Since its founding in 2018, Black-owned coffee and tea brand BLK & Bold has made philanthropy a key pillar of its business by donating a portion of proceeds to youth programs across the country. Now, the startup is advancing that mission with the launch of The BLK & Bold Foundation, a standalone non-profit organization focused on supporting underserved Black and Brown communities.
The Des Moines, Iowa-based brand announced the new 501(c)(3) non-profit today, which will be run by BLK & Bold co-founder and Chief Values Officer Rod Johnson. The company currently donates 5% of gross proceeds to a group of 14 different organizations as part of its For Our Youth (FOY) Initiative.
According to Johnson, the foundation now provides the business with a centralized organization where it can create its “own programming” while continuing to expand its charitable activities. The brand will continue to donate to the existing nonprofit partners in addition to the new foundation.
“In all actuality, this has been the goal since the inception of BLK & Bold’s specialty coffee,” Johnson said. “This will be the official philanthropic arm, as I’m describing it, of BLK & Bold, where it essentially carries out the initial mission of supporting youth in need. But it will complement the work that’s being done by the pledge partners with its own programming and providing of the central resources.”
The BLK & Bold Foundation will primarily focus on three areas of support: Scholarships, workforce development programs, and health and wellness initiatives. The company’s ultimate goal, Johnson said, is to improve the lives of at least 5% of minority youths in need by the year 2045 – which is currently the projected year for when the United States population will become majority-minority, assuming current demographics trends hold.
“There are great disparities that impact our youth, whether you look at it through the lens of racial, class, or geographical, and the more support, the more entities that are focusing on impacting the youth in need across that spectrum, the better,” he said.
One of the largest areas of focus, Johnson noted, is scholarships, helping kids in need to have access to higher education and career opportunities. Workforce development programs, including internship and mentorship programs and financial literacy training will be a key component of the foundation’s work as well, all in service of driving economic advancement.
The health and wellness initiative will also go towards education and food access programs. Johnson pointed to the prevalence of diseases like diabetes, hypertension and obesity in black and brown communities as a key problem to solve, and said the foundation will partner with groups like urban farming program City Growers for education efforts. He also highlighted the issue of food deserts across the country, in which many communities have no access to healthier food or where impoverished communities are priced out of premium grocery stores.
“We’ve been fortunate on the for-profit side for BLK & Bold to be able to have partnerships that we can tap into, whether it be some of our retailers, or our foodservice partners and other places where BLK & Bold is accessible,” Johnson said. “So finding a way to deepen the relationships that we have with those partners, by way of the foundation, to impact the workforce [is important].”
Johnson plans to run the BLK & Bold Foundation in addition to his responsibilities at the core beverage business, and eventually hopes for the foundation to hire full time staff members.
BLK & Bold’s coffee and tea products are sold in around 13,000 doors nationwide and the business is expanding its presence in the foodservice channel through partnerships with Aramark and Compass Group.
In 2022, the company launched a line of ready-to-drink canned cold brew coffees, which has become the brand’s fastest growing category, Johnson said. Though he said this year’s focus for the business will be primarily on servicing and going deeper with its existing partners, the brand is currently developing new cold brew flavors – including more indulgent offerings – with a target launch of 2025.
BLK & Bold will also look to grow its “digital presence,” Johnson said, noting that its ecommerce business had become a smaller piece of the overall revenue since it began focusing on retail and foodservice growth. The company currently has 25 employees and he said that hiring in “key areas” is also a goal for 2024, particularly in the sales and marketing departments.
While he didn’t have a specific date in mind, Johnson also said a long term plan is for BLK & Bold to some day open its own brick-and-mortar cafe business.
“We’ll have to have that in-person experience to really curate what we want BLK & Bold to be and what the final product experience is like,” he said. “We’re just not in a rush to do so, because we have such great relationships that allow for us to be accessible to the market today.”