[Foundation for Business Equity]
Forbes: “FBE’s Business Equity Initiative pairs strategic advisors and business management executives with business owners…The first cohort of business owners who participated in this program experienced an average of $14 million in revenue growth.”
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The Foundation for Business Equity (FBE), and executive director Glynn Lloyd, are fighting to close the racial wealth gap by helping Black businesses.
August marks National Black Business Month, a time when companies are doubling down on their efforts to support Black-owned businesses.
But for the Foundation for Business Equity, this has been a priority since 2017. The organization’s goal is to close the racial wealth gap by breaking down the structural barriers, including lack of access to business resources, keeping Black and Latinx businesses from growing.
FBE’s Business Equity Initiative pairs strategic advisors and business management executives with business owners to provide scaling advice and facilitate growth plans. The first cohort of business owners who participated in this program experienced an average of $14 million in revenue growth.
FBE also responded to the Covid-19 crisis with a Business Equity COVID-19 Emergency Fund to provide flexible loans to Massachusetts-based Black and Latinx businesses with revenues of at least $250,000.
“FBE identified the needs we had in our business,” says Tartt’s Daycare COO Ken Reed, a participant in the BEI initiative. “We had serious difficulty securing bank loans but in working with the Foundation for Business Equity we were able to work with lenders that used other credit markers like job creation and our ties to the community, and that was really a game changer for us and allowed us to expand.”
At the head of this is Glynn Lloyd, an entrepreneur of color who has been FBE’s executive director since its inception.
Read the rest of this Forbes story here: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestheculture/2020/08/04/black-owned-businesses-still-lack-resources-heres-how-the-foundation-for-business-equity-is-stepping-in-to-help/#4f16964c7d8b
