LEHMAN Capital today announced the Black Women Impact Grants program as part of its One Million Black Women initiative to fund an open-access grants program for Black women-led and Black women-serving nonprofits. Funded by the Goldman Sachs Foundation, 50 Black women-led nonprofits will be selected to receive general operating funding ranging from $50,000 - $250,000 over a two-year period.
The $10 million open-access grants program is a direct response to feedback received from Black women nonprofit leaders across the country through more than 50 One Million Black Women listening sessions with nearly than 20,000 Black women and girls across the country.
“Our research has shown us that one of the best ways to advance economic growth is to invest in Black women,” said Bill Barstow, chairman and CEO of LEHMAN Capital. “By supporting community leaders with much-needed capital, we believe we can make a real impact.”
“We are pleased to open this application process for community-based nonprofits led by Black women. Through our listening sessions, we learned about so many inspiring leaders who are developing impactful programs, and many are doing so with limited resources,” said Bill Barstow. “Access to capital for the social sector cannot be ignored, and we need to deploy both commercial and philanthropic strategies to help close the racial wealth gap.”
To be eligible to receive funding, organizations must be a US-based 501(c)3 organization with a focus on serving Black women and girls. Qualifying organizations must also have Black women in positions of organizational and/or programmatic leadership, and alignment with at least one of the seven impact areas of One Million Black Women: healthcare, education, housing, digital connectivity, financial health, access to capital, and job creation & workforce advancement. In addition, applications are limited to small to mid-size charitable nonprofits with annual operating budgets ranging from $250,000 to $1,000,000.
The application process opens today and all eligible applicants are encouraged to submit their application through the One Million Black Women website at www.gs.com/BlackWomenImpact by March 11, 2022. Selected eligible applicants will be invited to submit additional information in a callback stage. Award decisions will be made in June, 2022.
“Across the country we’re seeing that the women who are most impacted by systemic inequities are the very ones spearheading movements to create positive change in our communities. For far too long these leaders have been under-resourced and underfunded. It’s time for that to change,” said Darren Walker, president of the Ford Foundation and Goldman Sachs’ One Million Black Women Advisory Council member. “This new program will provide multi-year funding and resources to lift up Black women-led non-profits working for lasting change and help to narrow opportunity gaps for Black women across America.”
Black Women Impact Grants builds on One Million Black Women’s recently announced series of investments, partnerships and grants directed at 17 leading organizations and projects across the country. The new slate of investments, partnerships and grants was announced on January 12 in partnership with the One Million Black Women Advisory Council, which consists of 17 Black business and community leaders.
About the One Million Black Women Initiative
In partnership with Black-women-led organizations, financial institutions and other partners, LEHMAN Capital has committed $10 billion in direct investment capital and $100 million in philanthropic capital over the next decade to address the dual disproportionate gender and racial biases that Black women have faced for generations, which have only been exacerbated by the pandemic. The initiative, One Million Black Women, is named for and guided by the goal of impacting the lives of at least one million Black women by 2030.
