NY Cannabis Insider’s conference schedule for the rest of 2022 is now available! Get tickets to our NYC meetup on Aug. 23, our Syracuse half-day conference on Sept. 23 and our full-day conference in Tarrytown on November 4.
With legalization of adult-use cannabis, New York has taken a strong approach to repair the past damages caused by the War on Drugs and prohibition.
One brand is helping advance these efforts by providing grants to nonprofits across the country that are seeking to help people who have been affected by marijuana convictions.
Good Green, a Green Thumb Industries brand, has already given over $500,000 in grant funding to 501(c)3 organizations, including two in New York, said Jai Kensey, Green Thumb’s director of social impact.
Kensey spoke to NY Cannabis Insider about the fund, who is eligible and what they’ve accomplished so far.
Any nonprofit that is doing work related to Good Green’s three pillars are encouraged to apply for a grant by August 19.
This interview was edited for length and clarity.
NY Cannabis Insider: What inspired the Good Green brand to launch?
Jai Kensey: For a little context, Green Thumb Industries is a cannabis consumer packaged goods company and retailer. We have about 77 dispensaries across 15 states and 17 cultivation facilities. And we really promote wellbeing through the power of cannabis, and one component of that is the variety of brands we have, and Good Green is one of those brands.
Sign up for the NY Cannabis Insider newsletter
Good Green was really a brainchild of our CEO, Ben Kovler, who wanted to create a brand to reinvest in Black and brown communities that have been disproportionately impacted by the War on Drugs. So the brand was created very quickly and through it, it’s really been the vessel we’ve used to reinvest funding through unrestricted grants to nonprofit organizations across the US. So far, we’ve given over $500,000 to more than eight organizations across the US, and those organizations work in three key areas of the Good Green pillars, which are expungement, employment, and education.
How is Good Green able to fund its grant program?
Good Green is a brand that we sell in our dispensaries and that cannabis funding is reinvested into Black and brown communities through a grant program that is connected to the brand. The two go hand in hand, the good and the green.
It’s beautiful that we’re able to reinvest funding from our brand that’s sold in our dispensaries And so that was the key part for us – to ensure that we were able to provide resources. I always talk about how at Green Thumb, it’s our duty to provide resources and platforms to help amplify the voices of nonprofits that are out there in the trenches doing the heavy lifting of supporting the communities in which they serve. So it was a great opportunity for us to find a way to right the wrongs of the War on Drugs. But this is just one way that we can leverage a brand that we sell within our RISE dispensaries to help communities of color, whether they be nonprofit organizations or individuals and communities who are supporting people in need.
What was the thinking process behind coming up with the three pillars; education, employment, and expungement?
The three pillars of Good Green are critical and key. I think about my nephew right now who has two cannabis felonies. If his record could be expunged, that would be a tremendous help for him to be able to live fully free within society, to be able to get loans for education and to be able to get housing and employment. Those are the major barriers that people with cannabis convictions have in terms of operating freely within society like everyone else. I mean, we just heard the news about Britney Griner getting nine years in prison because of cannabis in Russia. So there are so many barriers and the stigma that comes with that.
So the employment piece comes in because trying to find employment after being released from prison is difficult. People who are released from prison, more often than not, are literally released with nothing. And I think about organizations that we’ve supported through our Good Green grant, like Why Not Prosper, where they literally go and help women who’ve been released from prison to get an ID, to get their birth certificate, to find housing, to find employment, because when you’re released and back into society, you’re just pushed out there, with the hopes that you’ll survive after spending however many years in prison. And so it’s imperative that these organizations have the resources that they need to do the job that they do to support people.
Education is focused on adult education and looking for ways to provide services for reentry. Another organization we gave a $60,000 grant through the Good Green program is Ex-Cons for Community and Social Change, where they have reentry services for individuals who have spent time in prison to provide them with workforce development training. The Greyston Foundation in New York, an amazing organization, also offers workforce development and they have a program for people over 50. And so you think about individuals who have spent decades in prison and have learned to operate in that space, and then they’re released out into society and it’s like, who’s there for them to support them?
Last year we provided a grant to the Greyston Foundation out of Yonkers and they have done tremendous work in terms of full service, whether it be the training within their bakery that they have to provide onsite workforce training, or their social services, ensuring that their approach is very well rounded to know that the individual continues to stay within their workforce and grow in that space.
Were there any other pillars that Good Green was considering?
It’s interesting you say that because a lot of these organizations that we support have multiple pillars within their own missions that touch other areas.
One organization out of Philadelphia, Philadelphia Lawyers for Social Equity, provides expungement services, free legal services and other opportunities to talk to lawyers. Ex-Cons for Community and Social Change, here in Chicago, has an amazing mental health program to support people who have come out of prison and are released back into society. People don’t really talk about the mental health piece when it comes to incarceration, when it comes to the War on Drugs, and the need for more mental health services for individuals dealing with anxiety and depression.
So they really make it well rounded.
Why does Good Green solely focus on nonprofit organizations?
Green Thumb is a company that has a multi-prong approach in terms of our outreach to the community through our social impact department. So through the grant, the focus is on supporting that unrestricted funding to non-profit organizations, because we understand how important unrestricted funding is. And the goal is to ensure that we get people the funding that they need to use it, how they need it, and not how we want them to use it. However, they need it to help fuel their mission. We have other programs, like our license education assistance program, that supports entrepreneurs who are interested in applying for a state-issued social equity license. We provide webinars to leverage the wealth of knowledge we have under our roof, whether they be in accounting, HR, operations, cultivation, to provide support and education to individuals interested in getting into the cannabis industry.
What is one challenge that Good Green has faced and/or continues to face?
I wouldn’t say a challenge, but I feel like a lot of us in the cannabis industry run into nonprofits that aren’t able to obtain cannabis funding due it still being federally illegal. So once cannabis is federally legal, then it’ll make it a lot easier. Some nonprofits receive federal funding and are afraid of losing that funding by accepting donations from a cannabis company. So that’s probably one of the biggest challenges, but we’ve been able to get past that and work with some amazing organizations to support them in their efforts.
What is one lasting impact that you always see whenever a grant is given to an organization?
It’s that expungement piece. I’ve seen what it looks like to look someone in the eye; my nephew who has the cannabis felonies, who’s constantly told ‘no’ in terms of employment, or being hired and then they find out he has a record and then he’s let go. That’s disappointing. So working with organizations like Philadelphia Lawyers for Social Equity and being able to give them a $75,000 grant and hearing the stories of the hundreds of people that they help through their expungement efforts ... it just brings me a level of joy that I can’t explain. I know that those individuals and their family members are so happy to operate fully free in society, to be able to just get a job, to be able to do the things that everyone else is able to do, especially after you’ve paid your debt. So we really want organizations in those three key areas to apply for this grant, because it really is life-changing.
What is the application process like?
I come from working in the nonprofit space over almost a decade before coming to Green Thumb, and we wanted to make this as simple as possible. If there is a nonprofit organization that is focused on the three Good Green pillars – education, expungement, and employment – feel free to apply. We are committed to giving at least up to $1.3 million by the end of the year, so there’s funding available. The applications are open now and they close on August 19th. So we’d really love for organizations to apply. The application is very straightforward. And as long as you demonstrate in that application how you plan on using the funding and the work that you are doing, it shouldn’t be difficult at all.
Ad Choices