Entrepreneurial Appetite
Entrepreneurial Appetite is a series of events dedicated to building community, promoting intellectualism, and supporting Black businesses. This podcast will feature edited versions of Entrepreneurial Appetite’s Black book discussions, including live conversations between a virtual audience, authors, and Black entrepreneurs. In this community, we do not limit what it means to be an intellectual or entrepreneur. We recognize that the sisters and brothers who own and work in beauty salons or barbershops are intellectuals just as much as sisters and brothers who teach and research at universities. This podcast is unique because, as part of this community, you have the opportunity to participate in our monthly book discussion, suggest the book to be discussed, or even lead the conversation between the author and our community of intellectuals and entrepreneurs. For more information about participating in our monthly discussions, please follow Entrepreneurial_ Appetite on Instagram and Twitter. Please consider supporting the show as one of our Founding 55 patrons. For five dollars a month, you can access our live monthly conversations. See the link below:https://www.patreon.com/EA_BookClub
Entrepreneurial Appetite
Innovation in Philanthropy through Children's Literature with Dr. Desmond Delk
What if you could transform lives while pursuing your passion for writing? My homeboy, Dr. Desmond Delk, an Associate Professor at Langston University, and I delve into a heartwarming conversation about this very concept. You'll hear about Dr. Delk's inspiring journey from being a professor to a philanthropist, supporting historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) through scholarships and micro-scholarships. He shares the intriguing story behind his book, 'I Love My SSU,' - an innovative tool to raise funds for a scholarship at Savannah State University. Listen to understand how he encourages donations from former students and colleagues.
Can a children's book be a vehicle for philanthropy? Dr. Delk proves it can! We explore his experience with creating a children's book to highlight the history of Savannah State University and using it as a tool to engage with alumni associations to raise funds. Get your pens ready as Dr. Delk shares insightful tips on writing a children's book for a good cause, setting up a scholarship at an institution, and leveraging relationships to maximize donation matching programs. Lastly, you’ll get all the details you need about his book, 'I Love My SSU,' and where to buy it to show your support for this noble cause.
What's up everybody. This is Langston Clark, again founder and organizer for Entrepreneurial Appetite, a series of events dedicated to building community, promoting Intellectualism and supporting black businesses. I want to welcome you to this very special bonus episode featuring my homeboy, dr Desmond Delt, who's going to talk about his efforts to support historically black colleges and universities through philanthropy. And this is particularly special because not only is Desmond a graduate of a historically black college, he is also an employee of an hbcu and this episode really just speaks speaks to the work that is done by faculty staff and administrators working at hbcu's, the extra labor that doesn't get recognized and oftentimes doesn't get compensated for. So enjoy this episode and hope that you are able to support dr Delk's efforts to be a philanthropist at historically black colleges and universities.
Speaker 1:We have a very special micro episode with my homeboy, desmond Delk, who is an associate professor in department chair of health, physical education and recreation at Langston University. He is also the author of I Love my SSU, a children's book that supports a scholarship fund at savannah state university. And so, desmond, before we get started, just tell us a little bit about who you are and your philanthropic story.
Speaker 2:All right, so let me do what they typically always do. They say, you know they thank you for doing what you're doing and you know kind of experience opportunities and these conversations to the people. Yeah, so I'm Desmond Woodruff Delk, south of what's Atlanta native, so I guess this idea and you know I currently serve at Langston University as a professor and also serving the role as chair, which has been a pretty good experience these last couple years so this idea of philanthropy to me, you know this is a big name. You got big people to do your big dollars and you know I don't have the big dollars but I can do something right, and so my whole idea behind it was just to assist people.
Speaker 2:I don't know what the specific statistics says, but you know from these big lumps of money that people need right are not always the case when trying to satisfy the academic bill. So my goal was to try to provide students with, I guess, quote, unquote micro scholarships to help kind of like fill in these gaps, based upon small essays, based upon what I could actually contribute. And so we kind of started from, you know, the Brighton Book, alomaz SSU, and started a scholarship based upon that. You know, of course, another procedure in the book but also done what is like go fund me campaigns, what, probably over a decade ago, I did a go fund me campaign you know to try to get people to purchase books, to give out free books at a children's book fair, but of course a portion of that money was going from there.
Speaker 2:And so also the same thing here at Langston University kind of started a scholarship for our department called the go do be scholarship, and that go do be, go somewhere, do something, be somebody. That's kind of like the model of Mr Ron Brown at Mays High School back in a Benjamin Mays High School back in Atlanta. So kind of just did that here for our department. And one thing I try to do for our graduates of the department is to get them also to donate into the go do be scholarship. You know, oftentimes people say, well, I haven't even started doing my loans, where's the money going, you know? And so my thing is like, hey, this goes directly to the students in the department you finish, you can donate five, ten, fifteen, twenty dollars a month if you want to a one-time donation. But again, just get letting people know that you know somebody is invested into them.
Speaker 2:Because during my time at Morehouse there were a lot of scholarships that came from different angles Sometimes that just appeared on my account, some things that I might have applied for and also external scholarships, but there was somebody that invested in those scholarships. So that's kind of like my idea, that easy way to give back right and doing a homecoming, thinking about all the money we spend at a party, what are we doing to ensure that the students who are currently there in the position that we are in? So to me, my thing was just paying it forward because somebody else, who I don't know who it is kind of just blindly invested in me. So we use these tools or these mechanisms through the children's book or donations, or asking colleagues who work at companies for-profit companies, who double their maths, to support our scholarships. It's not like this big idea had. It's just simply put somebody invested in me, so let me pay you for it and if we all do it, if we all contribute a little bit, we can get more.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so talk about why you decided to do SSU, which is Savannah State University, what's the reason behind writing the book about that particular institution? And just so the listeners know that the I Love my SSU book is a children's book, so it's not a long novel. It's not something that took you years and years to write. So why a children's novel and why Savannah State University?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so it's just very circumstantial. I was at Morehouse's homecoming and I was like we were on the track watching the football game and this guy was coming around asking people to buy like children's books. But it's about Morehouse and I signed up buying one because I had at the time my brother and sister-in-law they just had my twin nieces. I was like, well, let me get this book for them or whatever. And so I got the book and at the time I was teaching at Savannah State University as well, so I got the book, ended up bringing it to my office A couple weeks down the line.
Speaker 2:I opened up the book and in the back of the book it had like a list of all the schools that this publisher published you know children's books about, and the only one that was listed there is HBCU, was Morehouse. So I was like, what's your? I'm here at Savannah State, I have this in roles to the university, these connections, so let me try to do a children's book about Savannah State, called the author, which is Earl Cooper. Earl Anthony Cooper, who was a Morehouse alum a couple years after me and you know he kind of just like walked me through the process like was again painting, for it gave me some ideas about what to do, how to do it and, you know, one day I was in class, I asked my students hey, does anybody know how to draw?
Speaker 2:And boom, you know. Morgan rose his hand and the rest was history.
Speaker 2:And so you know the reason why this is about a state was because of the circumstance I was there, but the greater idea was to kind of extend the idea of college to children at an early age, but specifically about HBCUs, right.
Speaker 2:And so typically when I do like book sales, or back in the day when I was doing book sales, you know I would typically reach out to Earl and anybody else who might have children's book about HBCU, because a couple of them have come out since then about gremlin Southern, you know, through this publisher, and so I try to get all of them together, right.
Speaker 2:So if you don't like mine, maybe get Morehouse where you can draw an attraction to. It's been a good and that was like since 2012. And so, you know, since being a part of that, and when you know my selling point to Savannah State or to the alumni, because I am an outsider, right, I talked there for a very brief time two years but you know I say, hey, the portion of the proceeds from you know all the sales will go into a book scholarship, because you know I'm showing up at people's alumni association meetings and I was like, oh OK, you teach at Savannah State. You know I was relatively much younger than I am right now but they bought into and they've kind of been like the biggest supporters, like the Alumni Association. They said I say so.
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Speaker 1:So I think an interesting desmond, that you bring up your model for philanthropy. There's Robert Smith. The billionaire started an initiative called the Student Freedom Initiative. It's kind of like the same model where there's like micro loans or micro grants to like fill in some gaps that students may have, just in case you know somebody's car breaks down, you can't afford books, but you know traditional financial aid doesn't cover those types of things, and so they're standing in that gap so that students can stay in school.
Speaker 1:And so it's interesting to hear you talk about how you've done that and in an individual way and engaged with alumni associations and things like that, to get this done, to raise these funds. So can you tell us a little bit for someone who is listening to this episode who may want to do what you did. What are some of the steps they can do to get started if they want to write a children's book for whatever university or whatever cause that they want to support, to talk about that particular topic, one to raise children's awareness of a topic of an institution, but then also figure out a way to support that through the sales of a book?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so first and foremost, it's just an idea, right? You know, if you want to highlight a school, think about, like you have to do a little history search, you know, look at the bigger history books of the institution and figure out what are the most important things you want to highlight for the institution, right, that kind of bridges, yes, a year with today, right. So if you go to any campus now it depends on the school, right? You have all the newer buildings, right, and you don't want, but you also want, to connect the more seasoned alumni, right, the people probably people provide a book and support the most with the todays. And so, again, you have to, like, really do your research, ask people questions.
Speaker 2:If you know a children's book, the main thing you can do is get a good illustrator, right, somebody who is hungry, somebody who can benefit from the opportunity, and go to the public library and just kind of look over some children's books, kind of sitting in the children's book section, and see the kind of like the flow of the books you know, see what the different grade levels are, kind of like what the flow of words will be. You know, if you want to go more kindergarten, you want to go third grade. And then you know like plug into the alumni associations, those people. They have their monthly meetings or whenever they meet. You know your local city, like so for Savannah, you know Atlanta, they have probably with like three chapters in the metro area, like one literally down the street for my parent's day where I grew up, and then one downtown Atlanta, one in a suburb or two or three in suburb. So you know just kind of connected with those people and you know, and just hit the ground running and the relationship that you have with your illustrator, maybe like a back and forth where some of your words will kind of inspire what they do and you know what they draw will inspire. You know how you write your words, and so it's kind of like a back and forth irretrieve process, you know.
Speaker 2:And then, like with the whole thing about starting a scholarship at the school, just ask the institution how to do it, because you have like your endowed scholarships, right so which they're supposed to invest in. You essentially utilize the interest off that, and so I haven't made it to that point yet because I mean it depends on the different institution. With the threshold is right, some schools are 10,000. Some schools are 25,000. And so right now I'm just building on the one, and Langston in particular right now. So this is kind of this is where I am and kind of just doing that for my own donations.
Speaker 2:Again, reaching out to students on GivingTuesday I had some old students know it's a hey man, how you doing. And as they start talking I say yeah, yeah, yeah. So this is what today is. You know, this is given Tuesday. I need you to do $25. These are people who, like teachers now, you know, physical therapists, you know, trying to get them to donate so they can they invest right. And then again, like I said, find your family and friends who work at these nonprofit and all these for-profit companies who match Donations, and so that's your two for one right there.
Speaker 2:You donated, they donate a hundred, and then their company matches another hundred. So you have what? 200, just like that.
Speaker 1:So yeah, just state, of course.
Speaker 2:You know, just be ready to be critique. And then just one thing to understand if you try to sell books at home coming, you compete in against a lot of other stuff. So yeah.
Speaker 2:Cuz, I was at Auburn at the time. So and then think about me when I published the book, I was leaving Savannah State to go back to grad school, so I wasn't even in the place that I had published his book. So I was driving from, you know, auburn, which is on, you know, southeastern Alabama, to the southeastern side of Georgia, so straight across the state I had I put my, I put about 15 boxes in my car, you know, put the seats down and everything like that, drove across the state for the homecoming. When I left Savannah State I had probably like 13 boxes with me. I didn't sell, but it was cool and so it gave me better understanding how it works with you know about timing and what's the perfect setting to try to Sell a book, you know, as opposed to a t-shirt.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so, as we close up, just a few more questions. So the first one is are there any other books that you're working on? And the second one is what books are you currently reading? That's a good question.
Speaker 2:There's no specific book, right, there's always like something pending in my brain I want to do, for I want to do off the likes and to be honest. So I got to kind of get that going and I'm putting on the record now, which is good because I mean again, I was at Savannah State for two years and that had been instantly. I've been a length sent forward. This is my ninth year, right, and it hasn't been done, so I have to get about rolling, all right. So what I'm really reading right now is I teach a internship course, right, and so there are many books that I can read, that the students can do it, why they, you know, do their internships simultaneously.
Speaker 2:And I came across a book of East Atlanta native right, and at one time I was thinking about getting failed up by Travis Malley. He wrote about ten years or so ago and it was just talking about 21 mistakes he made that he learned a lesson from. But then there's a book called from good degree is by Gucci man, right, and so we're kind of reading that book now, because the idea is essentially the same. He talks about how you fail to talk about building relationships, everything that you talk about being successful when you move into your you know, professional role. So there's a class will kind of reading that, discussing that. Now it's an unconventional author but the concepts and ideas is that of like anybody who's not only going through adversity or who's made, you know, decisions that are probably contrary to what popular belief is, possibly even the law, but how to move in transition. That you bought.
Speaker 2:So me, I think, in Gucci man in particular, you know when you think about this is thinking. Also, you know his health journey. You know we're about health and, like any point in life, you have the ability to turn it on. You know saying so that's kind of like um, that particular book and I always tap into born to rebel by Benjamin May. So you just always kind of reading that book and checking back in with that book, understanding. You know dr May is coming from a background that Didn't say that he'll become president of Morehouse and really change the landscape of higher ed, you know, especially for African Americans. So kind of looking at that, you know getting inspiration from that to continue to do what I'm doing and try not to make any excuses, especially when we have like computers, right.
Speaker 1:So yeah, and last question where can people go to buy the book? I love my SSU.
Speaker 2:The best way is to connect with me on Instagram, so my Instagram is I love my SSU underscore book. That's the best way to get in contact with me. I get a book your way and we'll start, like you know, trying to cultivate little Tigers or just little HBCUs. You know little HBCU students, so that's the idea.
Speaker 1:All right, desmond, thank you. I appreciate you taking the time to talk to us today and much continued success on your next book about Langston University. Not to be Confused with the Host Langston Clark Got you.
Speaker 2:Thank you, sir.
Speaker 1:Yep, thank you for joining this edition of Entrepreneurial Appetite. If you like the episode, you can support the show by becoming one of our founding 55 patrons, which gives you access to our live discussions and bonus materials, or you can subscribe to the show. Get us five stars and leave a comment.