Rapid Response: Transforming an idea into a movement overnight, w/Black Women For Black Lives co-founder Tokunbo Koiki

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I was seeing what was being documented by the African Caribbean students who were trying to flee from Ukraine, and I felt inspired to take action and support them. We have now raised Hundred and sixty six thousand pounds on GoFundMe. We've also raised about thirty thousand dollars in cryptocurrency. We are also working to help the eighty class students who are currently trapped in Kersin.

You know, I've basically become a volunteer humanitarian relief coordinator overnight. Having the entrepreneurial skill set definitely helped. People in authority, they did not see the humanity of black people. But yet on the flip side of that we have had donations from across the globe and so I feel like This is I see in the worst of humanity, but also seeing the best of humanity in action.

That's the Kumbo Kweiki. Co founder of Black Women for Black Lives, a new organization that sprung up to help African students. Facing racism and hostility as they were fleeing Ukraine. Pull together in just days after Russia's invasion, Black Women for Black Lives has already directly helped more than twelve hundred people on the ground. I'm Bob Safian.

Former editor of Fast Company, founder of the Flux Group, and host of Masters of Scale Rapid Response. I wanted to talk to Tecumbo because while challenging moments can sometimes bring out the worst in people. They can also bring out the best. Takumbo is a social worker and serial entrepreneur who turned her outrage and frustration into positive action, linking up with two other women she'd never met. and using the scrappy tools at her disposal to spark unexpected impact.

She shares with us the real time story of how an idea became an organization and a movement, one that even the US ambassador to the UN has recognized. It's a story that continues to evolve with twists measured in days and hours. In dollars and lives. It demonstrates how entrepreneurial spirit and community can come together. And provides practical lessons for each of us about what's possible.

And an inspiring model for supporting others in need. I'm Bob Safian and I'm here with Tekumbo Koiki. A social worker? A serial entrepreneur, and in just the past few weeks.

The co founder of Black women for black lives. Tecumbo is joining us from her home in London as I ask my questions from my home in Brooklyn. Tokumbo, thanks for joining us. Thank you for having me, Bob. Many people have been troubled by the news coming out of Ukraine. Some post about it on social media in the hopes that it will.

Spark. Action and help. You found yourself doing that and then decided, Hey Maybe I could be the one directly providing that help. And in just a short time.

Black women for black lives was born and it continues to evolve and grow. We're eager to hear about That journey. To start Can you share how you went from concerned observer?

to a resource for Direct aid. You and your co founders Didn't even know each other before, right? You only Connected via social media. Yes, that's exactly right. We were all strangers prior to February twenty sixth.

I was watching the news just as concerned as everybody else, mainly on social media, specifically on Twitter, which is where I spend most of my life, unfortunately, and trucing what was being documented by the African and Caribbean students who were trying to flee from Ukraine. I felt inspired to take action and support them. one of the students who is now a co founder for Black Women for Black Lives Corinne Sky was a second year medical student who herself was having to flee Ukraine

And whilst Corinne was fleeing Ukraine herself, she was also signposting and helping other students to understand how to get to the nearest borders, which border made sense for them to travel to, especially when the borders were getting congested. She was also actively paying for students through her own funds. to be able to get the taxes because you know, as we've all seen on the Clips students were being physically pushed out of the trains that were coming to evacuate Ukrainians from major cities in Ukraine. And so Corinne you didn't know her. You were just following her on Twitter, and then how did you I wasn't even following Corinsky on Twitter. Kareen Sky's tweets was just like another

trade of tweets that came across my timeline. as well as other tweets that I'd seen from other African students, other concerned people who had loved ones in Ukraine and were tweeting about their frustrations and their anger toward specifically, you know, African embassies who were not quick to react. So I actually tweeted at Corine, so he actually started with a tweet and I remember saying something along the line of Do you have a GoFundMe or is there another way that we can support what you're trying to do to help you and the other students leave Ukraine. I also sent her a private message on her Twitter account. So she responded to me and she sent me her bank account details because Corrine is also a British Zimbabwean.

So she leaves you in the UK prior to moving to Ukraine for her education. So she has a UK bank account and she sent me the details and I transferred some money to her, but I felt that whilst I was happy to do that. A lot of people would not have the time and patience to wait for somebody to send their bank details and then send the money across. So I offered to set up a GoFundMe for her. The reason I did this was because I have 22 years of fundraising experience. I have been a long-term volunteer with the African Caribbean Lecumia Trust. Also last year in twenty twenty one I created a GoFundMe

for a woman who I had actually helped to flee from her abusive partner's house. I remember going there and late at night grabbing her and her son, putting them in my car and bringing them to my home. We were able to create a GoFundMe and raise the money for her legal fees. So

I was able to, you know, say to Corine I knew that I had social capital that if I tweeted a GoFundMe about this issue, people who would come across that would respond positively. And this is just A day into the invasion, right? This is still early. And and you have another co founder, Patricia Daly, who joined the team. How did that happen? What was her role in this?

So Patricia Daly had also separately reached out to Corinne Sky on Twitter. She had also offered to help Corin with fundraising because Patricia, as well as being a barrister, is also an avid activist and she had fundraised about seven to five thousand pounds to provide legal support. for protesters at a Black Lives protest in twenty twenty and twenty twenty one. So Patitia reached out to me. She sent me a private message on Twitter and then Corinne created a group on Twitter. And so yes, the first Twenty four, forty eight hours, we were mainly communicating on Twitter. We had never seen or spoken to each other outside of Twitter. Now your goal was to set up a GoFundMe, but Go Fund Me wasn't accepting

For this cause at that point, right? So you had to find another workaround? Exactly that. Previously when I'd use GoFundMe, the appeal is usually allowed instantly, but I remember it flagging up that regarding the issues facing Ukraine, the suggestion was they would rather people make donations to the larger NGOs like Red Cross. And so GoFundMe said they were going to have to verify the a campaign. So I opt onto PayPal and I created a PayPal pool and the initial target was 10,000 pounds. Simply because I at the time did not realise how

big this was going to turn out. And I just thought, okay, 10,000 is a comfortable number that people are not going to be like, hey, who's this strange woman who's trying to collect money for African Caribbean students for in Ukraine. we were able to reach our goal of ten thousand pounds within less than twelve hours. I increased the target to twenty thousand and we were able to meet that target under twenty four hours as well. So we then created a second PayPal poll because by Sunday morning people were still asking to donate. People were still, you know, learning about what was happening. Not just in Ukraine, but specifically the anti blackness and the discrimination that black people in Ukraine were facing. And that was how we were able to raise over forty thousand pounds in

Just a matter of two days of a weekend. Now that money comes into PayPal and then goes To your Bank account, right? And then how does then that money get to the folks you're helping in Ukraine and and in the refugee area?

Bob, it was so astonishing to me because I remember that Saturday I was at a birthday party for my niece, and you know, I was keeping an eye on my Twitter and answering messages to Corine and also transferring money from the PayPal as the donations were coming in. So what we were doing initially was I was getting the money paid into my UK bank account. I then transfer that money to Corinne's UK bank account. She would then do an instant fast payment to her Ukrainian account. From that account she then was transferring to the other students who were trying to get out of Ukraine. Patricia played a vital role in terms of she was doing the verification. So she created a system where students would have to send her their details, bank account details, their contact number.

she was actually contacting students individually to verify that there were students, that they were in Ukraine. And once Patricia had verified the student, she would then tell me, Hey Tokumbo, can you transfer fifty pounds to this person for Corinne to make the transfer? And that was how we were initially doing it. Yeah, you you said to me yesterday, you're requesting money from strangers to send to strangers. It's a complicated process on the fly. It was a very complicated process. So initially PayPal was allowing me to transfer like£500,£2,000 to my account, but once we reached the target of£20,000, it then transferred the full balance, which was about 17,000 pounds. into my account. Bob, I won't lie to you, I was scared. I was like This money coming into my account, I am going to uh after account

for why this money is coming to my account and also how this money's been spent. I literally wrote a very basic accounting of £400 was transferred from my account at four o'clock, and then I transferred it to Corin's account at 405. And I was just trying to make sure that people could see that we were using the funds in the way that we stated that we were going to be doing. That I posted that on my social media account and had a tread I kept embedding with updates. So people could see the transparency and they could see that we were trying to be accountable because people kept sending us money. And the Monday, once we'd reached the target for the PayPal, I hadn't even known that GoFundMe had started allowing donations. Somebody found the GoFundMe. made a donation and then messaged me to say, Oh, by the way, is this your GoFundMe? And I was like, Oh yes, it's his. Please let's now start donating on this GoFundMe instead of the PayPal.

And the GoFundMe once it opened up, it brought in a whole lot more money. It absolutely did. I mean I really value the different platforms. We've had issues with both of them, PayPal and GoFundMe. But what I really appreciate about GoFundMe was that it allows you to continue to just fundraise even when you've reached your target. So again, the initial target on GoFundMe was ten thousand pounds. We have now raised Hundred and sixty six thousand pounds on GoFundMe. That is

Just over two weeks. We've also raised about$30,000 in cryptocurrency that was donated to us by the Web3. Africans collective. So yeah, it's just been an astonishing amount of trust that people have sent to Myself to Patricia and to Corine. As individuals but also as an organization.

Yeah, and you got a donation from some celebrities from Yara Shahidi, the American actress, the star of Blackish. Like how did that come about? Or did you just see it on Go Fund Me? I have to send voice notes to my business coach and my mentor just so that I can record the things that are happening in real time. So Yara Shahidi, how did she even come across us? I don't know. I honestly don't know. All I know was Yara Shahidi tagged me. on Instagram and posted a screenshot of the GoFundMe to her six point eight million followers. She also sent myself and Corinne Sky individual messages to just thank us and she donated five thousand pounds to the GoFundMe. As I mentioned, we'd had issues with GoFundMe initially, you know, delaying the campaign, but also delaying the verification process for us to be able to withdraw the money. We were able to get the contact email for the VP of GoFundMe and we sent him an email and he responded within four minutes. So I responded to him and I was like, you know, we really appreciate the quick response and we really appreciate that you're trying to fix the issues for us. But how about as an organization you contribute to this and GoFundMe actually donated three thousand pounds to our campaign as well. So we've had a two thousand pounds donation from ISHC.

this weekend had a Zoom FaceTime with Patriot. who is a former football soccer player that used to play for the Dutch national team. We had a conversation with Clarence Sedov, who's the current Dutch football manager, and we are having conversations with people who know Oprah. I woke up yesterday and I saw a news alert that our names individually and as an organization were mentioned by the American ambassador to the United Nations. In the same line as V Pamala Harris. And it was just like, What is going on? My life is a movie right now, literally.

I noticed on your email signature you quote an African proverb. Until the lion learns to read or write. Every story will glorify the hunter. Can you explain what that means to you? Just hearing you say that I just got chills because I can remember the first time I heard that proverb. It was at the TEDx that was created by a bunch of Africans yet in the diaspora to tell African stories and African narratives.

For the longest time we've not been in control of our stories, we've not been in control of the narrative. We've heard things like the dark continent, you know, African rising. We go to events where People are experts on Africa that are not Africans themselves. I put that proverb in my signature because everything I've always wanted to do is to take control of the story that I tell, not only about myself as an individual, but also the stories that I've been told about my community. When I created the first caption for the GoFundMe, I ended it with For us. By us.

Because I wanted it to be that black people, people of African descent all over the world understand that this was a cry for help. This was a rallying cry to say we don't have to wait. For the establishment, we don't have to wait for our news to be featured on the mainstream media, we can take control. of the stories that we're telling, we can change the narrative so that when the world is showing anti blackness, we can rise up as a community, and that is exactly what has happened. When you build substantial wealth through your business, it's often tied up in a single equity position.

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Learn more at creative plating dot com slash masters of scale. Hey listeners, Bob here. If you listen to Rapid Response on Masters of Scale, you may be missing half the show. Because every Friday we release a second rapid response exclusively in the rapid response feed. The guests and topics are just as compelling and timely from Ford CEO to NASA's administrator to the lessons from The Devil Wears Prada. It takes about 10 seconds to find, just search rapid response wherever you listen to podcasts and hit follow to make sure you never miss an episode. I hope to see you there.

Humans will never be more intelligent than AI. There can be two types of companies. Those are great at AI and those that went out of business because they weren't. How do we build a future? That is human centered. I'm Rana El Calyubi.

And on my podcast Pioneers of AI, we answer that question and so many more. As an AI scientist, entrepreneur, and investor, I know what it takes to build AI that works for everyone. Every week, I sit down with the pioneers shaping our future. And we take you behind the scenes of the AI that's transforming our lives. Find pioneers of AI wherever you tune in. Before the break, we heard co founder Tukumbo Koiki talk about the early twists in creating black women for black lives.

Now she shares what she's hearing from those she's helping out on the ground in eastern Europe. and how partnerships with Airbnb and others are helping. She also shares the personal toll the initiative is taking on her and the most important lesson she's taken away as an entrepreneur. I'm curious what you've been hearing from the people you're helping, from the students. What are their stories like? Are some of them home? Where are they?

It's been a mixture. We've had students who have been successful to be able to make it back to their home countries. We have other students who want to stay in different parts of Europe, mainly to continue their education. A lot of the questions we were getting were How come there are so many African people in Ukraine? It seemed like such an unreal thing for people to see. Tens and tens and thousands of Africans. A lot of these black people in Ukraine are students that have left their home countries in various parts of the continent to go to Ukraine to further their education, to get themselves skilled to be able to then compete in the global market. We have been working with students who are fifty year medical students.

Who were three months away from finishing their course. I am currently in talks with a young woman who was about to start a postgraduate in gynecology. We're speaking to STEM students, engineering students, and many of them are, you know, mature students with families. So they want to be able to continue with their education, whether it's in a new European country or however it is that we can support them. We've also been working with a young mom, a woman who's currently in leave in Ukraine. She's very, very unwell and she has a four year old son who's also autistic. She was evacuated with some other students from Sumi But the friend that she was staying with actually had to leave her. So she has been by herself, essentially. And if not for one of the volunteers who has been speaking with her on a daily basis, giving her hope. I don't know what would have happened to this woman.

Mm-hmm. I mean you must get all kinds of questions too about Where to go and places to say or maybe How to seek asylum, like what do you tell them? Who's fielding all these incoming calls? For information, for guidance.

Initially the kind of query we were getting from the people we were helping were just to get out of Ukraine. over the last few days, that has definitely shifted to people wanting to know, okay, how can I seek asylum in this country? How can I get a scholarship to go carry on with my education. Thankfully Airbnb reached out to us to forge a partnership to be able to provide up to two weeks of free accommodation for students worldwide. And that's just been amazing. Since we launched our campaign on Friday we've had Almost 200 people apply for vouchers. Airbnb has already started processing and issuing people with vouchers. We're also partnering with other organizations to look at how we can provide scholarship to the students in other European countries.

We had a guest on recently who said, you know, setting up your own aid network is really hard. And you know, it's better to work through existing ones, but Obviously you didn't feel like you had that option. for this group that there was

Just no help for them. There wasn't and I mean we weren't the only people who started helping. There are other volunteer groups as well who have also been doing, you know, the work on the ground in Ukraine and other surrounding countries. But every time I think about the message that I got from GoFundMe. If I wasn't a tenacious type of person, I would have given up at that point. I would have been like, Well, GoFundMe said we should donate to Red Cross. So maybe we should donate to Red Cross. But because I knew that Red Cross were not thinking about people like me I felt that it was essential for us to find a way to help those people, and I'm so glad that we did and we took that action.

So, how much money have you raised so far? How many people have you Interacted with? Have you helped? As part of our social media, we try to put out a daily update. And also as a team, we have daily meetings where we go over the numbers. And I believe as of yesterday, the number of people that we had helped was 1261. And we had sent about ninety six thousand pounds.

to those people to be able to get them out of Ukraine. We are also working to try and help create a situation where the eighty plus students who are currently trapped in Kerson can also be evacuated and returned safely to either their families or allowed to continue with their education and not be pawns of war. Yeah. All this is going on and You have your own work.

In the meantime, I mean it's nine PM at night for you right now, while we're having this talk. Y you mentioned you had to give away a customer for your food business, one of your entrepreneurial ventures. As much of an an experience as this is There's also sacrifice. How do you Manage both sides of that. I mean, you're a social worker also.

Yes, so I am a senior social worker in a local authority here in London. I manage a team of five social workers as well as managing five hospital trusts across London. The first week I was very thankful that my workload was not as busy. I think why I've been able to do all of this is because. Even before this, I am a serial entrepreneur. I do have several businesses that I run concurrently at the same time as having a nine to five. Very early on in the pandemic. I wasn't a social worker at that time. I was an entrepreneur. I had a full-time catering business, an award-winning kitchen and food business called Sucumbers Kitchen. And

I wasn't thinking about social work, but when the pandemic started and seeing that I had the skill set to be able to help and support people that I knew were going to be affected by the pandemic, I made a decision to return to social work after a six year career break. And whilst doing that, I also made the decision to become accredited as a style coach. Because this is something I'd always done since I was a teen. I want to do and be all the things that I can be, because why not? If I don't do this now, then I'm never gonna get an opportunity to do this. I have a full-time job as a senior social worker and you know, and there has been sacrifices. The first Two weeks. I wasn't seeing my daughter. We usually have quality time in the evening where we make dinner either together or separately and we come together and we watch Netflix or we watch, you know, Golden Girls. That's our thing. And we weren't able to do that for the first two weeks. But thankfully my daughter is hold enough to understand that you know mommy is trying to do something for other people at work. I definitely felt the pressure, especially the last week. I had to adjust my working hours.

But I did find myself on Thursday last week having to take a mental health day because I just couldn't cope. Anymore, so after about Ten, eleven days of nonstop. Black women for black lives, black in Ukraine. I took a mental health day where I didn't think about black in Ukraine. I had to focus on myself, spend time with my daughter, took her to dinner, and just really got my energy back. So

There's definitely been lots of sacrifices, but honestly I am so grateful for the opportunities that's arisen from this. I'm so grateful for the lives that we've been able to impact. the videos that we're getting from the students to tell us this is war you taking this action has led to we're now safe. We're back with our families. You know, Joyce, one of our volunteer liaison officer, she's now got so many of the students on her WhatsApp and she's like, guess what? They're back in Nigeria and they're having parties. So there's been a incredible lows, but there's been Amazing eyes from this experience.

When You think about this from your perspective as an entrepreneur. What have you learned or are you learning about how something scales? The main thing that I've learned is having social capital and having a network of people who you can call upon would definitely help. We became black women for black lives on The first Monday we had a team meeting, I suggested to my co-founders that we needed to give our organization a name and start putting some structures in place.

We came up together unanimously with the name Black Women for Black Lives, which we felt represented not only what we were doing now, but what we hope to do in the future. I was then able to call in a friend of mine who, as a domain company, I'd already put him on standby and I was like, can you just create the domain for us and help us to create the website. He was able to do that instantly. We were also able to collaborate with a amazing director from RGA, Bayina Black, who created a lot of the assets that we've used for our social media for the GoFundMe. So we've managed to scale up because we've connected with an amazing network of people who share the same vision, who see the bigger picture, who want to help, whether it's donating their time, whether it's donating their money, or whether it's donating their resources. What I've realized as an entrepreneur and been able to scale up. At this rate. He's

Having the right team members A lot of them I've never met in person. We have come together to achieve Somти that I did not think was possible. I've basically become a volunteer humanitarian relief coordinator overnight. And having the social work skill set, but also having the entrepreneur skill set definitely helped. But then also being able to partner with an incredible, amazing barister like Patricia, that has also been a real factor. Corinne Sky, her personal experience and her personal story.

even when she's been back to the UK, she still wants to help the students. She's still fighting and trying to give voices to those students. So I think all those combinations coming together has just drawn the right connection for us to be able to scale up as quickly as we have. My colleague on the podcast, Reed Hoffman uses this analogy, he says that the start up is like Jumping off a cliff.

And building the plane on the way down. Did you even realize you were jumping off the cliff when you started? I really do. Like I said, Bob, that Saturday I was at a birthday party. I was literally at my niece's birthday party. I didn't expect that I was jumping off a cleave. I did very, very early on start to understand that this was going to be bigger than me and it was going to be bigger than what we had started. I remember saying to a friend, I wonder if knowing what I know now, would I still have made that tweet to Corine? Would I still have offered to do what I did.

But I definitely feel that I was called to this. I feel like you know I'm been living and walking in my purpose. And all of that has led to This happening the same way it has led to this happening for Corinne as led to this happening for Patricia. I also believe that In the face of

severe adversity, there's also opportunity for strength, there's also opportunity for compassion. This started because we saw the worst of humanity. We saw Ukrainians and Russians and other Eastern European countries, people in authority, they did not see the humanity. of black people. But yet on the flip side of that, we have had donations from across the globe. We have had volunteers We have had people respond from

all over the world from New Zealand, from South Africa, from America. And so I feel like This is I see in the worst of humanity, but also seeing the best of humanity in action. Hm. Are you

Thinking that this project will be your future. Or you're not even making plans that way, just taking what comes. One thing I've learned is You can make all the plans that you want, but life will always come along and just I don't surprise you or throw a new dream.

I'm always conscious of Nothing is forever. So whilst I'm enjoying being a co-founder of Black Women for Black Lives, there are so many other things that I want to do with my life. And so this would definitely be a major pivot and a major part of my story. But it's just another chapter in my book. If people want to give to

Black women for black lives. What's the best way to do that? You can go on the black women for black lives dot org and you will find the link to go fund me. You can also Google search Black Women for Black Lives, and we can also be found on our social media. Whilst this has happened, a lot of good has come out of it. But at the same time, there are thousands of black people, thousands of students who now have a very uncertain future. If you have resources, if you have contact, if you have knowledge, that can be helpful to the students. Please do reach out to us on our social media. You can also email us directly at info at blackwomen for black lives, thehawk.

And so if there's a business here or business person who might have guidance or resources To help you in this Scaling journey that you're on. They reach out to that. The new email account specifically for that. So partnerships at Black Women. For Black Lives the Hawk. Well, this has been a ride for me just listening to you go through this.

See, do you think about what the future for Black women for black lives is Absolutely. Black women for Black Lives can be an organization that is not just responding to crises, but enabling black people to globally to come together to achieve. This organization can definitely grow and scale up.

You know, I would love to be able to do what Oprah's doing in terms of you know, creating a school in South Africa, being able to partner with someone to develop a scholarship brand of black women for black lives. Patricia is very, very keen to work in, you know, criminal justice and address some of the injustice that black people face in that field. Corinne decided to be a medical doctor because she cares very deeply about the issues that black moms face during their pregnancy and at the point of childbirth. This platform definitely creates a foundation one thing I've definitely realized I am a problem solver. It just comes up in different shapes and forms. So whether I'm, you know, catering for a wedding, I'm solving a problem. As a social worker, I'm solving a problem. As the co-founder of Black Women for Black Lives, I'm trying to help solve a problem that came about.

Well Tokuma, this has been inspiring. Inspiring to listen to you. I marvel at your energy. Thank you again so much for doing this. Thank you so much, Bob. Masters of Scale Rapid Response is a wait what original.

The show is recorded remotely using sanitized audio gear. I'm your rapid response host, Bob Safian. Host for Masters of Scale is Reed Hoffman. Our executive producers are June Cohen and Darren Triff. Our supervising producer is Jay Punjabi. Our producers are Jordan McLeod, Christina Gonzales, and Marie McCoy Thompson. Our music director is Ryan Holiday.

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