Morehouse College and Spelman College to Launch
the Center for Black Entrepreneurship, Focused on Advancing the
Next Generation of Black Entrepreneurs
Today, Mastercard is pleased to announce grants totaling $5
million to two Historically Black Colleges and Universities
(HBCUs), Morehouse College and Spelman College, to develop the
Center for Black Entrepreneurship (CBE). The CBE will further the
development of cutting-edge entrepreneurial programming, thought
leadership, networking and academic and mentorship opportunities
for aspiring Black entrepreneurs.
The philanthropic funding, delivered by the Mastercard Impact
Fund, is part of Mastercard’s $500 million, five-year In Solidarity
commitment to advance racial equity and economic opportunity
through city programs to support Black communities, affordable
financial tools and services, and expanding access to capital and
resources for Black-owned businesses.
HBCUs Poised to Drive Black Innovation and
Entrepreneurship
For more than 100 years, HBCUs have served as pathways to
mentorship and economic mobility for Black students in pursuit of
higher education. While HBCUs make up 3% of American colleges and
universities, they produce 25% of Black STEM graduates. The power
of their alumni networks and scholarship combined with the cultural
and historical significance they possess uniquely position them to
drive inclusive growth within the Black community.
With increased funding, HBCUs will be able to scale the already
critical role they play in helping to train and develop the next
generation of Black entrepreneurs and innovators.
“For over a century, HBCUs have played a critical role in
nurturing professional talent and creating economic mobility in
Black communities,” said Salah Goss, senior vice president for
social impact at the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth. “By
investing in HBCUs, Mastercard is intentionally choosing key
institutions who we believe can be catalytic in furthering our
commitment to ensuring that the digital economy works for the Black
community, and for everyone, everywhere.”
Morehouse College and Spelman College to Establish the Center
for Black Entrepreneurship (CBE)
In partnership with the Black Economic Alliance Foundation
(BEA), Morehouse College and Spelman College are in the process of
establishing the Center for Black Entrepreneurship (CBE) with
financial support from Mastercard, among others. The CBE will help
assemble, educate and empower a new generation of Black
entrepreneurial talent. Specifically, the CBE will focus on
eliminating opportunity gaps between Black entrepreneurs,
professional investors and business builders by leveraging
education, mentorship and access to capital and opportunity.
The CBE will be located on the campuses of Spelman College and
Morehouse College in southwest Atlanta. Spelman plans to house it
in its new academic facility, the Center for Innovation & the
Arts, and Morehouse will house it within a new facility on campus.
The Atlanta metro area is home to 57 colleges and universities and
over 100,000 Black-owned businesses, making it a hub for Black
students and entrepreneurs. Despite Atlanta being the ninth-largest
metro area in the country and housing the second-largest population
of Black people in America, there is a significant disconnect
between venture capital firms that are traditionally West
Coast-based and emerging Black student entrepreneurs, who are
disproportionately located on the East Coast and in the South.
Mastercard’s grant will support the hiring of adjunct faculty,
the creation of an online entrepreneurship program, experiential
courses and pitch competitions that will enable students to put
their classroom instruction in practice. In addition to the grant,
Mastercard will provide in-kind support, such as digital technology
training and access to Start Path, the company’s global startup
engagement program created to help the best and brightest
later-stage startups maximize their opportunity for success.
This investment is designed to have a transformational impact on
economic growth for Black communities and builds on Mastercard’s
commitment to bolster employee recruitment and HBCU programming in
collaboration with the Congressional HBCU Caucus its brand’s 2020
Partnership Pledge.
Quote Sheet:
Here’s a look at what our HBCU partners had to say about the
grants and our partnerships:
David Clunie, Executive Director of the Black Economic
Alliance
“Long-term investment in Black entrepreneurs is critical to
drive equitable and sustainable economic growth for local economies
and the U.S. economy alike. The Center for Black Entrepreneurship
will create an ecosystem of opportunity and investment that will
catalyze the multiplier effect of generating more Black founders
who hire more Black employees and re-invest in more Black
businesses and Black communities. We appreciate Mastercard’s
thoughtful partnership in this endeavor and their commitment to
supporting inclusive economic growth.”
Samantha Tweedy, President of the Black Economic Alliance
Foundation
“That Black founders historically have received only 1% of
venture capital financing is not an issue of Black talent, but of
systemic barriers. The Center for Black Entrepreneurship is a model
for how we break down those barriers and build the Black
generational wealth that is essential to the health of our nation’s
economy. The BEA Foundation is grateful to Mastercard for investing
in Morehouse and Spelman’s strong culture of entrepreneurship to
support the next generation of Black talent.”
Dr. David A. Thomas, President of Morehouse College
"The Morehouse mission is to help students develop the type of
leadership and service qualities embodied in entrepreneurs and
other visionaries," said David A. Thomas, Ph.D., Morehouse College
president. "The support form Mastercard will empower innovators to
disrupt the status quo and move their ideas from concept to market,
even as they create economic opportunities in the communities they
serve."
Dr. Mary Schmidt Campbell, President of Spelman
College
“We are excited by the possibility of building an
entrepreneurship curriculum within our outstanding department of
economics. Through the support of Mastercard, the College will be
able to build curricular and co-curricular strength that encourages
and supports AUC students intent on the creation and sustainability
of new businesses that will ultimately create wealth within our
communities.”
About the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth
The Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth advances equitable
and sustainable economic growth and financial inclusion around the
world. The Center leverages the company’s core assets and
competencies, including data insights, expertise and technology,
while administering the philanthropic Mastercard Impact Fund, to
produce independent research, scale global programs and empower a
community of thinkers, leaders and doers on the front lines of
inclusive growth. For more information and to receive its latest
insights, follow the Center on Twitter and LinkedIn, and subscribe
to its newsletter.
About the Black Economic Alliance Foundation
The Black Economic Alliance is a coalition of Black business
leaders and allies committed to driving economic progress for the
Black community with a focus on work, wages, and wealth. The BEA
Foundation is the 501c3 charitable nonprofit affiliate of the Black
Economic Alliance. The BEA Foundation works with leaders in the
private, public, and nonprofit sectors to produce, research, and
analyze data to diagnose the obstacles to Black economic mobility
and prescribe practical solutions to create better access to
good-paying jobs, a living wage, and wealth creation for Black
people. The BEA Foundation also crafts programs that convene
leaders across industries around initiatives that will produce
better economic outcomes for Black people. For more information,
visit: foundation.blackeconomicalliance.org
About Morehouse College
Morehouse College is the only historically Black college
dedicated to educating men. Founded in 1867, Morehouse is a
private, liberal arts institution and the nation's top producer of
Black men who go on to receive doctorates. The College is the top
producer of Rhodes Scholars among HBCUs and was named to the list
of U.S. institutions that produced the most Fulbright Scholars in
2019-2020. As the epicenter for thought leadership on civil rights,
Morehouse is committed to helping the nation address the inequities
caused by institutional racism, which has created social and
economic disparities for people of African descent. Prominent
Morehouse alumni include: Martin Luther King Jr., Nobel Peace Prize
Laureate; Dr. David Satcher, former U.S. Surgeon General; Shelton
"Spike" Lee, Academy Award-winning American filmmaker; Maynard H.
Jackson, the first African American mayor of Atlanta; Jeh Johnson,
former U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security; Louis W. Sullivan,
former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services; Bakari Sellers,
attorney and CNN political analyst; Randall Woodfin, elected as the
youngest mayor of Birmingham in 120 years; and U.S. Senator Raphael
Warnock, Georgia’s first Black U.S. senator from Georgia. For more
information, visit: https://morehouse.edu.
About Spelman College
Founded in 1881, Spelman College is a leading liberal arts
college widely recognized as the global leader in the education of
women of African descent. Located in Atlanta, the College’s
picturesque campus is home to 2,100 students. Spelman is the
country's leading producer of Black women who complete Ph.D.s in
science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). The College’s
status is confirmed by U.S. News & World Report, which ranked
Spelman No. 54 among all liberal arts colleges, No. 19 for
undergraduate teaching, No. 4 for social mobility among liberal
arts colleges, and No. 1 for the 14th year among historically Black
colleges and universities. The Wall Street Journal ranked the
College No. 3, nationally, in terms of student satisfaction. Recent
initiatives include a designation by the Department of Defense as a
Center of Excellence for Minority Women in STEM, a Gender and
Sexuality Studies Institute, the first endowed queer studies chair
at an HBCU, and a program to increase the number of Black women
Ph.D.s in economics. New majors have been added, including
documentary filmmaking and photography, and partnerships have been
established with MIT’s Media Lab, the Broad Institute and the Army
Research Lab for artificial intelligence and machine learning.
Outstanding alumnae include Children’s Defense Fund founder Marian
Wright Edelman, Starbucks Group President and COO Rosalind Brewer,
political leader Stacey Abrams, former Acting Surgeon General and
Spelman’s first alumna president Audrey Forbes Manley, actress and
producer Latanya Richardson Jackson, global bioinformatics
geneticist Janina Jeff and authors Pearl Cleage and Tayari Jones.
For more information, visit www.spelman.edu.
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Allison Kahn allison.kahn@mastercard.com 914.539.9008
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