My latest Mover and Shaker is a high powered entrepreneur who started her own philanthropic consulting firm, Legacy Venture Consulting. Halleemah Nash, CEO and Chief Consultant for Legacy Venture Consulting, recently celebrated the official launch of her firm at an event featuring distinguished professionals in the sports and entertainment industry. Ms. Nash worked for 5 years as a Community Relations Executive at the Chicago Bulls. She started her career with the Chicago Bulls on what was supposed to be a 9 month internship. But, after working extremely hard, she was offered a full time position after only 5 weeks!
Ms. Nash holds a Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration from Howard University and a Master of Divinity with a certificate in Non-Profit Management from Duke University. Ms. Nash is passionate about her work and dedicated to improving the quality of life for underserved individuals!
Q: Tell me about your firm, Legacy Venture Consulting.
Legacy Venture Consulting is an independent philanthropic consulting firm where we design, manage and evaluate charitable ventures for the sports and entertainment industry. What we’re looking to do is get clients to see the importance of Legacy Venture Consulting as a part of the overall success of their brand. We’re dedicated to accelerating unique philanthropic branding opportunities and helping clients invest in their own personal value and communities for maximum social impact. We work really hands on to determine the specific passions and philanthropic interests of our clients to determine how to direct those interests in a way that can provide strategic impact in the community.
Q: Who are some of your clients?
I have a range of athletic, corporate and arts & entertainment clients. Luol Deng of the Chicago Bulls (Luol Deng Foundation), Dwayne Wade of the Miami Heat (Wade’s World Foundation), Tyrus Thomas of the Charlotte Bobcats (Tyrus Thomas Foundation), Larry English of the San Diego Chargers (Lead Foundation), American Street Mortgage Company (American Street Ball Classic) and Lance Gross (Tyler Perry Show). I also work with Swish Dreams, a sports and educational foundation in Chicago and May Sister Entertainment out of Los Angeles.
Q: What has been your most exciting project?
Working on the Nothing but Nets initiative with the Luol Deng Foundation and United Nations Foundation has been my most exciting project. Luol Deng is a native of Sudan. His foundation works to develop awareness and provide support to communities in Chicago, London and southern Sudan where he was born. We worked to enact an emergency appeal to send mosquito nets to refugee camps in Chad in response to the lack of mosquito nets. Without mosquito nets, an estimated 25% of the 200,000 Chadians in refugee camps along the Chad-Sudan border will die from malaria during the rainy season. Luol Deng signed on to be an official spokesperson for the campaign. He committed to donating $50 for each basket made during that season and he also participated in awareness events to inspire others to save lives, including over 250 Chicago youth who created their own individual campaigns in their schools and communities.
This was a really exciting project for me because I was able to see this sport for development concept have a widespread reach. I was also able to connect with people across continents who now could connect with this amazing basketball star as a humanitarian. Professionally, this also gave me an opportunity to use my project management skills and tenacity to forge business and community partnerships and see it result in a really successful global charity campaign.
It’s great to say that I have had the opportunity to work with world renowned athletes like Kobe Bryant, Luol Deng and Dwayne Wade. But, what’s more notable are the outcomes – Thousands of mosquito nets delivered to families in Africa, over 100 scholarships secured for inner city youth in Chicago, thousands of pounds of clothing and food delivered to people in Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina, and over 10,000 youth empowered and encouraged through workshops, appearances and mentorship initiatives. This is what I like to call real MVP stats. And, I hope to lead my industry in assists!
Q: Are there any upcoming initiatives that you would like to discuss?
Currently, I’m working on a book with Michael Chatman who is a leading authority on philanthropy and a thought leader on celebrity philanthropy. He also happens to be my mentor. During NBA All Star Weekend, I worked on a project with Dwayne Wade that involved refurbishing a girl’s high school gym. Our book will cover the behind the scenes work and due diligence that was involved in that project and other projects of that nature.
Q: What do you love about your profession?
Whether we agree or not, gone are the days when young people looked up to their teachers, principals and neighbors as role models. The new role model is the popular athlete and mainstream artist. Celebrities have a loud microphone to speak from with a vast and attentive audience. It’s amazing to be a part of the work that helps these individuals create a message that makes a difference and to use that platform to improve the quality of life for underserved individuals. At Legacy Venture Consulting, we believe that these relationships and projects can change the world one venture at a time.
Q: How did you get your first client?
My first client acquisition after my official launch came from a referral from Beyond Sports, a foundation that I had previously completed service for on a pro bono basis. Beyond Sports referred me to Larry English of the San Diego Chargers who was looking to build his foundation and take it to the next level. He signed me on to consult for his foundation on an annual basis.
While working for the Chicago Bulls, I volunteered at countless summer camps and charity events. At many of these charity events, I worked on ground level tasks such as blowing up balloons and setting up tables. But, now many of those that I volunteered for in the past are now my clients.
You can follow Halleemah Nash on Twitter at @LegacyVenture. You can follow her on Facebook too!
Halleemah as a fellow Duke alumna and attendee of the Beyond Sports Conference I have learned so much more about you from this article. I am proud and inspired by your success. I look forward to reading much more in the future. God bless!