Today we’d like to introduce you to Max Taw.
Hi Max, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My story starts in early June 2020, in response to the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery & so many other racial injustices that sparked protests across the world. I felt angry about what happened, guilty for my privilege, and most of all, a responsibility to act. So, I protested with family & friends across LA & Hollywood almost every day. Then, at one chaotic protest on 3rd st., I literally bumped into Alex Sands in the crowd. At the time, Alex was just a distant coworker within a global consulting firm, but that moment started our close friendship & partnership in the movement. However, switching from marches to Zoom meetings within the same day, we both recognized the clear disconnect between corporate & community.
As a result, I began speaking up at my workplace, not about my personal experience facing the issue of racial injustice, but about the responsibility we all have to be a part of the solution. That’s when my friend Michelle Condry told me about a $500 company match program, and we started a fundraiser with a $1000 goal. We worked tirelessly through 2-months of dedicated outreach and intentional messaging. When the fundraiser closed on 7/31, we had earned executive support at the highest levels & inspired over 2700 individual donations. Overall, together we raised ~$820,000 for the NAACP LDF & National Urban League. My experience leading that initiative changed my life, and I knew the passion I felt for social impact wasn’t going to end with our fundraiser. What surprised me was 200+ people who felt the same and were also looking to continue. That’s when we formed the Social Justice League (SJL). Our mission is to provide a platform for like-minded individuals and organizations to make genuine connections, combine skills & resources, and channel passion into action toward grassroots initiatives that we develop with communities, for communities to unlock immediate value & build long-term equity.
On 9/27/20, we held our first SJL event, Just Us & Peace – South LA. We were lucky to work with amazing partners like Bobby Kobara (Census 2020 Deputy Director), Cynt Marshall (Dallas Mavs CEO), Keone Kela (MLB Pitcher), Joe Moses (Local Music Artist), open.clothing, Impact 6, LA Clippers Voters Win, and several brand sponsors to provide: – Census 2020 Station, – Voter Registration, – 1000 PPE Masks & Handwipes, – 500 Kids Swag Bags (w/ earbuds for virtual learning, sports bottles, jump ropes & brand clothing) – 500 packaged food & drink bags, – Free Hot Meals (catered by local businesses) – Free Haircuts (provided by local barbers) On 11/21/20, for our 2nd initiative, we scaled our impact and hosted a single-day, 10-city national food drive: Just Us & Peace x Hunger Relief, where we continued our existing partnerships + expanded our network to include new major organizations* & leaders** across each location. Overall, that Saturday we collaborated across the country to provide: – 100,000 lbs of groceries – 15,000 Bombas socks – 3,000+ Earbuds for Virtual Learning – 2,000+ PPE Masks & Handwipes – 2000 Custom Tote Bags – 600 Kookin For Kids Catered Meals – 500 Kids Swag Bags & School Supplies – 200 Grandmas Hands Catered Meals – Georgia Voter Registration – Safe Door-to-Door Grocery Dropoffs to Senior & Handicapped Residents – Drive-Thru Grocery Pickups at Several Locations *Key Partner Orgs: Farmlink, open., Impact 6, Food Forward, Bombas, Minnie’s Food Pantry, Dallas Mavs, Watts Empowerment / Redeye, Do Good Bus, Hoop Bus, The People’s Uprising, Grandma’s Hands, Kookin for Kids, LAFC, Synergy Camp **Key Community Leaders / Hosts: Terance Mann (LA Clippers Guard), Chris Chiozza (BKN Nets Guard), Cynt Marshall (DAL Mavs CEO), Cheryl Jackson (Minnie’s Food Pantry Founder).
Moving forward, while we continue to structure our organization to create as much social impact as possible, our next immediate initiative will be a toy drive in Memphis, TN and Watts, CA on 12/19/20. Ultimately, my goal is to build a culture around doing good that influences consistent and growing corporate investment into communities. If we are successful, we will work to collaborate with our expanding network to both scales our immediate impact via essential products/services and to rollout long-term programs for educating, mentoring, and connecting young people to a variety of career interests and opportunities.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
The past six months have been the most difficult in my life. While I was discovering and acting on my passion for social impact work, I was still committed to my (more than) full-time management consulting role. I worked 16 – 20 hour days for several months, and I felt trapped in both because one job was paying my bills and the other was both my personal and civic responsibility to continue. This struggle was combined with COVID concerns/complexity, a highly divisive political environment and overall a complete uncertainty in the future. The result was a feeling of complete exhaustion. I also felt constantly guilty for the strain that my lifestyle put on my family & friends who faced their own sets of challenges but did not receive the same level of support I’d typically give. Unfortunately, all of these obstacles influenced the end of my relationship with my girlfriend at the time.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I am Co-Founder of the Social Justice League (SJL), and our mission is to provide a platform for like-minded individuals and organizations to make genuine connections, combine skills & resources, and channel passion into action toward grassroots initiatives we develop with and for communities to unlock immediate value & build long-term equity. Our role as the SJL is to create low-stress, high-impact opportunities for all of our partners by driving social impact initiatives end-to-end from design through value delivery & capture. Throughout each project, we connect with the communities we serve, activate & uplift local organizations, and create as much additional value in products, services, volunteers & connections as we can to multiply the overall impact that we create together for those in need.
We also work to create value for our partners in the form of marketable reporting & media content, not only to build their brands but also to create a culture around social impact that inspires other organizations & individuals to act and proves that there is an ROI in doing good. The largest thing that sets us apart is the diversity and power of our network within Corporate, Community, and Non-Profit. We continue to work to find ways to bridge the gaps by building genuine connections between each of these areas and aligning the resources from one to fill the gaps in another. Overall, I am most proud of the organic growth of our organization which started with a single fundraiser for $1,000. We never intended to create careers in doing good for others, and I think that is what has made us successful. We all trust ourselves and each other to remain committed to the values that started this all, which are acting with: empathy, unity, passion, selflessness, and strategy.
Can you talk to us about how you think about risk?
I think it would be safe to say that I am a known risk-taker within the SJL. My style has always been to step out of my comfort zone, bet on myself and our team, and capitalize on the opportunities that are presented. My largest example of personal risk-taking was my decision to quit my management consulting job. Not only had I been a high-performer with a promising career-track, but I also announced my leave only three weeks before learning if I would earn a bonus, raise and/or promotion to a manager position. As for SJL risk-taking, we only had six weeks to deliver our first event in South LA, and we faced a tight Census deadline & extensive COVID restrictions. We had no prior event experience, budget, funding, product inventory, or sponsorships. And, we juggled the pressure of this commitment with our already demanding work schedules. However, on 9/27 we far exceeded our initial goals and provided more than we had imagined we could to uplift the South LA community. Next, we took on a 10-city food drive, with less time and more uncertainty. Even with my full-time commitment for the last two weeks before the event, we all had to work harder than ever to overcome significant roadblocks. The night before the event, we were only 30 minutes from canceling our ATL location and we had not yet determined how we’d transport our 15,000 lb produce supply to Watts.
But, on 11/21 we once again far exceeded our goals and supplied essentials to over 10,000 families nationally. I know this approach often makes more risk-averse team members uncomfortable, and I believe their input is key in keeping a balance between ambitious and overzealous. But when there are concerns about making a risky decision, my response is always to try and mitigate them by planning & executing small, targeted actions that get us closer to our end goal. Even in my own career choice, though I made the jump quickly, I had set target goals for myself & the SJL months beforehand and I only announced my decision once I had reached them. The challenges we face in our journey with the SJL has, and will continue to force our young organization to learn, act, adapt & grow rapidly. As a result, the lessons learned, relationships built, and steps taken help to shape our identity. At the end of the day, our success is driven by the decisions we make, approach we take, and an all-around awareness that we cannot succeed in this selfless industry by operating on our own. We are always stronger together, and we will always commit to objectives greater than ourselves.
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
- Website: https://sjl4all.com/
- Instagram: @sjl4all / @maxbtaw (personal account)
- Other: https://www.linkedin.com/company/social-justice-league/
