#InvesBLK is a learning community and our investments into the lives and communities of Black folk and communities marginalized by society are defined by the needs applicants and awardees share. We engage in some due diligence to learn more, but we do not define how awardees are supported by our funding, Black folk and communities, in general, define how they are best supported by funding. We offer opportunities for financial support and technical assistance. Our only guideline is that applicants are Black folk, part of a historically marginalized community, and/or living in Black communities with vision, dreams, ideas, and needs.
We believe that communities grow as the people grow.
We believe in Black folk and Black power.
We reject the bias that transformation can only happen with large financial contributions (and we are going to prove otherwise).
We believe that modest financial contributions that are aligned with patience, the ability to truly learn as you grow without penalty, community, mentorship, and sponsorship can change communities.
The Black & Empty Fund (BAE) currently has capacity for modest investments between $500 – $2,000. These are investments, yet instead of requiring a financial return our goal is to prove that investments do not need to be large to have a transformational community impact. Awardees are NOT required to pay anything back to #InvestBLK. We do not prescribe what a quality idea is – we want to learn from people from across the country about where they recognize untapped dreams, visions, ideas, or areas in themselves, their communities and others. We select people, ideas, visions, and projects to invest in based on a unique perspective and the applicant’s intention for impact. While people of all ages can apply, we own a desire to see young Black folk between the ages of 12 – 22 and Black elders age 55 and older engage in this process, as oftentimes these voices can be disregarded when we analyze opportunities to fund new ideas, visions, and/or dreams. We do not require an official report while you’re developing your plan, but if exciting things happen as part of our investment we would love to know! This is a growth-safe environment, and awardees will NOT be penalized for trying something new (whether it works out as planned or not).
Technical Assistance is provided after awardee has utilized their BAE Fund investment as intended. If the awardee is interested in continuing to build up their idea, vision, dream, or project with the assistance of additional sponsorship, mentorship, and kinship they can then utilize technical assistance. Our goal is to pair awardees with support that can directly contribute to their success. During this stage awardees will also develop a case study that identifies what they’ve learned, limitations that exist, and the opportunity to replicate this with a larger audience.
Network Development & Coalition Building is essential to this process and at this stage we will pair the awardee with a community, political, nonprofit, small business, and corporate partners that can help them grow their idea into a transformational project.
Input your search keywords and press Enter.