In This Together Campaign Strives to Invest $1B in Black-Owned Businesses

The overwhelming support for the Black Lives Matter movement and Black businesses has grown significantly over the past month. While more initiatives arise, companies continue to step up to collaboratively uplift the movement and the Black community.

As part of a new plan proposed by the National Minority Supplier Development Council ( NMSDC), 30 blue-chip companies have pledged to raise at least $1 billion over the next 12 to 18 months from corporate donors in order to “support minority business development, economic inclusion, and growth,” reports Black Enterprise.

According to the NMSDC, the In This Together Campaign was created as a means to help its certified minority firms and other minority-led businesses tackle the blows brought on by COVID-19.

“Prior to the pandemic and social injustice events, NMSDC was working strategically to close the economic gap between Black and minority businesses; now, the gap has widened due to the unprecedented activities that changed the trajectory globally,” said NMSDC President and CEO Adrienne Trimble to Black Enterprise. “This is not a social call to action but one that will position Black and minority businesses to sustain throughout and propel beyond this pandemic as well as continue to recreate job opportunities for the communities they serve.”

Trimble proposed this plan as a challenge for the company’s corporations to take more definitive action on behalf of their Minority Business Enterprises and take a stand against systemic racism in society.

In response to the economic disruption caused by COVID-19 shutdowns, which have particularly devastated Black businesses, according to Trimble, the council has recruited the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program to help provide funding for some Black businesses.

Additionally, the NMSDC has also outlined a list of initiatives they’re asking its corporate members to support in order to expedite recovery efforts for Black-owned businesses, Black Enterprise reports, including The REBUILDING Fund, The Minority Business Advocacy Initiative, The Business Consortium Fund, and The NMSDC Academy.

CEO Trimble says the NMSDC’s corporate partners are currently looking for MBEs that wield the capacity and offerings to strengthen their supply chains as they require access to more certified MBEs across industries.

For more information on the “In This Together” campaign, click here.