Talia Scott, Founder of Legally Blk Fund, on Leveraging Your Personal Story and Execution to Build a Brand

Picture This: You’re a young Black woman born to an undocumented immigrant in Harlem, NY on a professional pursuit to law who happens to earn a full ride to college. Then, as a senior in college, you realize just how important networking is and start reaching out to leaders in your industry of interest. You meet a fellow Black woman who takes interest in you and cares about your success. This Black woman recognizes your passion for business, law and entertainment. This woman now helps you land an internship with 300 Entertainment in NYC. Mind you, your college is just 40 minutes outside of Philadelphia but you knew this was an opportunity worth taking up. For that reason, for an entire semester, you decide to hop on that Megabus from Thursday throughout the weekend and come back for classes throughout the week to ensure you committed to this internship. Was it worth it? You can bet it was! 

This was the story and experience that prepared Talia Scott, Founder of Legally Blk Fund, for a career in business, law and entertainment. This experience provided Talia with a balance between landing opportunities at prominent law firms such as Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP, while also landing opportunities at prominent media companies including Music Warner Group. Talia did all of this while nurturing her “business baby”: Legally Blk Fund, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting aspiring Black women attorneys and increasing the representation of Black women in law. This was the diverse professional experience that paved the way for her admittance into NYU’s JD/MBA Program. 

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Talia Scott Becomes the 2023 David Prize Winner of $200,000

With just 3 years in business, Talia’s significant impact through her company Legally Blk Fund, paved the way for her winning the prestigious David Prize award. What is the David Prize? It is a celebration of New Yorkers with ideas for extraordinary change. They believe that New York City's best and biggest resource is its people and that New Yorkers who are proximate to the City's greatest challenges will build the best solutions. Why is Talia’s David Prize Win a significant milestone? Not only is the access to capital key, but is also a testament to her hard work. 

Scott reflected on the difficulties of her own law school application process and knew she needed to make change. She specifically reflected on how expensive and lengthy the application process was and how much of a barrier this would be for underrepresented women, specifically Black women, applying to law school. She knew that she needed to act fast. As a result, she leveraged an instagram post to fundraise $17,000+ which funded the application process for 10 aspiring law students and has even gone on to provide $40,000+ worth of funds to aspiring legal professionals prior to her David Prize win. 

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How Did Talia Build a Brand Worth Investing In?

‍Declare Your Why Statement By Reflecting on Your Personal Story

Talia mentions the significance in establishing your ‘WHY’ statement. This statement is key to landing future partnerships, grants and funding. This is the statement that will allow you to reach out to donors, funders and other investors. It’s important to note that the nonprofit world is very saturated. For that reason, you need to be able to explain why your brand/your company is unique from anything else out there. You need to be fully aware of what types of brands exist in the nonprofit world so that you are not duplicating nor imitating what already exists. You want your brand positioning to be as unique as possible. Where does this “WHY” come from? Your personal story!

Talia has mastered leveraging her personal story as the child of an undocumented immigrant who landed a full ride to college to land her key internships and job opportunities while also having a hard time with the expenses and time consumption of law school applications. In an attempt to solve this same problem for future applicants, she knew that she needed to lean into her own story to help others realize the magnitude of this problem and why investing in her as a solution is the right thing to do. Check out Legally Blk Fund’s Mission. This is the message that has led her to where she is today. 

Become An Avid Executor; Even At a Small Scale 

Get Your Legal Requirements in Order

If your goal is to create a nonprofit, you need to register your business as a 501c3, charitable organization. This equates to a lot of cost. To avoid significant cost, you can do what Talia did. Talia sought out pro bono legal services where a law firm took her on as a pro bono nonprofit client and drafted her bylaws, an operating document for the nonprofit that states the mission, the goals, initial board and more. When considering who will be on your initial board, you should think of people who can point you in the direction of other donors and also advocate for your organization. Registering your business provides you with an EIN which is often compared to a “business social security number.”

Branding and Marketing

What are the visuals for your brand? What is the aesthetic that you want to give off? What is your brand messaging? Fun Fact: Talia has always been obsessed with the movie Legally Blonde. She used her love for this movie and its messaging of feminism in law to generate a brand aesthetic that leverages shades of nude to represent the diversity of Black women while also leveraging hints of pink for that sweet feminine touch. This was all intentional in her efforts to avoid the aesthetic of old traditional law firms which feel outdated and disconnected from the very group she supports. This branding is representative of her social media and website for the business. 

Get Your Business Essentials in Line

Now that your nonprofit is legally registered and your branding/marketing is on point, it’s imperative that you have the following set up as well:

Have an email for your business (i.e. Gmail)

Potential Partners, donors, and volunteers need a channel for communicating with you and your team. Make it easy for them by having your email account set up. 

Social media account setup

Ensure you are on the relevant social media platforms that not only your audience is on, but also where future donors and partners will be. This can include platforms such as Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.

Set up your bank account

Donors with larger access to capital will not feel comfortable sending money to your personal account. Why? Because they are donating to your business. Be sure to set up a formal business bank account for your nonprofit. 

You need an accountant

The right accountant is key to financial success. Accountants are typically knowledgeable on not only the financial aspect of your company but also ensuring that this financial handling is up to par with the legal stance of your business (i.e. LLC, 501c3, S Corp, C Corp, etc). Find an accountant who understands what you are building and who has the knowledge and team necessary to help you upkeep your business.

Find a donor software program

Donors need a safe place for donation transactions. Now that your business bank account is set up, you want to collect small and large donations through platforms such as Every Action and Classy. This is a great way to not only collect funding but to also build strong relationships with your community of supporters. Slightly different from donor software, a great resource for email marketing and community building is SquareSpace if you already have your website built on it. 

Establish your initial volunteer team

We all know that building a business is not easy. However, landing your first hires? Tuh! That’s one of the hardest aspects of business. Why? Because access to funding is slim to none when first creating a business. This is why you must lean in on building out a volunteer team. This is a team of people who are working with you because they are passion driven and feel connected to your mission. Their help is essential to running your business while you go out and seek funding to expand the business and also pay them. 

Learn how to write grants

Grant writing is key to accessing funding for your business. While it is great to have board members who can assist with this, they are also limited on time. For that reason, you need to be able to learn the art/skill of grant writing while also finding the time to put in these grant applications. 

Be Prepared to Pitch to Potential Partners and/or Donors

When pitching to future partners and donors, you want to have two 1-pagers and two decks. It is important to note that 1-pagers are typically more text heavy while decks have a mixture of text and visuals (but more visuals). For your 1-pagers, it should have the following:

• one to explain the business, the founder behind it, and how the potential partner/donor can get involved/support
• another 1-pager with specific financial asks of that donor (donors are typically aware that there is a financial ask at this point)

Now, let’s focus on decks:

• In the short deck, you should be addressing not only what the company has accomplished but also where the company is heading and how potential donors can assist with the future of your business. In this deck, you want to avoid including any financial asks. 
• In your lengthier deck (otherwise known as your combined deck), this includes the information in the short deck, but will also have specific financial asks of the potential donor. It may list tiers of donation support categories that will help your business grow. This may look like tiers valued at $1,000, $5,000, $10,000 and more. Sometimes it looks like simply taking whatever offer is on the table (if it makes sense for your business). In this deck, you want to be sure that you are elaborate on how the potential donor/company fits in to the problem you are trying to solve. These companies want decks specific to them; not a generic deck going out to everyone

When presenting to these companies via your deck you need to acknowledge the following questions:

• What initiatives has that company led?
• What do they support?
• What do they consistently fund? 
• Where do their employees volunteer?
• What testimonials do they have on their site?

You may even want to check out news surrounding that company. Have they recently hired their first Black Woman in a particular leadership role? If so, DEI may be something they care about. This may be a great opportunity to pitch to them. You can also learn about community matching programs done through Benevity where some companies match employee donations to charities. 

There are numerous ways to build your brand and business through storytelling and execution. This was Talia’s path and you may want to consider making this your path, as well. 

Interested in connecting with Talia? You can find her on the following platforms:

• LinkedIn
• Website