All results
Serial entrepreneur Sevetri Wilson has made history with New Orleans tech startup, Resilia . The software as a service (SaaS) platform raised $8 million in its Series-A round of funding, making it the highest VC raised by a female-founded tech firm in Louisiana, announced Business Wire . The funding round was led by Mucker Capital and Callais Capital Management with participation by Cultivation Capital. “We spotted Resilia early-on, and have been impressed with Sevetri’s leadership and her team’s ability to identify market needs, move quickly, and expand their products to serve the complex needs of grantors and grantees,” said William Hsu, co-founder and partner at Mucker Capital, who also joined Resilia’s board. In 2016, the Louisiana-based founder created Resilia, named for resilience, to help nonprofits scale their philanthropic efforts through technology. The platform expedites the process of incorporating and applying for tax exemption. Also, it offers resources to reduce costs...
An affordable housing project is underway to preserve a Black neighborhood in Raleigh, NC. According to The News & Observer, LeVelle Moton, the North Carolina Central University head basketball coach, will lead an $8.3 million real estate project called Cottages of Idlewild through his company, Raleigh Raised Development, created alongside business partners with CJ Mann and Terrell Midgett. This project aims to support Idlewild, a primarily Black community that was one of Raleigh’s earliest neighborhoods where former slaves achieved homeownership. The outlet notes that as time went on, however, it became harder for the community to afford to live in the area due to gentrification. Cottages of Idlewild will consist of 18 affordable houses on 1.7 acres of city-owned property, backed by assistance from donors, including NC Realtors Housing Foundation, Wells Fargo Foundation, and the Coastal Credit Union Foundation. The venture holds greater significance to Moton because, per the...
In June 2020, financial institutions nationwide committed a record-breaking $4.2 billion to racial equity. Nonprofits directly received $300 million, representing 51% of total donation volume that month. However just six months later, funding for racial equity fell to 5% of the donation share. Now three years later, while energy has further slowed, racial justice remains a top concern across demographics. We know nonprofits steered by Black leaders and people of color are best positioned to drive racial equity. However, it’s simply not enough for corporate funders looking to affirm their values to financially empower BIPOC leaders. To properly equip nonprofit leaders, financial institutions and other corporate funders must embrace a two-pronged approach of capital and capacity building. One of the most effective interventions in capacity-building for BIPOC-led nonprofits lies in technology. Seventy-four percent of nonprofits say digital transformation is a need-to or must-have, yet...
On this week’s episode of Black Tech Green Money , host Will Lucas speaks to Sevetri Wilson to explore the ins and outs of how nonprofits are created and maintained, as well as share actionable advice on how to scale your nonprofit to the next level. Wilson is the founder and CEO of Resilia, the New Orleans based tech startup established in 2015 to revolutionize and accelerate the formation process of new nonprofits, help existing organizations execute their mission, and work with enterprises to deploy billions in annual funding to support organizations in driving results. @sevetriwilson Instagram As the first Black woman in New Orleans to raise over $1M in venture capital , and the only Black founder that leads a venture-backed tech startup in the state of Louisiana, Sevetri Wilson is what most would consider peak Black Girl Magic . “When I think about influence, I think about things that can drive elections, people that can drive people to the polls and help influence someone...
Starting a non-profit is no small feat. From gathering documents to getting IRS approval, registering your own non-profit organization can take anywhere from two to 12 months. One New Orleans-based founder wants to make the process simpler. Sevetri Wilson founded Resilia to help non-profit organizations scale financially and operationally. Plus, users can create their own nonprofits in just a few steps on the platform. Resilia was previously ExemptMeNow, a product that let users register their own nonprofit organization directly through the platform. Now the product is one of the various pieces to Resilia. Wilson began to rebrand the platform in late 2018 as the company expanded its offerings. “As we began to grow, the name [ExemptMeNow] no longer spoke to what we do and the direction we were moving in,” Wilson said. “ExemptMeNow boxed us into a product.” According to a 2018 report from the Urban Institute, more than 1 million nonprofits were registered with the IRS in 2015 and the...