Rockefeller Foundation donates $400,000 to Black businesses in Florida

The Rockefeller Foundation has donated $400,000 in support of Black contractors in Florida to help offset the economic impact of COVID-19.

The grant to the Black Business Investment Fund Florida will benefit BBIF’s construction Contractor Assistance Program, which seeks to create jobs by supplying loan capital and business-development training.

“Our research and experience has shined a light on the inequity which many capable and reliable Black and minority contractors face within the construction industry,” Inez Long, BBIF chief executive officer and president, said in a statement. “The BBIF CAP program provides a depth of advisory services, technology, and other resources, as well as access to capital, which is critical to improving outcomes for Black contractors in Florida.”

The pandemic exacerbated long-standing inequalities between Black and non-Black businesses, including access to capital. For example, the federal Small Business Administration has funded only 2.5 and 5.8 percent of Black and Hispanic businesses, according to the foundation — likely contributing to a closure rate among Black-owned businesses that was nearly double the rate of all companies during the pandemic’s early months, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York reported.

The donation is part of the Rockefeller Foundation’s $65 million commitment to helping low-wage workers across the country announced in February. The initiative aims at creating racial equity through economically uplifting Black and brown communities.

“Social equity cannot exist without economic equity,” Otis Rolley III, senior vice president of the foundation’s U.S. Equity and Economic Opportunity Initiative, said in a statement. “That’s why we are excited to be partnering with these organizations to help businesses nationwide with technical assistance and stabilizing capital.”