Founder & funder event recap · Live Free OKC & Arnall Family Foundation

Our second ‘Founder & funder’ event—in which we pulled back the curtain for an in-depth look at how a founder started an organization and the funder that helped make those dreams a reality—featured Jabee Williams of Live Free OKC and Perrin Duncan of the Arnall Family Foundation.

Live Free OKC works to dramatically reduce gun violence in impacted Oklahoma City communities through intervention and effective provision of resources. Jabee serves as Executive Director and is also a successful rapper and community leader in OKC.

Perrin Duncan is the Special Projects Manager for the Arnall Family Foundation. She began her role with the foundation in 2022, specifically overseeing social justice reform and underfunded programs. She is an advocate for inclusive collaboration and innovation, ensuring the right pieces are in place to collectively work toward improve systemic challenges.

This conversation highlighted how the power of trust, the value of authentic partnership, and the courage of taking risks can make a huge impact in collectively solving community problems. Jabee and Perrin have a unique and productive partnership that has allowed the Arnall Family Foundation to support the founding of Live Free OKC and to set a great example for other founders and funders.

Relationship building

Building a case for the first gift for a new non-profit can be daunting, especially when there isn’t an existing relationship. In the case of Live Free OKC, Jabee and Perrin have been working together since before the organization was even fully formed.

In 2021, Jabee had been doing work on behalf of the Julius Jones Foundation when he was introduced to Live Free USA. From there, he took his wealth of knowledge and hosted a Peace Summit in OKC where he met Perrin. Together they had a mutual interest solving gun violence in their community. They then began building a relationship rooted in trust, respect, and the mutual goal that together they could make permanent change in their community.

After that initial meeting at the Peace Summit, Jabee continued to involve Perrin throughout the process of forming the org. “I felt it was a huge blessing to be welcomed by Jabee in those early meetings,” she noted. He discussed that early on he had very little knowledge about funders and as the only organization of its kind in the area, he knew that any funder would be taking a risk.

Perrin was involved from the beginning and was willing to put in the work, even before the first ask. Both noted that it’s incredibly important even for a first ask that the funder really sees how the organization can make change. Aligning the missions, goals, and values of both the founder and funder is vital. For Live Free OKC and the Arnall Family Foundation, that shared connection and the relationship they built over time made the first ask that much easier.

As their relationship as founder and funder has evolved, has shifted how she supports the organization. Live Free OKC is incredibly busy in the community doing the work, and while they continue to communicate often, Perrin is now focused on introducing them to other funders to help continue this great work. “We all win when more people come together,” she noted.

Community impact

Live Free OKC’s partnership with the Arnall Family Foundation was just the beginning of the impact of this work in OKC. Having this partnership allowed for the organization to continue to build legitimacy within the community.

Jabee met with stakeholders from the city, the police department, the DA, and community members to continue to get buy-in. Jabee noted, “We didn’t have everything mapped out.” However, it was important that the public, stakeholders, and funders knew what they were doing, recognized the value, supported their work, and understood the organization’s intent to improve the public health of the community. They did this by looking through the lens of who they were presenting to.

The organization hopes to continue to expand its reach into other areas within OKC, and with the early partnership with the Arnall Family Foundation, they have the foundation to do so.

Advice for Founders & Funders

This conversation brought a lot of great questions to light for founders, funders, and the nonprofit community at large. Both Perrin and Jabee shared some unique perspectives as a founder and funder. As a founder, Jabee encouraged all other founders to be as prepared as possible. It’s one thing to have an idea to solve an existing issue, but you need to have facts and data, and to be able to field all questions you’ll receive.

As a funder, Perrin noted that it’s not always about how far an organization is along in its planning; it really can depend. Live Free OKC didn’t have data or even a budget during the early part of their relationship. She encouraged funders to start the conversation and be a thought partner to these great organizations.

There are “a lot of exciting conversations to be had,” especially when it comes to working toward a more equitable and safer world for all. It’s also important to include everyone; Perrin noted that philanthropy has left out a lot of minority-led groups. Her last piece of advice to funders was: “You can only do as much good as you know and truly understand.”

Founders are good at what they do, they know the community the best, and they’re doing the work. As funders, it’s important to learn, come together when you fail, and find solutions to continue this work.

This event series is offered as a collaboration between Aperio Philanthropy and the George H. Heyman, Jr. Program for Philanthropy and Fundraising within the NYU SPS Center for Global Affairs. 

About the author

Tayler earned her Master’s degree in Public Administration at the University of Nevada, Reno. Prior to joining Aperio, she worked in higher education fundraising consulting, partnering with a variety of institutions, including Texas A&M University and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, to help them achieve their fundraising goals.