Meet Ikimi Dubose, Executive Director of The Roots Fund
The Roots Fund is a nonprofit created to empower communities of color by providing resources and financial support through educational scholarships, wine education, mentorship and job placement. Under her leadership, 67 scholarships have been awarded to BIPOC communities
In this week’s Splendid Spotlight I spend time with Imiki Dubose, Executive Director of The Roots Fund, to find out how it all started and goals for the future.
The work you do as a nonprofit is different from a traditional nonprofit. You have the power and tenacity as if you’ve been around for a decade! And I’m so excited to chat with you about it.
For starters, the best part of my work is that I am working in my purpose. The Roots Fund was created a year ago. We are a baby in the nonprofit world, but we focus on education in the wine industry through scholarships, mentorships and job placement for people of color. And it’s across all aspects of the wine industry, from support with certifications, college tuition, those who are traveling the world to study wine. There’s no limit! We encourage growth and pursuing their passion.
I feel like those who’ve gone through your program, the trajectory of their life has changed completely. A door has been opened for them, one that most didn’t know was there and available to them.
I love when someone comes in with one goal in mind and then after working with their mentor, or working in other aspects of the business, they find another passion. One that they hadn’t even considered prior to being exposed to it. One they didn’t think was possible.
I know you wear a lot of hats, but what is your favorite thing about your role?
I really enjoy the power of connecting with people. Sometimes, as your nonprofit grows, you lose touch with those you’re actually serving. I’m very intentional about setting calendar reminders every week to reach out to a few of our scholarship recipients. It goes a long way and allows me to get to know what their needs are and hearing their stories.
That’s one of the great parts about being a newer nonprofit, is you’re still developing your programs and getting that feedback from your people.
Let’s fast forward 5 years, what are you doing and what is The Roots Fund doing?
I’d love it if The Roots Fund had about 1000 scholars in the program. We’ve built extended relationships with wineries and distributors who want to continue the cause. Five years from now Black Lives Still Matter, Asian Lives Still Matter, and we’re focusing on the issues in social justice and communities and how The Roots Fund can create opportunities for those people.
We know problems won’t be solved in five years, but I hope we’re able to build a pathway for people of color, so they have space to grow into their purpose.
Can you go into the problem you saw in the wine world? What made you create The Roots Fund?
The problem we saw was there was a ceiling created for people of color. There were so many disparities for, say, a black person working in a fine dining restaurant. Addressing a table, being welcomed by the customers and their expertise given credence. When you see a latino person in the vineyards, they’re most associated with being a picker, not necessarily in management. And you see very few people of color in marketing and distributing. We were meeting people who had experience, who had the schooling, but couldn’t get a job because they were not given the opportunity. Even the expensive certifications, keeping people with lesser means out. Our goal as The Roots Fund is to knock back some of these hurdles. We’re working on building a network, as we grow, to help these scholars get and STAY employed.
There are these social obstacles, these barriers that exist, and The Roots Fund is coming together to find the solutions to knock these barriers down for communities of color. That’s incredible.
What has been a favorite social post or movement you’ve been a part of or experienced?
Well, Christina has been a huge inspiration in teaching us how to best use our social media. We’re big Canva users, and we love that there is a nonprofit program. I love seeing how other nonprofits were working during the pandemic and how they’re gaining consistent donors and promoting the work they do. One of my favorites is Black Girls Code. I love the layout they created on their page and how they go into depth on the problems they face and how they’re working to resolve them.
Something I think The Roots Fund did great on last year, on Give Tuesday, was extending that giving into a week and more! We kept the giving going and kept everyone engaged.
So I’m hearing that you had cohesive marketing, a plan ahead of time, and you took a pillar day and built on that. And you had a great support system around you, getting the message out. A lot of nonprofits forget that part and it’s so important. You guys kicked butt!
Part of why you’re so effective in your fundraising is you’re meeting people where they are. Don’t make them log onto their computer, when their phone is in their hand. Text enabled fundraising is a great way to meet people where they are. A lot of older nonprofits don’t do that.
What’s something that makes your job or your goals easier to achieve?
Listening to the people I’m affecting. I was nervous at first to collect the data but we found effective ways to get the data ourselves, without hiring an outside company. Survey after survey can be very annoying, so we utilized texting. “On a scale of this to this, what do you think about this?” “Why do you feel that way?” We knew we needed to listen to the community we’re serving. And the world at large, and how world events are affecting our industry and our people.
That’s a great tip, on gathering stats. If people aren’t responding to your emails, text them! Again, meet people where they are.
Finish this sentence for me, “More nonprofits should be…?”
Listening to this new generation. This younger generation processes and likes to receive information differently than we’ve been doing it in the past.
They don’t want mailers, they want newsletters. Short and sweet. Not too long and not too frequent. We need to listen to what they are saying and implement that information.
What is one thing you wish more people knew about your organization
I wish more people knew we were here. There are scholarships open to certain demographics, but most of them are open to all people of color across all aspects of the wine industry. We have so many international internships, and the only thing that stopped us was the pandemic. Next year we have a chance to send so many scholars to explore different cultures and parts of the world they’ve never seen before. These scholars are the next generation and we need to get them out there.
These are life changing experiences! We have 67 scholars to date. Seeing them live their dream is so fulfilling.
That’s incredible! 67 people who had their lives and trajectory of their lives opened. They’re seeing a career pathway that they didn’t before your program.
Post-vaccine hopefully we’ll get to send a lot of them over for internships very soon.
Tell us how people can get involved and what’s next for you?
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I’d love to highlight a few of our programs. We have an incredible high school program where we take students to local colleges and universities. Not just the ones that put you into debt, which can be a huge deterrent for these students pursuing a degree. What I love about the wine industry is you don’t have to have a college education to work in the industry, in fact most people don’t. It’s more about putting in the work. And then we spend a half day at a winery, followed by a tasting for the parents. So we’re hitting it on two fronts, the students who know nothing about wine and then the parents who may have only ever had exposure to cheap mass produced wine on the grocery shelf.
Our Rooted in France program begins in August, and we’re sending people over. This was all planned pre-Covid. We’re sending someone to get their Masters at The Burgundy School of Business. We open multiple general scholarships every quarter, not just once a year. You just need to fill out an application on our website, tell us how much you need and what you want to study. We announce everything on our newsletter, so that’s a great way to keep up to date with what we’re up to. As well as on our Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn. You may not be into wine, but maybe you know someone from a community of color who is, send them our way! We’d love to connect with them.
Check out @rootsfund on Instagram to support The Roots Fund!
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