TikToker @ashthegoddess09 has been promoting a nonprofit called The Collective, urging Black Americans to donate as little as $1 a month toward building what she describes as a self-sufficient local economy.
She said an earlier video went viral after she shared an idea she had seen online: that pooled monthly donations from Black Americans could fund community-owned economic infrastructure.
"Everybody was messaging me saying, how do they donate? What do they do?" she said in the video, describing that the group has since held weekly Zoom meetings and built a group chat for members, and announced that the organization's website, thecollectivefba.org, had officially launched.
@ashthegoddess09 Imagine what we could build if millions of us intentionally kept our dollars circulating in our own communities. We’re not waiting for change….we’re building it. Ready to be part of it? Join us through the website in this video. ✊? #blacktiktok #fba #letsworktogether
♬ original sound - Ashley Christmas
"Sign up as a membership. You don't have to donate," she said, encouraging viewers with professional backgrounds in law, health administration, or real estate to get involved regardless of financial contribution.
According to the organization's official website, it is incorporated in New Jersey as a nonprofit corporation focused on education, land ownership, entrepreneurship, and financial stability, with programs addressing economic challenges faced by Foundational Black American communities.
Reacting to the videos, one commenter argued that pooling donations alone would not be enough to sustain a local economy, writing that the effort needs "an industry a reason for being in your own community something that's gonna make money and put back into the community."
Another commenter raised practical concerns, writing, "No, you can't cause [sic] 1 million[s] of people that donate can't all fit in your localized community. They’re gonna be paying for others first come first serve it won’t work. What about utilities? Police medical fire department streets new roads it won’t work."
@ashthegoddess09 The conversation has to change. Wealth is built through ownership, not just earning a paycheck. #generationalwealth #blacktiktok #letswork
♬ original sound - Ashley Christmas
In a separate video, she argued that a generational lack of financial literacy had limited Black wealth-building, saying, "we weren't taught that people that own the jobs and gave the jobs were the people that were rich and wealthy."
One user described trying a similar pooled-savings approach personally, writing that they and friends contributed "100 a month" the previous year and that it "was going great" until some participants stopped contributing.
The Daily Dot could not independently verify The Collective's membership numbers, total donations, program outcomes, or the TikToker's claims about her videos' reach beyond what is described on the organization's own website and in her TikTok posts. The details above reflect the TikToker's statements and comments as shared on TikTok, supplemented by the nonprofit's public website.
