Female Founders: Dr Jackie Bouvier Copeland of ‘The Women Invested to Save Earth Fund’ On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder
An Interview With Candice Georgiadis
Doing good does not require full-time work in the social sector. The philanthropy and nonprofit sector have no monopoly on “doing-the-right thing.” If not careful, these institutions can exhibit the same money-driven ethical and power-grabbing lapses as their corporate and government counterparts. One can change some parts of the world for the better from the public, social, or corporate sector.
As a part of our series about “Why We Need More Women Founders”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Dr. Jackie Bouvier Copeland.
An award-winning innovator, Dr. Jackie Bouvier Copeland bridges diverse disciplines and communities to heal people, society, and the planet. She is the founder and chief executive officer of The Women Invested to Save Earth Fund (WISE), the backbone of other global Black initiatives she has created, such as Black Philanthropy Month and Reunity.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers want to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
It’s my pleasure. This is my fourth year of an Authority Magazine interview, and I appreciate the continued interest. I guess it means that I’m doing something right or at least trying.
I’ve shared most of my career backstory in previous issues. But I keep evolving to meet the times. With escalating social, political, and environmental crises, I’ve reinvented myself for a more profound impact.
Leaders are not impervious to the injustices disrupting society and their constituents. We’re a part of the community. The stresses of the times have taken a toll on my health. And with the California wildfires, I relocated with my family to Northern Arizona, where the climate change disasters are less severe. However, there’s no place to escape them entirely.
In the process of self-reflection, healing, and largely rebounding from many COVID Era traumas, I felt called to enhance my life mission to heal people, society, and the planet in several ways. Giving is not just my occupation; it’s my spiritual calling. After all, the best way to survive and thrive in a crisis is to build the future with all your heart.
I’m primarily a private person. But the past few years I’ve been sharing more of my backstory and opinions. Being in the public view more is a bit unsettling. But soon we’ll look back on these times and realize that we are at the same inflection point as major times in history such as the Civil Rights and other seminal moments in human rights history. Giving voice any way I can is an important way for me to make an even bigger difference.
I am a creator. I always saw myself as blending the sciences, technology, and arts to create movements to make life better. My role as a founder is part art and part science. My poetry, fiction, songwriting, and singing have been private, personal, and spiritual practices throughout my career. The arts and my spirituality sustain me through hard times, giving me the strength and courage to evolve, serve, lead, dream, and manifest the impossible with others in times of challenge. The travesties of the times require policy change and community building but even more to mend broken spirits and rebuild hope.
So, with a lot of support, this year I’ve been writing a new life and career chapter. I wrote, performed and executive produced my debut album, a compilation of nine original, spiritual jazz songs and three covers that I called Blachant (pronounced “Black Chant).” I’ve sung and even wrote some music all my life. It’s how I pray, my communication line to the Creator, especially during tough or joyous times. Since childhood, I have sung in church choirs and volunteered to sing in nursing homes. I noticed that my singing creates calm and joy in people. It certainly calms me and serves as a source of meditation.
For decades, I had a secret wish to share the music more publicly, creating a spiritual jazz album blending my diverse cultural and musical influences from my South Carolina Gullah Geechee family roots to growing up in Philly and the Black Church and global work as an anthropologist and leader in diverse African, Muslim, Hindu, and Buddhist countries. But frankly, with little formal musical training and then approaching 60 years old, I thought it was too late for me to do an album, especially such a genre-blurring project, combining much of the Black musical continuum — from traditional spirituals to blues, jazz, R&B, a little afrobeats with global sacred music for a diverse audience. The prospect of sharing my voice in a kind of musical giving for change and healing was intimidating. Just as I was about just to dismiss the idea, a series of angels showed up to help me make this giving dream real.
In the increasing violence and terror of white supremacist vigilantes, mass shootings in general, trying to sleep with smoke in my room from California fires, illness, caregiving for infirm elders, and significant family changes, all with the disruption of COVID, my music has been a balm for me.
Recording the songs in a Los Angeles studio last September after surgery for an unexpected health challenge, I released the album under my middle and stage name, “Bouvier,” in mid-April 2022 for my 60th birthday. I’m writing a Blachant healing journal that I hope to finish in time for the holiday giving season and related projects.
Black music is the soundtrack of the world. It’s universal and culturally specific at the same time, expressing the unique pathos and joy of a people often reviled for simply existing and persecuted due to their skin color — just as we still are today from Buffalo to Kyiv and beyond. I think it’s why people of all backgrounds relate to our music and arts in general and try to emulate it.
Our arts express part of the human story — our longing for freedom and the capacity to live through the unthinkable with our love and spirit intact. And our African-inflected music and arts, recreated by our ancestors and today’s innovators, can heal mind, body, and soul if we recognize that it’s not just for entertainment but freedom. Our music was fundamental to civil rights and other movements. I hope Blachant can become a genre on its own, a sort of Black Diaspora protest music to inspire the world in hard times.
Giving by any means necessary has been my backstory. I’m a living testament that it’s never too late to make a dream come true with faith and hard work, especially if it’s part of one’s life purpose and divine calling. The universe will send helpers. I see my singing, songwriting, and executive producing as healing arts. My singing is another gift I can share, another philanthropy initiative using music for positive change. I hope my music and Black chanting style can heal others as they healed me from childhood. All album net proceeds will support Black Philanthropy Month, Black giving circles worldwide, and other WISE economic justice, humanitarian, and climate change initiatives. Stream Blachant or buy the CD at https://orcd.co/blachant.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you first started? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
Because I’m telling the story of my latest philanthropy initiative, Blachant, I can share a funny story from the project. So, the Blachant music is my voice as an impassioned, comfortable-in-her-skin, proudly and globally Black American Renaissance woman. I do not limit myself to disciplines, genres, or other people’s boxes. Musically, I am just “am who I am” on the album, sharing my authentic voice with no musical code-switching, shaped by the sonics of many places that have influenced my life, from my family’s deep American South roots to Africa, India, Catholic school mass chants, Yoruba music, ten years of jazz vocal coaching with various teachers, and more.
Soon after the album came out, a jazz industry critic said, “This is a great album. But it sounds too Black. I can see how Black people might like songs like ‘Holla!’ and ‘Brown Baby.’ But maybe you shouldn’t have put these songs at the beginning; they scare white people off.”
As a neophyte in the music industry, the only mistake I made was, for a split second, taking the feedback to heart. Today I think the feedback is funny, albeit ignorant and racist. White and other people listen to all kinds of music. Most jazz critics should know jazz music’s Black American cultural and historical roots. I’m Black; I’m singing a kind of fusion jazz, so, naturally, I “sound Black.” Thank you!
But the feedback has several lessons. It has built my musical confidence as a protest, inspirational, and spiritual jazz vocalist. If my musical message makes some people uneasy, it’s probably doing its job. I will continue to use my authentic voice. The music is for those who want to hear it, not those who won’t enjoy it. Art is subjective. It’s okay for some people not to like the album for their reasons. But for everyone who doesn’t like the music for some reason and those turned off because, quote, “I sound too Black,” there’s another who thinks, like one music critic, “Bouvier has a gorgeous voice. You can hear the spirituality coursing through it.”
If you feel strongly about a calling, don’t let anyone deter you from it. For years, I didn’t sing publicly because some people close to me discouraged it. Also, in professional circles, I was concerned that singing publicly might make colleagues treat me as a Black stereotype (“they all can sing, you know”) and take me less seriously. So, I generally kept it to myself. But this is supposedly the time of authenticity, bringing your whole self to an integrated life. COVID has taught us that tomorrow is even less promised than we thought. If you have a dream or talent that defines you, manifest it as best you can. Even if it fails, you will grow; be stronger for the next dream or be a better guide for someone else struggling to make their aspirations real.
Focus on your why. Blachant is a spiritual jazz album — a personal healing manifesto from 2018 through 2021, a tumultuous time. While wild commercial success would be fantastic because it would bring more funding to my community’s social and environmental change initiatives, my primary success indicator is how many people feel better in hard times listening to a Blachant song. Not just the album’s name, Blachant is a verb; it’s about self-consciously creating or using music and the arts with Black roots for personal and social transformation as a portal to the world. Whenever people tell me they use Blachant music for meditation, hiking, dancing, crying, or catharsis, I know Blachant is achieving its purpose.
Anti-Black racism is everywhere, nuanced, and complex. In personal and professional circles, I’ve been called “Too Black” all my life, with varying shades of meaning, referring to my dark skin color, cultural expression, heritage pride, career, and more. Somehow although every human being on the planet has a cultural foundation into which they were socialized, a Black cultural base is seen as somehow less universal, biased, and worthy. Nothing could be further from the truth. Black people have a diverse culture with everything we need to succeed with excellence in contemporary times.
Being Black is just one equal expression of our universal humanity. Nobody gets to define what is authentically Black for me. From working in India, Australia, Brazil, and elsewhere, making music, building Black- and women-centered human rights movements, or being in the C-Suite, there are many ways to be Black, a woman, a human being. Blachant is my song for a change. It’s proudly Black and universal, just like me, not neatly fitting into imposed, often gentrified musical or other boundaries.
None of us can achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person you are grateful for who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
I can’t name just one and have shared several in the last few years of my Authority Magazine interviews. On my most recent, Blachant leg of my journey, through a series of wonderful coincidences, I ended up being a jazz student of virtuoso vocalist Jose James over Zoom during the COVID lockdowns of 2020 through some part of 2021. We realized that we knew each other about 25 years ago in Minneapolis, his hometown, where I lived for about 14 years. Emboldened by his teaching support and this serendipitous connection, I told him about my secret dream to do a spiritual jazz album combining my Black music foundation and my other eclectic, global influences. I thought I could help give at least some people a release of the natural anger and anxiety, a way to manage stress better, and at least feel momentary joy and hope.
Co-founder of the Rainbow Blonde music label, Jose introduced me to Ben Williams, a genius, Grammy-winning bassist who is my music producer and plays bass on the album. Ben assembled some of the world’s best jazz musicians for the band. Jose also introduced me to his co-founder and life partner, Talia Billig, a brilliant, Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter. He introduced me to several reputable industry professionals like Abbey Road of Beatles fame, who mastered the album. Even though the album is an independent, self-funded, personal philanthropy project not sponsored by Rainbow Blonde, I could not have done it without them. They buoyed my spirits and opened up new avenues for funding equity work in the music world, as the industry systems are still very exploitative.
I am eternally grateful for their generous, open spirit and guidance.
I’m also becoming increasingly aware of my deceased South Carolinian grandmother’s continuing influence on my life and creativity. Born in the early 20th century to my great-grandparents, who were emancipated slaves, she was a central, inspirational figure in my life, especially in times of despair. Always singing or humming spirituals, often with Geechee inflection, she was living proof that combining faith, smarts, and the arts could help a person survive unthinkable horrors and thrive.
For example, the Blachant lyrics and music often came fully formed in times of dilemma or heartache through dreams about her. Her constant spiritual singing and belief in my future (her nickname for me was “school teacher”) powerfully shaped me in ways that are still unfolding. My combination of the old-time spirituals with rhythms from many cultures updated for the times is, in a way, a homage to her and my other ancestors, reminding us that we can make a better future by building on their inspiring legacy.
Okay, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. According to this EY report, only about 20 percent of funded companies have women founders. This reflects great historical progress, but it also shows that more work still must be done to empower women to create companies. In your opinion and experience, what is currently holding back women from founding companies?
I think sexism, inequity, and racism are the primary barriers to women becoming founders. There’s no shortage of brilliant Women entrepreneurs. We just need equal opportunity. As all the statistics show, women are still paid less than men for the same work. As a general rule, they have fewer savings to self-fund their start-ups. Furthermore, unequal childcare, eldercare, and home management responsibilities can also be serious obstacles. With women only receiving two percent of the venture capital, it’s no wonder that only 20 percent of founders are women.
But these statistics don’t tell the whole story. According to a recent study by Harvard University, Black women are the most entrepreneurial. Seventeen percent of Black women created businesses compared to ten percent of white women. Black women have more business starts than white men too. But due to discrimination in funding, only three percent of Black women’s businesses reach maturity. Fair funding would advance women’s rights and power. Actually, maybe that’s why women and people color cannot get fair access to private capital. It would definitely change our country’s and the world’s gender power balance if amazingly qualified diverse people has equitable capital access.
Can you help articulate a few things that can be done as individuals, as a society, or by the government to help overcome those obstacles?
First, it’s essential to identify the problem plainly without the smokescreen excuses like the pipeline myth. All the statistics show that there is absolutely no shortage of eminently qualified women and people of color entrepreneurs and technologists. The problem is deficits in venture investors’ networks and selection processes. They often mistakenly think that the only entrepreneurs who can be successful are those that look like them and come from their networks. Naturally, because the VC world is still primarily white and male, this produces implicit biases against those who are not white males even when their credentials are equal to or exceed those of their white counterparts. So, we end up with the untenable, unjust situation where women only get two percent of venture funding. And people of color still only get one percent.
Black, Latinx, and Native American women fair the worse with less than one percent. The situation is pretty much the same worldwide. And the predicament is not much better for nonprofit sector entrepreneurs either. People of color and women-led nonprofits are severely underfunded. In response, the venture and the philanthropic world have seen dramatic growth in new women- and people of color-led funds to support high-potential nonprofits and businesses.
It’s one of the reasons I founded The Women Invested to Save Earth Fund (WISE) in the wake of the 2020 COVID era crisis. This is an all-hands-on-deck moment for the planet. Funding inequity only serves to sustain the status quo, which, let’s be frank, has only succeeded for an increasingly small elite and is overexploiting our natural and human resources to the point of self-destructive social and environmental instability. As a funding equity enterprise, WISE raises money from the US public, mixing philanthropy and impact investing, supporting early-stage environmental entrepreneurs. Our entrepreneurs revive community economies and natural environments in places hit hardest by climate change.
We also convene Black Philanthropy Month to advance community giving and investment to Afrodescendant communities throughout the US and worldwide. This year we’ll focus on ways communities can blend philanthropy and social investment for funding equity and economic justice. There’s isn’t enough money in all philanthropy to rebuild Black communities in the wake of growing human rights abuses and COVID. I hope all readers will join us for another global action Summit series starting August 3rd with events in the US, Canada, The Caribbean, Africa, and beyond to celebrate our giving while advancing cross-sector funding equity in our communities. Register or replay at bit.ly/FundBlackSummit2022.
This might be intuitive to you as a woman founder, but I think it will be helpful to spell this out. Can you share a few reasons why more women should become founders?
As a serial founder myself, one of the greatest benefits can be freedom relative to life as an employee. Building movements and organizations around one’s visions and values is an opportunity to create non-sexist and non-racist institutions. Although the hours are long and the pressures are tremendous, entrepreneurship can afford women more flexibility in integrating life and career. Creating economic opportunity and justice for others can promote social change.
All the research shows that investing in women entrepreneurs has enormous benefits for economic development, as women invest more in the development of their children and their communities. Supporting women benefits all.
What “ myths “ would you like to dispel about being a founder? Can you explain what you mean?
There’s a certain level of prestige that is associated with being a founder. The hours are long and can be around the clock. The unique life/career integration challenges facing women continue. A life or business coach can be invaluable to helping women entrepreneurs achieve life and career goals.
Sexism or racism will not disappear. Joining business collectives of other women is vital for mutual support, new business, partnerships, mentors, sponsors, and investors.
Often there’s the myth that being ruthlessly competitive and exploitative is good for business, and women are not immune from toxic practices. Women and people of color entrepreneurs have equal accountability for environmentally and socially responsible companies or organizations.
Is everyone cut out to be a founder? In your opinion, which traits increase the likelihood that a person will be a successful founder, and what type of person should perhaps seek a “regular job” as an employee? Can you explain what you mean?
A few main traits are vision, dogged determination, the capacity to create systems, and hiring and managing talented operators to run them. The ability to lead and inspire others is critical, as is comfort with uncertainty. The fact is that the majority of business start-ups fail. The most successful entrepreneurs are masters at reinvention, taking failure in stride and learning lessons to propel future success. People without these traits may prefer the structure of leading at an established company or another organization.
The career choice is not strictly entrepreneurship vs. being an employee though; one can be an executive employee of a business start-up. Entrepreneurship may be the right path at a particular point in a woman’s or other person’s life cycle. But not the right move at another life cycle moment.
Most people will have multiple careers in a fast-changing economy and unstable world. Most importantly, in a just world, all women would have and equal opportunity to achieve their full human potential, making their own family planning, careers, and other choices to learn and grow for a fulfilling life.
Okay super. Here is the central question of our interview. What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why? (Please share a story or example for each.)
- Imposter syndrome is natural and a personal growth opportunity. Acknowledge that most people experience it. Accept opportunities that stretch you despite doubt. Right out of college, because of the early opportunities, I had to do research and work overseas, I had a fantastic chance to work with an African development organization. Referred by one of my professors for the position, I made it to the last interview. I was secretly concerned that I might not yet be ready for the job, even though the hiring manager thought I was. I unknowingly sabotaged myself, focusing too much on my learning curve instead of the undeniable contributions I also would have made. I never made that mistake again. Once I decide an opportunity is part of my life mission and plan, I pursue it like I’m the best candidate, knowing that I can learn and succeed.
- Take care of yourself as well as you take care of others. I’ve worked long hours to care for my family and achieve career goals. There was not much time for other fulfilling activities. I am fortunate that now after a 40-year career, the people in my life are generally doing well, and now I can spend my time on other meaningful pursuits. I strongly suggest making time for hobbies or other activities that may seem self-indulgent. And never defer healthcare. They are vital to a full, long life of wellness and joy.
- Never stay in a toxic work position out of a sense of loyalty. I’ve had several C-suite positions that were sexist, racist, and generally unprofessional. They seriously undermined my health and well-being. My sense of loyalty was usually to a CEO or cause. Part of the “Black superwoman syndrome,” I was also determined to stay and succeed despite the challenges as a way to protect my employees and open doors of opportunity for others. The self-sacrificing was too great. No job, no matter its mission, deserves that degree of loyalty, especially since companies and organizations generally do not reciprocate such sentiments. Ironically, I advocated for others better than I advocated for myself.
As I pass the 40-year mark in my career, one of the greatest joys is to see younger women leaders from all walks of life, such as Simone Biles, Naomi Osaka, and others, stand up and declare their rights to live a life of wellness-focused on their own needs regardless of others’ often misplaced expectations. My generation’s self-sacrifice opened doors. But let the next generation walk through them without the unfair, self-destructive superwoman expectations. - Personal branding and strategic publicity are vital for a successful legacy. I came of age as a professional, community-minded Black woman in the early 1980s. We were encouraged to be strong leaders but often lead from behind to uplift our communities, collaborators, and embattled men of our community. PR that emphasized our leadership and contributions was seen as self-promoting and selfish. While I still believe in community empowerment and sharing accurate credit where credit is due, I also see that misplaced humility can be a double-edged sword. Significant contributions were made invisible and even appropriated at various points in my career. The appropriators have been of many backgrounds. I generally “keep my eyes on the prize,” satisfied that the broader mission was achieved. Now I don’t tolerate appropriation of my work, just as I always advocate for recognition of others’ contributions. In an information-saturated world, it’s not necessarily true anymore that “good works speak for themselves.” If you don’t tell your own story, someone else will tell it for you, potentially distorting it and writing you out of it. If branding and publicity are not your forte, engage someone with those skills; recognizing your story might positively transform someone’s life.
- Doing good does not require full-time work in the social sector. The philanthropy and nonprofit sector have no monopoly on “doing-the-right thing.” If not careful, these institutions can exhibit the same money-driven ethical and power-grabbing lapses as their corporate and government counterparts. One can change some parts of the world for the better from the public, social, or corporate sector.
Although no one told me this early on, I quickly discovered that a clear impact mission could be achieved through any sector. And the capacity to work across industries creates a more resilient career in volatile national and world economies. Be driven by your vision and mission, remembering there are pros and cons whether you’re an entrepreneur or employee, regardless of sector.
How have you used your success to make the world a better place?
I’ve talked a lot about this in previous Authority Magazine articles and this one too. I’ve always seen my very survival from a challenging, humble childhood and other life challenges as a call to speak out, make the world more just, extending human rights and economic justice in my community, country, and the world. My education and career choices have all been driven by this calling. Because I’ve always loved sciences, the arts, leading, writing, and fundraising, most of my positions as a philanthropic executive-scholar across sectors have combined these skills.
Now I’m more focused on my life mission and legacy of healing people, society, and the planet, supporting next-generation leadership as the world seems to be rolling back the human rights gains of the last century. I’m serving on boards, raising funds for promising women and people of color entrepreneurs creating climate tech to address environmental decline through WISE, and making Black Philanthropy Month sustainable. I look forward to using more of my time for life and spirituality coaching with my new certifications in these areas. The arts will still be a source of joy, inner peace, and teaching, including my singing-songwriting, executive producing, and several writing projects. I will continue building on my experiences and create new ones to keep learning from and loving people to change the world for the better — my longtime life and career purpose.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most significant number of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
I’ve influenced three movements: 1) The Black Male Achievement field through the early design of what would become President Obama’s signature initiative, My Brothers Keeper; 2) Black Philanthropy Month as founder; and 3) Reunity: The Pan-African Women’s Funding Movement. I hope these three efforts help establish love and human rights with economic justice for all genders, including Black people worldwide.
Now, through my work, at The Women Invested to Save Earth Fund, I’m trying to show the world that innovation comes in all colors, genders, and nationalities. If we fund innovative entrepreneurs equitably, we may reverse it or mitigate climate change, creating healthier natural environments that revive low-income economies in a post-COVID world.
Finally, I am revolutionizing my life with my art and music, keeping joy and inner peace at the center as a creator and leader, and empowering people spiritually in crisis times that still have superb possibilities for good. I hope that “blachanting” can evolve into a movement, helping all people see that Black spirituals, updated for our times, can be a source of inspiration, change, and unity. I think finishing my Blachant healing journal and movement practice will help.
We are blessed that some prominent names in business, VC funding, sports, and entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world or the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? They might just see this if we tag them.
Last year I said I wanted to meet my favorite female jazz vocalist, Dianne Reeves, the most beloved jazz diva of our times. I don’t think she read the 2021 article. But I was delighted to meet and talk with her earlier this year. Maybe just saying who I want to meet for this interview will help me manifest a meeting with them.
I have some novel ideas about how various technologies can be used to create immersive healing arts and community-building experiences so needed in these fractured times. Quincy Jones is one of our most brilliant, wise artistic minds. I had two brief, coincidental conversations with him over the decades.
I’d love some dedicated time to share ideas and get direction on the healing arts applications I hope to design. I developed a sports philanthropy program for a prominent bank about twenty years back. It’d be great to get some sports- and entertainment-affiliated VCs such as Serena Williams, LeBron James, Beyonce, and Jay-Zee involved in a healing arts tech discussion.
The Dalai Lama is one of the world’s most influential spiritual leaders. It would be a blessing to get his advice as I embark on the newest leg of my life’s journey.
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.
It’s always a pleasure. I appreciate your interest in my work and the chance to catch up to share the journey with kindred spirits. Take good care.
Female Founders: Dr Jackie Bouvier Copeland of ‘The Women Invested to Save Earth Fund’ On The Five… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.