Collab Nonprofit and Small Business "The Pitch" Competition

Income inequality

South LA South Bay Long Beach County of Los Angeles (select only if your project has a countywide benefit) San Fernando Valley East LA

Pilot or new project, program, or initiative (testing or implementing a new idea)

LA County has over 1.3 million small businesses, with the highest proportion of woman and minority owned small businesses out of any other county in the United States. While woman owned is currently the fastest growing new business sector, they make up less than 30% of Los Angeles County businesses and over 80% have annual revenues below $100,000. Also, out of the total number of woman owned businesses in Los Angeles County nearly 50% are minority-owned. This funding will be used to increase access to free educational tools needed to aide disadvantaged entrepreneurs, nonprofit leaders and small business owners in crafting a winning pitch as well as providing access to various funding sources including the pitch competition prize money.

The Collab Nonprofit and Small Business "The Pitch" Competition focuses on highlighting underrepresented groups including minority and woman entrepreneurs, nonprofit leaders, and small businesses owners. We include startups to established 10+ years in business that are disproportionately disadvantaged and provide them the opportunity to compete for a chance to win prize money for business use.
As part of the program we offer Pitch Preparation Workshops educating competitors and the general public on how to craft and deliver a winning pitch. The businesses will then go through a competitive application process to secure their spot. Once the finalist have been selected they will be invited to compete in person at the “The Pitch” Competition program. During this time a panel of judges comprised of our board members, subject matter experts, past competition winners, sponsors, and community partners will rate the pitch presentations and choose the top contestants to receive the grant awards.
The program will feature refreshments, seated presentation from guest speakers, visual media displays of sponsors and past event media, photo activations for competitors and supporting attendees, networking opportunities and resource swag bags.
During the program we will reinforce our mission to foster sustainable growth through development of individuals and communities while emphasizing the importance of relationships and working collaboratively to be able combat income inequality.

In 2021 it was reported that Latin and Black residents only owned 11% and 2%, respectively, of small businesses in Los Angeles County. The biggest factors in the low percentage are attributed to lack of access to capital and inequity in distribution of educational support and resources. If our work is successful we will be able to motivate and inspire minorities to start businesses through success stories from our Pitch Competition winners on how winning the prize money helped them to successfully start or expand their business. As well as how we prepared them for success prior to the competition with coaching; and provided ongoing support post competition through various other programs including business coaching, 1-on-1 technical assistance, workshops and networking. We will increase the percentage of minority business owners in Los Angeles County which remedies income inequality by providing means to additional revenue streams by establishing businesses in disadvantaged households.