Back in 2012, I had no clue how to get started or where to even turn. There’s no shortage of Youtube videos and courses to take. Despite the abundance of information, it was hard to actually get lead in the right direction. One thing that I did know was… I wanted to make a difference in our collective community.
In a time when we are the most connected through electronics, we are extremely disconnected from other hardships. LuxeGiving was born from a desire to help impact the communities within apartments, neighborhoods, and small businesses. We’ve grown over the years due to brand alignment and partnerships.
COVID19 has impacted the business environment in unimaginable ways. Business owners are faced with hard decisions. Our team has been wanting to find a way to help out others in a tangible way. The Making A Difference campaign is our pay it forward campaign run through our Lifestyle Series.
I had to find the right charity or business to contribute the funds. A friend mentioned a crowdfunding company called IFundwomen. Honestly, I wasn’t familiar with crowdfunding or business financing options.
What is crowdfunding? According to the Fundable.com, “Crowdfunding is a method of raising capital through the collective effort of friends, family, customers, and individual investors. This approach taps into the collective efforts of a large pool of individuals—primarily online via social media and crowdfunding platforms—and leverages their networks for greater reach and exposure.?
Crowdfunding is essentially the opposite of the mainstream approach to business finance. Traditionally, if you want to raise capital to start a business or launch a new product, you would need to pack up your business plan, market research, and prototypes, and then shop your idea around to a limited pool or wealthy individuals or institutions.”
After researching IFundWomen and crowdfunding, it became clear that our Making Difference Campaign should help seed into projects giving entrepreneurs an opportunity.
In January 2020, IFundWomen of Color was started. They firmly believe in supporting diverse, women-owned businesses.
According to Amex’s 2019 State of Women-Owned Business Report, Black women represent 42% of net new women-owned businesses started in the last year, which is three times their share of the female population (14%). Yet in the past decade, Black women-led businesses have captured just .0006% of the total venture capital funding pie.
The ongoing violence against the Black community undoubtedly places a strain on black women trying to launch and grow their businesses. Take action and fund Black women entrepreneurs right now.
Despite the growth in our presence, funding options are still extremely limited. According to Ellen Sheng’s article This underfunded female demographic is launching the most start-ups in America, far from Silicon Valley, “While entrepreneurship in the U.S. as a whole has been on the decline, black women are starting businesses at the fastest clip of any racial group, according to research by American Express. Since 2007, the number of firms owned by African-American women has grown by 164%. Nearly half of women-owned businesses in the United States, or 44%, are controlled by minority women, according to Census data and projections by research firm Womenable. That’s up from 20% in 1997.”
Organizations like IFundwomen are providing a solution for business support and grants. LuxeGiving will be donating 50% of profit every quarter to a selected crowdfunding campaign on the IFundWomen platform.
Our team is proud to make a difference! I’m proud to play a part in giving someone an opportunity to grow their business. I’m proud of the communities that partner with us on the campaign!
An entrepreneurial spirit is one of the pulses in our economic fabric. As our brand grows, we want to continue supporting others along the way.
“It’s the action, not the fruit of the action, that’s important. You have to do the right thing. It may not be in your power, may not be in your time, that there’ll be any fruit. But that doesn’t mean you stop doing the right thing. You may never know what results come from your action. But if you do nothing, there will be no result.”
― Mahatma Gandhi