Darius Baxter and GoodProjects
Hello, hope all is great and that you had a wonderful Superbowl Sunday! That game went down to the wire. The Bengals had a storybook feel, but the Rams’ talent won out in the end.
This week on the podcast I interviewed an outstanding young social entrepreneur, Darius Baxter. Darius is the co-founder and CEO of GoodProjects, an anti-poverty organization in his native Washington D.C.
Some of you know that I started a non-profit in 2011, Venture for America, that I ran for 6 years. Darius and I have a lot in common, though his trajectory is a lot more impressive than mine.
Darius grew up in tough circumstances with a single Mom in Washington D.C. He credits playing football with developing his grit and getting him a scholarship to Georgetown. His time at Georgetown led him to working on the Bernie campaign and to social entrepreneurship. GoodProjects is now a multi-million dollar organization and Darius has received awards and accolades for his work.
GoodProjects has a very clearly defined mission – to elevate the income of 500 families in D.C.’s largest public housing project to $80,000 a year; the average in the community is only $14,000 per year, significantly below the poverty line. GoodProjects does this in part by pairing families with Family Success Coaches, who help partners access opportunities and sustain a positive mindset.
According to Darius, having someone knock on your door and tell you that you can achieve a goal leads to more confidence and better actions. Darius compares it to having a personal trainer; you push harder, sometimes harder than you thought possible. The growth mindset is a huge part of staying optimistic and breaking through.
Said Darius, “There are two types of people out there: energy-givers and energy-takers. You want to be an energy-giver.”
Darius is a big believer in the potential of Web3 technologies to fight poverty. “Poverty is a social construct that doesn’t need to exist . . . financial technologies that have been created recently, [like] cryptocurrencies and the utilization of Web3 is . . . how we can do it, it obviously allows us to do it at a much quicker and more efficient pace.” I love Darius’s vision and want to help make it a reality not just for his community but for millions.
It was phenomenal sitting down with Darius – I hope that you listen to the convo. And if GoodProjects is the kind of cause that you’d like to see succeed, you can support them here.
I like to think big while keeping my eye on the steps in front of me. Let’s move the world forward, one family – or one neighborhood – at a time.
- Andrew
Friday is the livestream premiere of my Forward Tour event in New York City! You can watch and chat with me live. Click here to join us, it will be a really fun event. Have a great week!
