Hi! For our last Community Spotlight, I wanted to highlight an organization that I'm actually surprised I hadn't talked about before. My city has a Black CoC but I didn't know what it was about or what it did, and I've been making a point to learn more about Black community organizations, especially those that may be in my local area. I suggest you do the same, because depending on what you're trying to do you can end up unlocking a cache of resources to use. Upon learning about today's organization, I've realized I don't agree with many of its political stances and I can't find a lot of information about the organization's current activities or events--which is why today's entry will be rather short--but I'm glad to have learned about it regardless. I still think it's an important organization to the Black community and it needs to be showcased for its work. I'd also like to check out what my local CoC is about and see if there are any differences between the national chapter and the local one. Let's get into it!
Name: National Black Chamber of Commerce
Date of establishment and founders: unofficially, 1991; officially, 1993 by Harry C. Alford and Kay DeBow
Purpose of organization: To economically empower and sustain Black communities in the nation through entrepreneurship and capitalistic activity
Why is the Spotlight on it today? For its dedication to empower the Black community in an economic and professional setting and its focus on guiding and helping Black-owned businesses
Notables and accolades:
--has a branch in over 30 states, 40 countries, and a total of almost 200 chapters in total
--has a reach of over 100,000 Black-owned businesses
--holds multiple events a year across the world, from social-media exclusive events to symposiums, seminars and forums in various locations
--holds an annual convention most years to combine innovation and business for Black entrepreneurs
--the social media exclusive event, the Facebook Boost Your Business Event, is used to celebrate Black History Month by helping Black entrepreneurs grow their business and increase their ad strategy via social media platforms
--receives its funding from the telecommunications, fossil fuel and tobacco industries
--was able to partner with New York Life and Lord Abbett to create and sponsor the 2004 Building Wealth Tour for Black small business owners and entrepreneurs
--lobbied on behalf of the tobacco industry in opposition to additional restrictions on menthol cigarettes, which are consumed and sold disproportionately by the Black community and would hurt it the most
--takes a political stance on issues and legislation that may affect their goals, negatively or positively, partially on causes they say can affect minority groups or Black businesses directly
--has a blog series called Beyond the Rhetoric, which is written by the CEO and is where he shares his thoughts on various issues affecting the country
Further reading links:
1 | 2
Quote of the Day:
"Investing in America's Diversity"
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