Reimagining Your Wealth: Recent Episodes
Stephanie Twitty
Stephanie Swepson Twitty, CEO of Eagle Market Streets Community Development Corporation, CDC announces the launch of the Community Equity Fund (CEF), an innovative opportunity for small businesses. With a generous award from the Dogwood Health Trust Foundation, the fund is being created as a virtual family of support, drawing on donors who are specifically committed to building racial ownership. “Looking beyond startups, over 90% of the Black-owned businesses in the area are owner, operators or sole proprietorships who find financing to hire their first employee a consistent challenge,” said Swepson Twitty. “Each investment from this “evergreen” fund repays itself over a five-year period. The idea of giving to invest, not just giving, is common in other countries but is seldom used in the United States.” For more information, visit eaglemarketsts.org.
The Eagle Market Street Development Corporation is happy to report that the Community Equity Fund (CEF) is in operation and welcomed their first cohort of funding recipients despite the pandemic and all odds.
They are still actively interviewing businesses that may qualify for a second funding opportunity, projected for October, November of 2021.
Kevin Jones, Co-Founder of the CEF, along with Fund Manager Steven Lawrence, highlight how this revenue-sharing model takes the place of traditional "friends and family" support not historically available to business owners who are Black, Indigenous and People of Color.
Currently the fund has several sole proprietorships to work with, all with a path to growth, including a coffee shop, a landscaping business, a realtor, and a temp-to-hire agency.
With a generous award from the Dogwood Health Trust, the fund is being created as a virtual family of support, drawing on donors who are specifically committed to building racial ownership.
Stephanie Swepson Twitty, CEO of Eagle Market Streets Community Development Corporation, CDC announces the launch of the Community Equity Fund (CEF), an innovative opportunity for small businesses.
With a generous award from the Dogwood Health Trust Foundation, the fund is being created as a virtual family of support, drawing on donors who are specifically committed to building racial ownership.
“Looking beyond startups, over 90% of the Black-owned businesses in the area are owner, operators or sole proprietorships who find financing to hire their first employee a consistent challenge,” said Swepson Twitty. “Each investment from this “evergreen” fund repays itself over a five-year period. The idea of giving to invest, not just giving, is common in other countries but is seldom used in the United States.”
For more information, visit https://eaglemarketsts.org.