Black Crowdfunding is an
initiative of Creative Investment Research, Inc. [CIR] and MinorityFinance.com,
in conjunction with Blacks in Green [BIG], and others in the African American
community who are dedicated to advancing the health/wealth of communities
everywhere.
Blackcrowdfunding.net was
previewed, via a "soft launch," on March 15, 2013 with a BIG
Crowdfunding Club Soire & Webinar. Our second "soft launch"
consisted of our participation in a discussion on resources for African
American businesses at the Harvard Business School on April 7, 2013.
It is the first crowdfunding portal inspired by a commitment to increase the
rate at which African American businesses are created and sustained...linking
the critical importance of robust circulation of black dollars within black
communities to the fundamental well-being of its residents...and understanding
the heightened importance of the "walkable black village" anchored by
neighbor-owned businesses to the foreseeable challenges of the global climate
crisis.
Moreover, it is the only such portal which functions as part of a whole-system
solution for the whole-system problem common to black communities everywhere.
Please read on and share the good news. William Michael Cunningham, Naomi Davis
and the team working on this site invite people of all backgrounds to share
their dreams, learn this structure, and discover why crowdfunding is so
important...why it works...who benefits...and how to participate for individual
and greater good.
Our well-documented commitment to black health/wealth makes ours the
portal-of-choice for crowdfunding donations, loans - and soon, business equity
transactions. Thank you for investing through us, and circulating your dollars
through a community which needs your care the most.
Mission
Our goal is to solve the issues of unemployment and a lack of wealth in the
African American, minority and women-owned business community. We aim to
accelerate the rate at which African American businesses are created and
sustained.
How
Via crowdfunding, we create new investment and financing strategies that
generate wealth and employment. These are independent, ethical and entirely new
approaches to addressing economic issues in African American, minority and
women business communities.
William
Michael Cunningham,
CEO of
Creative Investment Research
For thirty years Mr. Cunningham has been studying small business finance and
inventing new financial instruments. He holds Masters Degrees in both business
and economics from the University of Chicago, with a Bachelor of Arts in
Economics, cum laude from Howard University.
Mr.
Cunningham is CEO of Creative Investment Research, where since 1989 he has been
a policy analyst and advisor providing investment research and management
services. His firm researches and creates socially responsible investments,
with a special focus on minority business, finance, and job creation; community
development financial institutions and diversity reinvestment - including banks
owned by women and minorities; and analysis of government compliance, new
market tax credits, and environmental impact assessments. He works with pension
fund trustees, investment managers and analysts, community activists,
government agencies, and financial industry organizations to create and
implement his social and community investing initiatives.
Naomi
Davis, President & Founder BIG: Blacks in Green™
Ms.
Davis is a nationally recognized environmentalist, and an urban theorist,
attorney, activist, and proud granddaughter of Mississippi sharecroppers. She
is president and founder of BIG:
Blacks in Green, an award-winning economic development
organization based in West Woodlawn, Chicago with a national network. They are
one of America's most diverse eco-orgs, and a thought leader in sustainable
community development for communities of color...across 13 economic sectors.
Naomi Davis was born and raised in St. Albans, Queens, NYC, earned a Juris
Doctor at John Marshall Law School of Chicago, with a Bachelor of Arts in
Speech & Drama and English from Fisk University.
She
lives where she works in the historic village of West Woodlawn, southernmost
tip of Bronzeville, home of Lorraine Hansberry and Emmett Till.
Roger Madison, CEO
iZania, LLC