Category Archives: Poverty

Stephen DeBerry on the Power of Impact Investing to Foster Black Progress

One of the very interesting presentations at the Innovation and Impact Forum for Black Male Achievement conference, held October 3, 2012 in New York City, was on the transformational potential of “impact investing” by Stephen DeBerry, Founder and Chief Investment Officer at Bronze Investments and a partner at Kapor Capital.

According to his bio, DeBerry “makes and manages investments that align strong financial returns with positive social impact.”

Watch his full presentation here: Stephen DeBerry: Power of Impact Investing & Technology.

Related:

The BlackProgress.com essay, Financing Black Progress, Part 2: A Self-Reliance “Marshall Plan”: Creating a National Resource-Pooling Fun d, discusses impact investing in the context of a national resource-pooling “impact fund” that can attract investments from millions of black investors.

Community Investment Network Annual Conference, “The Philanthropic Renaissance,” to Foster Leveraging of Our Collective Resources

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The Community Investment Network (CIN) is a national network of giving circles and “everyday philanthropists” that “inspires, connects and strengthens African Americans and communities of color to leverage their collective resources and create the change THEY wish to see.”

CIN’s 2012 conference, titled The Philanthropic Renaissance: Illuminating Creative Expressions of Giving, was held in Birmingham, Alabama, October 4-7, 2012. Among other things, the conference highlighted the growing movement of giving circles and community philanthropy.

For more information, visit the conference website and blog.

See also BlackGivesBack.com’s report on the conference: The “Philanthropic Renaissance” Illuminates Creative Expressions of Giving in Birmingham.

Perspectives on Buying Black

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Maggie Anderson tells the story of her family’s pledge to buy black for an entire year in Our Black Year: One Family’s Quest to Buy Black in America’s Racially Divided Economy. [See links to media coverage of the book here.]

The Andersons’ endeavor evolved into The Empowerment Experiment, which “converts our family’s pledge into a positive awareness campaign about the need for strategic entrepreneurship and conscious consumerism in and to benefit the Black community.”

Ms. Anderson provides an excerpt from the book in Black Enterprise (July 2012): How To Buy Black (“14 strategies for conducting your own empowerment experiment”). Continue reading →

Emerging Trends in Collaborative Black Philanthropy: The First Head and Heart Philanthropy Summit

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From BlackGivesBack.com

On August 10-11, 2012, nonprofit executives, foundation leaders and philanthropists convened at the inaugural Annual Head and Heart Philanthropy Summit in Martha’s Vineyard, MA, “for learning, professional networking and idea generation.”

The invitation-only summit was organized by Christal M. Jackson, founder of Jackson and Associates Group, LLC, a boutique fund development and philanthropic consulting firm, who noted: “…Given the serious issues facing our community, we must begin to collaborate for greater impact to create systemic change.” Continue reading →

On Banking Black

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Support Your Local Black Bank. Derek T. Dingle. Black Enterprise.com.
Buying Black is only one step to economic freedom, we also have to bank Black

“Popular syndicated radio talk show host Warren Ballentine recently teamed up with the National Bankers Association, the Washington, D. C.-based consortium of minority-owned financial institutions, to unveil “The People’s Economic Movement,” a program designed to encourage African American individuals and institutions to deposit dollars in Black banks. The initiative’s supporters, among others, include National Urban League President Marc Morial, NAACP head Benjamin Jealous and National Action Network President Rev. Al Sharpton.

Ballentine firmly believes Black institutions and consumers will recover from the Great Recession by pooling resources and strategically leveraging our buying power . “We don’t want to create a minute. We want to create a movement,” Ballentine told me earlier this week. “We’re asking everyone to get involved.” The call to action has been gaining traction as organizations like the Atlanta Association of Black Journalists have decided to transfer funds to local Black institutions. Continue reading →

Pooling Our Resources: Giving Circles Network Raises Funds at Kellogg Foundation’s Online “Cultures of Giving Donor Challenge”

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Another step forward on the “pooling our resources to foster progress” front:

The Community Investment Network (CIN), a “national network of giving circles and everyday philanthropists,” was one of the participants in the W.K. Kellogg Foundation’s 10-day Cultures of Giving Donor Challenge, which took place April 17-26. The online challenge provided a dollar-for-dollar match up to the first $20,000 per nonprofit.

According to CIN, 183 donors contributed $20,744 to CIN during the Challenge. With WKKF’s $20,000 matching contribution, CIN gets a total of $40,744. Continue reading →

Starbucks’ “Create Jobs for USA:” Demonstrating the Potential of a Resource Pooling Fund?

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Like OIC of America’s Entrepreneur Mindset Initiative, Starbucks’ Create Jobs for USA is another initiative that can demonstrate the immense potential of pooling small amounts from large numbers of people to foster entrepreneurship and job creation in underserved communities, e.g., as conceptualized in the “National Venture & Excellence Fund” (or “EXCEL Fund”) discussed in the BlackProgress.com article, Financing Black Progress, Part 2: A Self-Reliance “Marshall Plan”: Creating a National Resource-Pooling Fund.

According to the Create Jobs for USA website (“How It Works”):

“Starbucks has teamed up with Opportunity Finance Network® (OFN) to help create and sustain jobs. The Create Jobs for USA program provides capital grants to select Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs). The CDFIs will provide loans to underserved community businesses, which include small businesses, microenterprises, nonprofit organizations, commercial real estate, and affordable housing. The goal of Create Jobs for USA is to bring people and communities together to create and sustain jobs throughout America. Continue reading →

OIC of America’s “Entrepreneurial Mindset Initiative”: the Prototype for a National “Self-Reliance” Resource Pooling-Fund?

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At the March 2011 launching of OIC of America’s Entrepreneurial Mindset Initiative (EMI), OICA’s chairman, Herman “Art” Taylor, reiterated the imperative for a self-reliance, we-have-to-help-ourselves approach:

“Consistent with our history, OIC of America will not wait for someone to wave a magic wand and eliminate the economic disparities for African Americans. It has not happened in the past and will not happen in the future…” (emphasis added)

The EMI has the potential to grow into a potent national resource-pooling initiative, e.g., as conceptualized in the National Venture & Excellence (EXCEL) Fund. At the very least, its performance should provide useful insights for the “Black Progress Innovators” (BPIs) who want to establish such a fund.

The rationale for the initiative, according to OICA:

“Given the proven correlation between self employment and wealth creation, OICA is launching this focused initiative to encourage more African Americans to think like and become entrepreneurs. …[EMI] will recruit individuals from economically distressed communities. In so doing, we will challenge the notion that people without means cannot thrive in business in our society. While it may be harder for them to achieve success than for those with more, these individuals will demonstrate that they, too, with help, can be business owners, acquire wealth, employ others and contribute to their communities.”

The $100 million EMI will be “perpetually funded” by an endowment to be raised in two parts: (a) the first $10 million will be raised through OIC10, a funding initiative that is soliciting one million, one-time $10 contributions nationwide; and (b) the remaining $90 million is expected to be obtained through ‘challenge grants’ from foundations and interested individuals. Continue reading →

Regional Resource-Pooling Initiatives

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The BlackProgress.com article, Financing Black Progress, Part 2: A Self-Reliance “Marshall Plan”: Creating a National Resource-Pooling Fund, focuses on an ambitious nationwide resource-pooling effort based on the rationale that a national fund would have the necessary muscle and scope to efficiently galvanize the black community, mobilize resources on a massive scale, and thereby have greater transformational impact than small organizations.

However, to be effective, a national fund would, of course, need to establish operations on a regional basis around the country, and resource-pooling efforts could be concentrated in specific urban areas. An example of such a regional initiative is the Chicago Community Trust’s African American Legacy (AAL), whose grant making focus is “strengthening and supporting African American families.” According to its website: Continue reading →

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on Self-Reliance and “Pooling Our Resources”

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“We need to pool our resources” has been a recurring exhortation in the African American community for decades. For example, here’s Dr. Martin Luther King in a 1958 interview:

Question: Do you think Negroes are partly responsible for their plight? They don’t stick together and they don’t help each other. Negroes, for example, will walk past a Negro-owned grocery store or shoe shop to get to a white place. Instead of trying to make themselves financially independent, most Negroes are trying to keep up with the Joneses. Isn’t it time for us to stop begging and stand on our own feet?

Dr. King: I quite agree that there is a great deal that the Negro can do to lift himself by his own bootstraps. Well has it been said by one that Negroes too often buy what they want and beg for what they need. Negroes must learn to practice systematic saving. They must also pool their economic resources through various cooperative enterprises. Such agencies as credit unions, savings and loan associations, and finance companies are needed in every Negro community. All of these are things that would serve to lift the economic level of the Negro which would in turn give him greater purchasing power. This increased purchasing power will inevitably make for better housing, better health standards, and for better educational standards.

From: “Advice for Living,” The King Papers Project, The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute, Stanford University — http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/primarydocuments/Vol4/Mar-1958_AdviceForLiving.pdf