wow, there's so much here. I mean, what a beautiful example of cross sectional partnerships. I mean, we have talked today about aligned fundraising. We've talked about trust based philanthropy. We've talked about safe communities of belonging and ethical storytelling and empowered narrative framing, like there's so much goodness going on here, Tim and I just thank you for the way you're leading with such an inclusive perspective, where it feels so much less about Tim, and it feels so much more about what the community is going to bring to bear to make itself a thriving ecosystem. So I hope that many of you who are listening like took a lot of nuggets. I hope you see the possibilities of this for your community. So I we really celebrate story on this podcast, Tim and I am wondering if there is a story of maybe philanthropy, generosity, kindness that happened to you in your life that really stuck out and stayed with you. Would you share one of those stories with us today?
Yeah, great question. I remember my first real internship, and my mentor, Deacon Ruben Smith, was adamant about providing some support, and so he went around the community and organized and raised money for me to stay in Jackson, Mississippi for the summer, to expose me to the banking industry to understand what was happening at that time in kind of pre housing crisis in our country. And so for me, him, you know, being probably in his 60s at the time, seeing that, I didn't, I didn't even ask for the money. It was more like, where are you going to stay? I was like, I don't know. Okay, I'll figure it out. And raising that money for me from other church members and community members and to have a place to stay. And also he understood the importance of me learning and being in this space around finance, and here I am today, right? I'm still doing a lot of these different pieces in the background for the organization. So that was one of the most impactful moments for me, because, again, it was someone that saw the best of me, right? And I think that's the beauty about the work that we do now. I see the best of Mississippi. I see the best in my community, the best in my my team, and for me, it's really about helping people before they ask for the help. So how do we, how do we get ahead of the need and anticipate the need and be in a position to to serve and and lift folks up as we climb together, and I really feel like that moment for me was, you know, instrumental to to my success. So that's a that's one of the stories that I could share. There's plenty stories I can share, but that was one that resonated the most, and I think was timely for this discussion
Is Ruben still alive?
No, Ruben is not still alive. He passed away probably about five years ago.
We dedicate this episode to him because I just think about like you, the Higher Purpose Co. started with Rubens belief, and I just think about that investment and how that spread to so many people, and it is such a legacy, like you came in and gave so much more than you received, and that's been such a beautiful start of your story. And, oh, I'm so glad you told that one.
Thank you so much. Yeah, his his wife is still living, and we talk often, and she is so excited about what we're doing, and comes to a lot of things that we have, and it's just been a beautiful kind of journey. And people that that knew Ruben, when I am in certain spaces, they like you remind me of somebody, and it's like,
Oh my gosh.
So it's really, it's really, it's really interesting, the kind of the mark that he, he left on my life. And yeah, being able to feel these big shoes has been just a joy, and I'm deeply grateful to do this work. It's just an honor. And I tell my team all the time, I'm so grateful that I get a chance to do this work with you, because it is a true life changing experience to be of service in a place where people understand that you're not looking at them, looking down on them, right? It's, it's like, no, we're, we're in this thing together. I, I am going to carry the load as much as I can to help us navigate, um, these moments.
Gosh. Tim, thank you for taking us into your story. I mean, the stories of generosity never get old, the stories of community never get old, and you just live this out in your life. So I just hope that everyone listening today takes a second to go check out Higher Purpose. It's higherpurposeco.org you can learn all about their work and get connected with Tim on LinkedIn, or follow him on Becky you got him on like TikTok and Instagram and all the places.
His Instagram is fire, Yes, totally.
So yeah, lean into this movement. Reach out to connect about community, and just thank you so much for being here. What an incredible episode.
