A 2019 Harvard Business Review article reported “And yet 55 years after the passage of the Civil Rights Act and decades into these corporate D&I efforts, African-Americans’ progress toward top management roles and greater economic well-being and influence remains slow to nonexistent.”
According to Toigo Foundation, the wealth gap between blacks and others continues to widen; experts predict that black families’ median wealth will decrease to $0 by 2050, while that of white families will exceed $100,000.
Just 8% of managers and 3.8% of CEOs are black. In the Fortune 500 companies, there are currently only three black chief executives, down from a high of 12 in 2002.
At U.S. finance companies, only 2.4% of executive committee members, 1.4% of managing directors, and 1.4% of senior portfolio managers are black.
A mere 1.9% of tech executives and 5.3% of tech professionals are African-American. Black representatives and senators account for 9% of the U.S. Congress.
The average black partnership rate at U.S. law firms from 2005 to 2016 was 1.8%. Only 7% of U.S. higher education administrators and 8% of nonprofit leaders are black. And just 10% of U.S. businesses are owned by black men and women.
As the Toigo Foundation points out, all this has a cascading impact on economic development, housing, jobs, quality of schools and other services, access to education, infrastructure spending, consumer credit, retirement savings, and more.
Furthermore, the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Center for Policy Analysis and Research report indicated that “Business monetary capital can be divided into three main types: financial, economic, and growth. Financial capital is the capital needed to start the business and is often referred to as startup capital. Economic capital is the capital needed to protect business assets from unexpected losses and help maintain the longevity of a business. Growth capital is the capital needed to expand, restructure, and/or grow a business.” Finally, the conclusion of the congressional report was “ENTREPRENEURSHIP IS A KEY PATHWAY TO NARROWING THE RACIAL WEALTH GAP”.
Hence, the Goal of 1MBM is to create one million black millionaires through entrepreneurship and by providing access to capital over a period of 10 years. This is a huge undertaking that is expected to impact millions of black families and many communities. The program will employ innovative approaches to achieve its objective. The critical component of this program is the Black entrepreneurship and leadership excellence program which will establish the largest black centered entrepreneurship support fund and black business incubation center.
Since barriers to funding for black entrepreneurs are universal, this fund will serve as a vehicle to address this critical development barrier by creating efficient and fast-tracked funding access to encourage entrepreneurship, black leadership development and wealth