Founder and chief visionary Jasmine Crowe has created a groundbreaking platform to highlight the charitable efforts of Black celebrities in the Atlanta area and nationwide. After Crowe noticed a lack of media coverage on their positive impact in the community, she created Black Celebrity Giving in 2011, a nonprofit organization that is dedicated to providing news, videos and photos of celebrity philanthropy, various nonprofit organizations and causes that directly impact the Black community.
“I am really proud to say that in less than four years, we have collected over 750,000 items, served 20,000 hot meals, and traveled to 10 different cities hosting giving boutiques for homeless youth,” she says.
Crowe’s sole purpose with her nonprofit is to actively stay committed in fostering social change through her nonprofit consulting services and speaking engagements. Her number one goal for Black Celebrity Giving is to continue to provide socially conscious content and assure her nonprofit plays its role in changing the world one neighborhood at a time.
Rolling out caught up with her recently to gain insight on how she started Black Celebrity Giving, her connection with the Be Amped campaign and her new app.
What is Black Celebrity Giving?
I created it in 2011. The idea came from a vivid awareness of the lack of positive publicity for what our celebrities are doing that was good. I remember I was reading a blog at the gym on the treadmill, which no one should ever try. I was reading about Monica. I have been a fan of hers since I was 13 years old. The blog headline said she attended a charity event and that she looked fabulous. I became interested to know what kind of charities Monica supported. When I clicked on the blog it only talked about her expensive shoes and that was such a teaching moment for me. I did my research and saw she was attending a Feed the Children event. What we were doing was perpetuating a want for material things into a want for positive things. I wanted to talk about the charitable things celebrities were doing and the community as a whole. We started to create cause campaigns and reach out to celebrities to join us as ambassadors.
What were you doing prior to Black Celebrity Giving?
I was working for the Law School and Mission Counsel. I worked with diversity recruitment, so my job was primarily to get students of color into law school. I did that for four years. It was a cushy job with a corner office, but I made this company millions of dollars and it didn’t make me feel good at night. I was putting people into debt, because law school is so expensive. I knew firsthand what it’s like to owe student loans, which made me feel worse. The overall experience just didn’t make me happy. I resigned and headed to Atlanta from Phoenix to take Black Celebrity Giving to the next level.
Have you branched out to work with financial seminars?
Yes. That is our cause campaign coming up in January. It is called The Wealth Project. We are teaming up with Operation Hope where we are going to go to neighborhood that have some of the highest poverty levels around the country. We are going to be discussing with them ways that they can save on little things. We want them know that there are small changes they can make to help their finances. We will also talk about affordable life insurance avenues and making sure that they have it. Many other races are doing this, so I feel it is just as important for the black community.
How did you get involved with the Be Amped campaign?
Lisa contacted me and we highlighted the Be Amped campaign in 2013. We all need to lend our voice to this cause. Breast Cancer is the second leading cause of death for black women. Heart disease is number one, but they really mirror each other because habits help us form these illnesses. It is all in what we eat. I had a lumpectomy at 21 years old, so when I was in college I literally had to fly home and have a lump removed from my breast. That was really scary for me and even now as an adult. A lot of women are afraid to go and get it checked out, but it is important to stay on top of your health. We can save so many lives if we seek help for ourselves and others.
What projects does Black Celebrity Giving have coming up?
We are launching a new website in a few weeks and programming a new app called Find Good and Do Good. The app will allow you to find areas right within your city to go donate and help out different causes and actually be informed of different ways we can come together to make a better tomorrow for all of our children.
