Goldman Sachs issues first round of grants for One Million Black Woman Initiative

Earlier this year, Goldman Sachs announced their initiative to invest into Black women. The plan is called One Million Black Women Initiative. This commitment includes investing $10 billion over the next decade in businesses and organizations that benefit Black women. In addition, the bank also will commit $100 million to philanthropy. This is in an effort to address the dual disproportionate gender and racial biases that Black women endure. Goldman Sachs has announced the first round of grants, capital investments, and philanthropic grants that are going toward this effort.

The first round of investment capital and philanthropic grants will go to the following organizations:

Archer Towers (New York, NY) will fund the construction of a mixed-income residential development in Jamaica, Queens. This consists of 181 affordable units, 424 market-rate units, and 224 parking spaces. Housing is intrinsically connected to better health outcomes, economic mobility, and employment prospects for Black women. This investment will provide stable, quality, affordable housing.

Birth Center Equity will support Black women-led community birth centers to access new resources to ensure their collective vitality, sustainability, and growth.

BlocPower WiFi (New York, NY) will expand broadband services across the Bronx and Upper Manhattan with a focus on low-income neighborhoods. The lack of affordable broadband access leads to many barriers. These include education, employment opportunities, banking services, healthcare, social networks, and other services for Black women.

Buy From A Black Woman (Atlanta, Georgia) will continue website development, social media education, content, technical assistance, and grant funding to Black women-owned businesses.

Center for Maternal Health Equity at Morehouse School of Medicine (Atlanta, Georgia) directly addresses the disproportionate pregnancy-related mortality rate that Black women face in comparison to white women. 60% of maternal deaths are preventable and through this investment we seek to reverse this troubling statistic.

Columbus Urban League (Columbus, Ohio) will fund the pilot launch of Incubate Her, to create meaningful change in the economic health and outlook of Black women in Central Ohio.

Prosp(a)rity Project (East Palo Alto, California) will fund the development of the 35*2 Free Initiative, which provides personalized financial coaching and retroactive scholarships for “Prosperettes” to help manage student loan debt.

Sadie Collective (Washington, District of Columbia) to fund the creation of high school economic clubs for young Black girls to participate in the annual Federal Reserve Challenge.

Magnolia Mother’s Trust (Jackson, Mississippi) to fund the next iteration of the program which provides Black mothers living in extreme poverty with a $1,000 monthly stipend to help lift them out of poverty.

Women’s Fund of Central Ohio (Columbus, Ohio) to fund the Enduring Progress Initiative to fill the systemic funding gap faced by non-profits led by women of color.

Goldman Sachs’ advisory council, which consists of 17 Black business leaders and community organizations met last month. This meeting was to provide guidance on the scope of the investments and grants. In partnership with Black-women-led organizations, Goldman Sachs conducted listening sessions. These sessions engaged more than 12,000 women to determine the projects that would receive the initial round of financial support.

“The more we tell the stories, the more we measure the results so that others can learn from it. And to hold up those best practices for everyone to see, I think the possibilities for One Million Black Women are infinite”. – Valerie Jarrett, former Senior Advisor to President Obama and One Million Black Women Advisory Council member.

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