Black entrepreneurs start their business with about $35,000 of capital, while white entrepreneurs start with 3x more. As a partial consequence, Black-owned businesses report higher levels of debt relative to revenues.

Too often, these and other barriers lead to shortfalls: just 4 percent of Black-owned businesses are still in operation after three and a half years, compared with an average of 55.5 percent for all businesses.**

Over the past two and a half years, the Fifteen Percent Pledge has been working alongside major corporations to re-evaluate their organizational structures, funding streams and supply chains with the goal of creating greater equity for Black businesses. To date, 29 corporations have made long-term contractual commitments to support this work, creating the potential to shift more than $10B to Black businesses.

Still, there’s much more work to do to create supportive ecosystems for Black entrepreneurs, who continue to face tremendous hurdles when it comes to accessing capital to grow and thrive. We are busy activating a network of partners including banks, investors, foundations, and corporations to address this problem at scale.

In the meantime, we’re providing a $200,000 grant to unlock the next horizon of growth for a Black-owned business. Two additional finalists will also receive $35,000 and $15,000. Awardees will be announced in person at our 2023 Benefit Gala in February.

**Sources: Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research “Black and white: Access to capital among minority-owned startups”, February 2017; McKinsey’s Institute for Black Economic Mobility, “The Black unicorn: Changing the game for inclusivity in retail”, November 2021