The Pittsburgh Foundation Economic Mobility Grant (ENTREPRENEURSHIP)

Business ownership can enable Black people to build wealth more quickly than traditional employment, create jobs for others in the community and build assets that can be transferred within or passed down to a generation. But 95% of Black firms are sole proprietorships whose owners are primarily self-employed. Because they are small, these businesses have difficulty in accessing lines of credit, working capital or venture capital. Utilizing e-commerce, crowd sourcing and social media reduces immediate need for capital, but those tools are not widely utilized. Because this is an emergent area of work for our Foundation, we do not have additional eligibility criteria at this time. Our grantmaking in this area will be responsive for the next several years.