By Marie Ekberg Padilla
Derrick Morgan, who had a nine-year career as a linebacker with the Tennessee Titans, has a new game plan. After announcing his retirement from the NFL in July, he continues to make an impact beyond the football field. He is looking to create an interception when it comes to distressed communities across the country and has thrown himself into the Opportunity Zone market with his new company, KNGDM Group.
KNGDM, which also includes the KNGDM Impact Fund, aims to use the power of perspective, purpose and passion to revitalize underserved communities and empower residents to thrive with the help of capital injections from the OZ program. Morgan is intent on his ability to do social impact investing. Armed with his faith and business knowledge, including an MBA from the University of Miami, his mission is to align his investments with his values.
What do you hope to accomplish with KNGDM Group?
The goal of the fund is to basically leverage a lot of things I have been involved in and my experience. I want to aggregate resources to the common cause of increasing opportunity and equity in underserved communities. It could look like affordable housing, innovative technology or education. I want to funnel the resources and capital to these causes that can change the trajectory for these areas.
How do you think your NFL background will help you in your new OZ endeavor?
I have been deeply involved in sports. It was the only way out where I came from, Coatesville, Pennsylvania. But 99.9% don’t make it out. But we are starting to diversify our definition of success in a very intentional way.
The NFL background helps to open doors. When I meet with county and city officials, I can use that influence to open doors and expedite a lot of the process.
When I was playing football, I was planning for life afterwards. I took advantage of my downtime. I was on cloud nine when I was a first-round pick in 2010, but during my fourth year I tore my LCL, and that put things in perspective as you sit in a hospital. Life is more than football and that was the beginning of my awakening. You are always one injury away from not playing. First, I took an active role in my finances by evolving my understanding of how investment could diversity my income stream. I also got an MBA after that.
What is the meaning of your company slogan, “Aligning values with Investments”? Why are these values important to you?
It’s about equal opportunity, participation and wealth building. It’s about access to capital, to STEAM education and to opportunity in general. We want to create economic opportunity for people.
I want to align my investments with my values. Everybody wins. You are not giving money away and you are getting a return on it. Faith definitely plays a part in my decisions. I have always had a relationship with God. I feel injustice in the world and I don’t like it. It stimulates something in me to want to fix it.
What do you think the OZ program can do for our country and people in distressed areas?
This program has the ability to allocate capital to underserved communities in a responsible and community-focused way. It can break the systematic cycles of crime, economic distress and what is going on in these poor communities. This is what I was called to do — attack these things in an intentional way.
How did you get involved in OZs and social impact investing?
In 2018, I had a good idea that it would be my last season in the NFL, so I started to get more into impact investing. That’s when I looked at a map and saw that my old hometown of Coatesville in Pennsylvania is an Opportunity Zone.
Also, for the last five to six years, we have been developing single-family residences in Texas. And we have done a lot of disaster work through FEMA by getting the right minority and HUD certifications to be able to renovate and do construction in these areas. We became competitive to get these FEMA contracts.
Tell us about your involvement to revitalize Coatesville, Pennsylvania, where you grew up?
The economy of Coatesville came and went with the steel industry. It is one of the poorest cities in Pennsylvania but borders one of the richest counties in the nation, so it’s a unique area with stark contrasts. The whole city, which is located about 35 miles west of Philadelphia, is basically an Opportunity Zone. We want to spark the economic transformation in that area.
It needed a jolt, so we started to talk with the city in June about investing in the city, including in education, sports tourism and revitalizing the Amtrak station. The OZ program is an incentive for capital to go into Coatesville.
Why is it important for you to create social change while investing?
You can’t only worry about yourself. You need to have empathy that a lot of people are in dire situations. How can I be very intentional in playing my role in this? I have done a lot of charity and philanthropy, but people weren’t being empowered. There is a lack of opportunity in these areas. All it takes is a glimmer of hope that will allow them to change their circumstances.