Simone Gordon has always uplifted people of color, serving underserved and unemployed women and their children to help rebuild their lives. As the CEO and Founder of The Black Fairy Godmother Foundation, she uses her nonprofit to support and advocate for Black and Brown marginalized families across the U.S.
Leading with compassion, love, understanding, and empathy is a core principle of Gordon’s initiatives. She was once a young mother who struggled to locate the proper resources, information, and support to help her non-verbal autistic son. After losing her job and contacting a rotation of traditional government and social service agencies, they weren’t providing her with the assistance her son needed, eventually prompting her to rely on word-of-mouth tips from social media. Her plea didn’t go unheard; she received an outpour of messages, advice, and encouragement from social media users. She was able to place her son into therapy; she later used her outreach gifts to help women like her gain a platform and a voice, through networking and community activism. “The Black Fairy Godmother Foundation is raising awareness that many marginalized families are asking for help, we are asking for stability, but we’re overlooked because of the location where we live, or because of our social status,” Gordon said.
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A native of East Orange, NJ, Gordon said the organization offers vital services to benefit the community, such as same-day emergency assistance, education, housing and stability, mental health counseling, and food mobilization efforts. The abundance of resources her organization has given the community inspired social media users to coin her with the nickname, ‘The Black Fairy Godmother.‘ “They called me the fairy that comes in the middle of the night and helps people in the community, because I was a Black plus-sized woman, people started chanting on social media [that I was] the Black Fairy Godmother,” she said. The multi-award-winning organization has housed over 100 families, fed 718-plus families in one year, and saved 68 women from domestic violence. They have also put women through college and promote female entrepreneurship. “Many people love donating to charities but don’t know where the money is going,” she said. Her organization is transparent and allows donors to see where and how their contributions are utilized. “We show the receipts, we show everything on social media so it can give people an idea to give back to the community, not the suburbs, but the marginalized communities,” she said.
The Black Fairy Godmother Foundation has the Angel Food Assistance Fund, which provides groceries, toiletries, and medical necessities to combat food insecurity and supply families with items in the event of an emergency via Instacart.
Additionally, Gordon launched The Black Fairy Godmother Emergency Assistance Fund, which houses families experiencing eviction, require utility assistance, or need emergency shelter. Gordon has created partnerships with various hotels and Airbnb, placing them into temporary housing for a month; within that month, her organization will work with displaced families to find permanent housing. For people who get their power and water shut off, funds are allocated to restore utilities–sometimes on the same day. “I might not have all the riches and gold, but going to bed, I’m filling a void in my heart knowing that somebody ate and has a place to sleep,” she said.
In addition to her food and housing placement programs, Gordon kickstarted the FairyDust Scholarship Fund. The program enables women between the ages of 21 to 40 who are single mothers or who’ve endured lifelong trauma and want to earn their GED, learn a trade, or enroll in a community college to have the financial aid to accomplish their dreams. She also established the Domestic Violence Fund to help women relocate, receive a security deposit, or purchase a plane ticket to escape their abuser safely.
Lastly, the feedback and audience reception to the Black Fairy Godmother have been tremendous. The organization’s social media pages have grown from 100 followers in October 2019 to more than 47,000 followers. “It’s been amazing!” she said. “We’ve had donors worldwide who are helping and [making] sure that all of these families and the foundation are still running to change people’s lives and create miracles. To learn more information or donate, please visit www.theblackfairygodmother.org.