BLACK DOLLARS MATTER

County of Los Angeles

We are seeking to address the following problems: 1) Black and minority unemployment; 2) Black and minority youth unemployment; 3) Black and minority business lack of access to capital; 4) Black and minority business lack of access to business resources and expertise; 5) lack of circulation of the “Black-dollar” spend within the black community; 6) higher crime and violence rates due directly and indirectly to black unemployment and lower income; and 7) most importantly, identification and support of black-owned businesses and independent contractors. Lastly, we will be conducting webinars to share the expertise and wisdom from the best academic, business, financial and community leaders to empower and educate our community.

If we were so fortunate as to receive this MY LA2050 GRANTS CHALLENGE, we would be able to complete and launch both our website, www.blackdollarsmatter.com, and accompanying mobile apps. Consequently, we will be able to scale the business by signing up black businesses, independent contractors, corporate sponsors and black consumers. The $1.3 trillion, African-American economy comprises one of the largest and most powerful in the world, playing a vital role within the largest economy in the world, the United States. We have influence globally. If we do 2% more business within the African-American economy, we will create one million more jobs. JOIN BLACK DOLLARS MATTER NOW! Register your business as a company or as an individual. Do it for yourself and your business. Do it for our ancestors who dreamed of economic freedom. Do it for our future, our children, for whom all of us want a better world…a world of justice and freedom, both economic and social. JOIN BLACK DOLLAR MATTER NOW!

Applying a proven model or solution to a new issue or sector (e.g., using a job recruiting software or strategy to match clients to supportive housing sites, applying demonstrated strategies from advocating for college affordability to advocating for housing affordability and homelessness, etc.)

By supporting our company via BLACK DOLLARS MATTER website and apps, Los Angeles County will be not only different but better in the following areas: 1) supporting local black-owned businesses; 2) putting black-owned businesses in a marketing and financial position to hire more people from our community as most small businesses hire from family, friends and neighbors; 3) allowing independent contractors and the self-employed to use our marketplace in the near future (www.blackdollarsmatter.com) to promote, market and sell their products and services; 4) empowering our community with knowledge, information, resources, networking and access to business opportunities and capital; 5) helping to address certain issues like unemployment and urban blight, by helping one another to increase the business that we do with each other by identifying, promoting and marketing our businesses and individual services; 6) and stronger businesses should lead to stronger families and communities.

As an early stage project, we will define and measure success by the following: 1) launching website www.blackdollarsmatter.com; 2) launching www.blackdollarsmatter.com apps; 3) running a sustainable and growing business; 4) measuring monthly visits to our website; 5) measuring quarterly downloads of our apps; 6) measuring followers on our social media; 7) measuring businesses signing up with us; 8) measuring self-employed signing up with us; 9) measuring participation in our events/webinars; 10) measuring growth to other locations; and, 11) noting online reviews of our business.

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