Closing the funding gap

Black founders generate $150 billion in revenue annually. The majority start their businesses with just $35,000 in capital. The $424.7 billion in venture funding that has been dispersed since 2009? Less than 1% went to Black founders. 

Things don’t look much differently when it comes to philanthropic funding.

Kimberly Osagie and  Amina Fahmy Casewit recently reported on the state of funding for Black founders in the social enterprise sector, declaring that black leaders remain significantly overlooked and underfunded: 

Despite making up nearly 10 percent of nonprofit leadership in the United States, Black and Latine nonprofit leaders receive less than 4 percent of total philanthropic funding. This already-limited funding, as reported by Echoing Green and the Bridgespan Group, is also smaller in dollar amount and more likely to be restricted than white-led organizations. Early-stage Black-led nonprofits have 24 percent smaller overall revenues and 76 percent smaller unrestricted net assets, indicating continued bias and a lack of trust between funders and Black leaders.

In order to close the funding gap for Black entrepreneurs, organizations such as The Highland Project are supporting Black founders by providing them with capital, and addressing the systemic underpinnings that prevent them from being able to generate wealth in the first place.

The Highland Project envisions a world where Black women imagine, design, build, and sustain structural change to create an equitable society where Black communities thrive. By building and sustaining a coalition of Black women leading communities, institutions, and systems, Highland Leaders are helping to  create multi-generational wealth and change in the communities where they live and serve.

The Highland Project was founded in 2020 by Gabrielle Wyatt. It is a national, interdisciplinary network of Black women leaders who are creating multi-generational wealth building opportunities and impact in their communities around the country. The Highland Project supports Leaders with the tools needed to spark and sustain change, including $100K in unrestricted capital to imagine and build their visions.

Beloved Community Founder + CEO Rhonda Broussard is an Inaugural Highland Leader. 

Gabrielle has inspired me so much. She exemplifies the phrase “dream bigger.” With her vision for The Highland Project, she is challenging, supporting, and funding Black women to plan for multigenerational wealth. I thought my current vision was big enough until Gabrielle asked what our legacy would look like in seven generations. I’m still trying to answer that question.

August is Black Philanthropy Month. Read the first-ever set of universal funding guidelines for equity and impact in Black communities worldwide here. The 10 Global Black Funding Principles promote racial equity in funding, and post-Covid economic recovery for African-descent people.