CSI Quarterly February 2022 | Investing in the Black Community

Corporate Social Impact Quarterly / February 2022

Investing in the Black Community

Working toward racial justice is foundational to Tides' mission. In this CSI Quarterly, in celebration of Black History Month, we focus on the importance of investing in Black-owned businesses and how corporate partners can get involved.

Black entrepreneurs face significant material barriers to capital. According to Crunchbase, in the first half of 2021, Black founders received only 1.2% of the record $147 billion in venture capital invested in U.S. startups. And due to the national wealth gap, white founders have access to 37 times more wealth from startup financing than Black founders. While the percentage of venture capital investments in Black founders doubled from 0.6% in 2020, there is much work to be done in channeling power and equity to Black communities through investments, grants, and strategic partnerships.

To help fuel investment in the Black community, Tides has collaborated with innovative partners including Fifth Star Funds and Andreessen Horowitz’s Talent x Opportunity Initiative to provide funding, access, and support services to Black and other minority founders. In the audio interview below, hear about Fifth Star Funds co-founder Stella Ashaolu's journey, her motivation to launch a VC for Black-owned tech companies, and the importance of providing critical early stage funding that can help establish generations of Black wealth.

We hope this work inspires your CSI/CSR team to consider innovative ways to channel power to Black founders through investment. Please reach out to Strategic Partnerships at Tides if you’d like to discuss how we can support your social impact work in this space.

— Dhaval Patel, Director of Investments, and Jingwei Li, Senior Investment Analyst

// Tides Welcomes Harriet Gardner

Tides is pleased to introduce our new director of Corporate and Special Initiatives, Harriet Gardner. For more than 15 years, Harriet has worked in the nonprofit and corporate sectors, and within the U.N. system, with a particular focus on advancing equity, children's rights, global health, and education. For more than a decade she led portfolios of global impact partnerships with Save the Children and UNICEF, working with companies like J&J, GE, Microsoft, Facebook, Gucci, Pfizer, and GSK. Through strategic partnership and coalition building, Harriet helped develop multimillion-dollar programs that leveraged corporate resources, technical expertise, and influence for disaster response, education, and health initiatives.

More recently, Harriet was head of Partnerships at Catchafire, a technology B-Corp providing virtual pro bono support to thousands of nonprofit and grassroots organizations through partnerships with major philanthropies and companies. Harriet is delighted to join the Tides team and connect with our corporate partners to advance our impact together by delivering operational excellence and collaborating on approaches for transformational results.

Image: Black professional women sitting at conference table

// Roundup: Corpororate Impact Leaders Forum

“Diversity, equity, inclusion — it’s a journey. It’s not a sprint. It’s not a marathon. There’s no stop, there’s no endpoint to this journey.”

Richard Brown, VP of philanthropy, American Express

Thank you to those who joined us for our 2021 virtual Corporate Impact Leaders Forum. Alongside an engaging and dynamic lineup of panelists from across the sector, over the course of three weeks in December, we discussed how corporations can lead with equity, with a focus on how companies can be a champion for justice, bridging the digital divide, the role of impact evaluation, and more. If you weren’t able to attend, or simply want a refresher, read our three event recaps below. We look forward to seeing you — hopefully in person — at our 2022 Corporate Impact Leaders Forum.

READ MORE ON THE EVENTS:

U.S.-based Companies Invested $66 billion to Address Racism in 2020: What Happens Next?→

The Digital Divide Is Getting Worse: It’s Time to Close It→

Are We Tracking the Right Data? What's Measured Is What Gets Done In Social Impact→

Image: Fifth Star Funds Co-Founder Stella Ashaolu speaking at a conference

// Fifth Star Funds: Equalizing Black-founded Businesses

“For us, impact means more Black founders getting funded, more Black founders hiring more Black and minority folks onto teams and exposing them to tech.”

Stella Ashaolu, co-founder of Fifth Star Funds

Curious to hear an example of how corporate dollars have fueled investments to Black-founded businesses? Motivated to change the fact that white founders have access to 37 times more wealth from outside equity than Black founders? In the second episode of Tides’ Corporate Social Impact series, listen to an inspiring interview with Stella Ashaolu, co-founder of Fifth Star Funds, and Dameon Mason, founder of Crtside and an investee of Fifth Star Funds. Learn how Fifth Star Funds is equalizing opportunities for Black and underrepresented founders and is building a startup ecosystem that is representative of today’s world.

Learn about Fifth Star Funds

// Sephora Accelerate, an annual program offering mentorship and potential funding to BIPOC-founded beauty brands, announced its 2022 cohort.

// Logitech has partnered with No Label Academy to invest in the careers of BIPOC youth.

// Zoom’s head of social impact spoke to Forbes about the company’s approach to social impact, including its emphasis on funding BIPOC-led and grassroots nonprofits.

// Patagonia’s director of philosophy spoke to Vogue about the brand’s environmental activism and bold mission to “save our home planet.”

// Google launched the Startup Advisor: Sustainable Development Goals Program, which aims to provide mentorship, network capacity building, and other support to burgeoning social impact startups focused on advancing the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals in their own unique way.

» Corporate partners: Reach out to have your work highlighted in our next newsletter.

Image: Illustration of 2 people of color with shapes behind them

// Crunchbase data indicates venture funding to Black startup founders quadrupled between 2020 and 2021, but remains a “tiny fraction” of the total venture capital invested in 2021. Explore the data→

// Fairtrade America shared 5 consumer trends to watch for in 2022. The report indicates consumers increasingly prioritize buying ethically sourced products and seek out brands that promote fair wages and gender equity.

// Lucy Bernholz’s annual industry forecast details a number of predictions for 2022, including continued scrutiny toward unfulfilled racial equity funding pledges and an increase in crypto donations.

// Triple Pundit reflects on 6 major trends shaping the textile and apparel industries this year, ranging from denim buy-back programs and regenerative material sourcing to a resurgence in thrifting.

// Learn more about Tides TxO Fund, an accelerator program focused on discovering, funding, and training founders who are building companies around cultural breakthroughs often originating outside of mainstream funding and mentorship networks. TxO is now funding its second cohort of founders.

// New data indicates that U.S. companies' social impact investments have grown by 41% during the last 3 years, setting a new growth record.

// Triple Pundit warns the opportunity the “Great Resignation” represents for many American workers may continue to leave behind historically marginalized communities.

// Fast Company dives into Nasdaq’s new rule requiring public board diversity disclosures and the legal challenges the new requirements may face.

Tides offers guidance to shape strategies and initiatives that resonate with your company’s goals for social impact, grantmaking, and more. Read about our services:

// Grantmaking Strategy & Practice: Maximize your philanthropic impact through a suite of services and tools from strategy consulting to grants management. Download→

// Corporate Social Impact Strategy: Get the support you need to shape your company’s social impact goals. Download→

// Employee Engagement for Social Impact: Connect your employees to volunteer opportunities that harness their professional skills for social impact. Download→

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