Resources, Funding, and Support for Black-Owned Businesses
Photo: RDNE Stock Project
Think of your town and the places you like to shop. Did you think of any small, local businesses? Owned and run by our neighbors, friends, and family, small businesses help color our lives and neighborhood. Unfortunately, one-fifth of all US small businesses close within a year due to a lack of funds and support. Obstacles are more ubiquitous for diverse-owned businesses, including BIPOC-owned, women-owned, and LGBTQ-owned businesses. That’s why funding and resources are imperative for small businesses with diverse leadership, such as Black-owned businesses.
Supporting Black Entrepreneurship
Black Americans make up nearly 15% of the U.S. population but own only 2.3% of all employer firms. Black business owners face many roadblocks compared to their non-Black peers. More than half of Black business owners were denied a bank loan at least once, compared to 37% of their non-Black peers. On average, it also costs $5,000 more for Black Americans to start their business than other business owners.
Many—every 4 in 5—Black business owners have experienced racism from a customer, with nearly half having the experience in the last year (2022). This is why it’s so important to Choose Black-Owned this month and every month.
The following resources and funding opportunities for Black-owned businesses can help keep these businesses open and inspire more diverse entrepreneurs to pursue their small business dreams.
Unique Funding for Black-Owned Businesses
Grant and investment opportunities tailored to specific communities are critical, ensuring marginalized entrepreneurs can receive aid. The following list gathers several of these opportunities for ease of access:
Access to Capital Directory for Black Entrepreneurs: This directory from Bank of America and Seneca Women allows business owners to set criteria when searching for funding options. There are many options for funding Black-owned businesses and with this tool, business owners can look for opportunities explicitly helping Black entrepreneurs.
Path to 15|55: A network to help increase Black family wealth and Black business growth. It does so through facilitating partnerships, negotiating capital to meet Black business needs, and identifying and developing on-the-ground strategies.
NAACP Grants: The NAACP offers three different grants for Black businesses. The Powershift Entrepreneur Grant offers a $25,000 grant and tools, the NAACP and Leslie's Certification Boost Grant is a series of $5,000 grants to obtain business certifications, and the NAACP and the Nextdoor Kind Foundation offers microgrants to small businesses with marginalized owners.
Wish Local Empowerment Program: A $2 million dollar fund to give roughly 4,000 Wish Local small business partners amounts between $500 and $2,000.
Restaurant Business Development Grant Program: Cohorts from this Feed the Soul program receive six months of consultations and educational training, a financial stipend, and continuing services and training.
National Black Business Pitch: This competition connects “Black-owned businesses to corporations who seek to expand and diversify their supply chain with new products and services.” Chosen businesses will get to pitch live and three will be chosen for a $10,000 prize.
Black Ambition Prize: A set of prizes, including the Black Ambition Prize and the HBCU prize, to “fund bold ideas and companies led by Black and Hispanic entrepreneurs.”
Famous Amos Ingredients for Success Entrepreneurs Initiative: An annual national program in its fourth year that provides a total of $150,000 in capital awards, mentorship, and educational resources to Black early-stage businesses.
Heinz Black Kitchen Initiative: A collaboration between The LEE Initiative, Heinz, and Southern Restaurants for Racial Justice to give grants to food business owners preserving and sharing Black culinary traditions.
NuProject: Through funding, financial coaching, and network connections NuProject helps entrepreneurs most harmed by cannabis criminalization, primarily Black, Indigenous, and Latinx/o/a owners.
The Sephora Beauty Grant: An opportunity for one Black business owner within the beauty industry to win a $100,000 grant.
Power Forward Small Business Grant: Economic empowerment of Black-owned small businesses across New England, giving $25,000 grants on a rolling basis.
Oakland Black Business Fund: Empowering Black businesses with capital, technical assistance, and growth strategy.
Fund Forward: An initiative dedicated to addressing the racial funding gap in the venture capital industry. Our mission is to mobilize $1 billion in limited partner and operating capital to Black-led venture funds by 2030, creating a more inclusive and equitable ecosystem for innovation and investment in the U.S.
Local Funding: Try searching “Black business funding + STATE” to find specific grants and loans by location.
Support and Community Resources
There are many challenges for businesses with marginalized owners, including publicity and funding. Unethical corporations like Amazon and Target possess disproportionate market share, and it’s largely due to its billions in revenue and access to professional resources.
For Black-owned businesses, connecting with other like-minded enterprises, consumers, press, and more, is survival.
The below communities and networks offer space and resources for Black-owned businesses:
Afro Caribbean Business Network: The Afro-Caribbean Business Network (ACBN) was created to provide resources like downloadable reports and papers for Black business owners to build sustainable and successful businesses.
National Black MBA Association: A business organization and network serving Black professionals, offering conferences, education, training and mentorship for pursuing executive roles, as well as funding through the Scale-Up Pitch Challenge.
1 Million Black Businesses initiative (1MBB): A program aiming to start, grow, and scale 1 million Black businesses by 2030 to provide a successful path to wealth creation for the black community. Offers coaching for key needs like access to capital, marketing, business strategy, debt management, insurance, and more.
Black Business Accelerator: This program provides Black-owned businesses with a range of resources to help them sell with Amazon, including education, financial support, and mentorship opportunities.
Black Business Corner: Developed in partnership with the NAACP, the Black Business Corner within the virtual Hello Alice Community is for Black business owners across the U.S. to test big ideas, grow dreams, and strengthen connections.
Black Founders: The goal is to create an ecosystem that stimulates tech entrepreneurship and fosters economic growth in the community. It will develop global programs that equip entrepreneurs, inspire innovation, and allow us to share resources and knowledge.
Black Business Alliance: Providing Black business owners with access to funding, personalized business guidance, and a supportive community.
Black Connect: A national nonprofit business and entrepreneur center that is dedicated to eliminating the racial wealth gap facing Black Americans.
U.S. Black Chambers, Inc.: Affectionately known as the “National Voice of Black Businesses”, The U.S. Black Chambers, Inc. (USBC) provides committed, visionary leadership, and advocacy in the realization of economic empowerment.
FeverPitch: An initiative curated by Black Connect that provides a platform for Black entrepreneurs and business owners to gain insight from and exposure to venture capitalists and potential investors and customers, community and corporate leaders, executives, seasoned and successful entrepreneurs and professionals and more.
If you love to patronize a small business owned by someone in the Black community, consider sharing these resources with them. Small businesses are community institutions, and they only thrive when we come together to support them.
Find more resources for business owners: LGBTQ, Latino/a/x
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