By Kim Addie
“At GSBCC, we believe strong businesses build strong communities. This investment has allowed us to move the work forward in a way that is strategic, sustainable, and rooted in real impact for Savannah area.”
Moncello Stewart, President, CEO
Greater Savannah Black Chamber of Commerce
Why Savannah
Savannah is a city rich with Black enterprise, cultural leadership, and entrepreneurial ambition. With a majority-Black population at 54% and generations of business ownership embedded in its neighborhoods, corridors, and creative economy, Savannah holds deep community-rooted capacity for wealth creation and collective growth. Black entrepreneurs are already shaping the city’s tourism, service, logistics, and cultural sectors—contributing to its identity and economic vitality.
At the same time, public data reflects persistent gaps in capital access, contracting participation, and asset accumulation that limit the full realization of that potential. While more than half of Savannah’s residents are African American, Black-owned businesses account for a smaller share of firms with scale, and White-owned businesses are worth nearly 16 times more than Black-owned businesses. Additionally, 22% of city residents live in income poverty, and 35.5% of households are asset-poor, meaning more than one in three families lack sufficient net worth to withstand economic disruption. These disparities do not reflect a lack of ambition or enterprise; rather, they signal structural barriers that constrain the ability of Black-owned businesses to convert market presence into long-term generational wealth.
For Kindred Futures, Savannah became a powerful opportunity to invest in the design of an ecosystem that matches the city’s existing leadership and entrepreneurial strength—aligning squarely with advancing its R3 framework—expanding Revenue pathways through cooperative enterprise, strengthening Resilience through shared infrastructure and institutional capacity, and advancing Repair by addressing the structural barriers that have historically limited Black wealth accumulation across the South.
Rather than leading with capital to businesses alone, Kindred’s approach in Savannah focused on investing in backbone institutions: organizations trusted by Black entrepreneurs, embedded in community, and positioned to coordinate long-term wealth-building strategies. They serve as pivotal intermediaries that leverage expertise, relationships, and convening power to equip Black entrepreneurs with the knowledge, connections, and resources needed to access capital and build ventures.
These ecosystem dynamics are reflected in the lived experiences of Savannah entrepreneurs. One local business owner described turning to entrepreneurship after realizing how quickly traditional income streams could disappear. Despite an advanced degree and years of experience in nonprofit and contract work, she wanted to build something she could control—something that could not be taken away by shifting contracts or institutional decisions. What began as a small creative project quickly grew into a business. After customizing a jacket with patches and receiving strong interest from others, she began selling products online and at local pop-up events. Over time, the venture expanded from a home-based operation to vendor tables, then to retail space, eventually becoming a storefront at Oglethorpe Mall. Reflecting on that journey, she described the growth process simply: “From my home to one table, two tables, three tables—it kind of unfolded that way.”
Yet her experience also reflects the structural challenges facing many Black-owned businesses in Savannah. While she sees enormous potential in the city, she describes the local business landscape as difficult to navigate, noting that “Savannah’s pretty tricky. You have to get in. It’s like a click, and you have to get in first.” Access to capital, trusted mentorship, and credible business support remain persistent barriers, and programs that promise support do not always deliver the guidance entrepreneurs need to scale.
Like many small business owners, she is thinking beyond survival toward long-term growth. Her goal is to franchise the business into cities such as Atlanta, Jacksonville, and Charleston. Achieving that vision, she argues, requires more than workshops or short-term programs—it requires sustained mentorship, shared services, and trusted ecosystem partners who can help businesses navigate contracts, procurement opportunities, and scaling pathways.
Her perspective also raises a broader question about Savannah’s economic future. If the city’s investments and growth were more intentionally connected to local Black businesses, she believes the impact could be transformative—not only for individual firms, but for households, generational wealth, and the long-term economic health of the community.
This approach is especially relevant given Savannah’s broader economic context. Over the past two years, the State of Georgia—through the Georgia Ports Authority and with public leadership from Governor Brian Kemp—has advanced a series of major port-related investments and approvals that underscore Savannah’s role as a global trade gateway:
Savannah’s role as a global trade gateway:
- A $4.5 billionmulti-year port investment program announced and advanced in recent years to expand berth capacity, container yards, rail connections, and logistics infrastructure at the Ports of Savannah and Brunswick.
- More than $65 million in capital approvals in 2024 alonefor container yard and terminal improvements at Savannah’s Ocean Terminal, increasing near-term capacity and long-term throughput.
- Record and near-record port activity, with the Port of Savannah reporting one of its busiest years on record in FY2024–FY2025, reinforcing its central rolein statewide economic growth, freight movement, and job creation.
While these investments are accelerating regional growth, Black-owned businesses have largely remained disconnected from port-related procurement, supply chains, and contracting opportunities—reinforcing the need for coordinated, Black-led ecosystem infrastructure that links ownership, enterprise development, and access to large-scale economic engines. Over the past several years, the State of Georgia and the Georgia Ports Authority have advanced more than $4 billion in port and logistics expansion. Yet the last publicly available local disparity data—most notably the 2016 City of Savannah Disparity Study—documented persistent underutilization of African American-owned firms as prime contractors in major public contracting pipelines.
Similarly, transportation and infrastructure projects tied to port growth operate under Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) participation targets that typically range between approximately 10–15%, establishing minimum inclusion benchmarks rather than demonstrating proportional participation reflective of Savannah’s Majority-Black population. Public procurement reporting does not clearly demonstrate sustained or scaled participation by Black-owned businesses in port-adjacent supply chains. This disconnect between multi-billion-dollar public investment and transparent; proportional contracting outcomes reinforces the need for coordinated ecosystem strategies that link local ownership to large-scale economic engines.
Phase I: Seeding Ecosystem Infrastructure (Step Up Savannah – Ignite Advantage)
Kindred’s earliest investment in Savannah flowed through Step Up Savannah, supported via the Atlanta Wealth Building Initiative (AWBI). This initial $25,000 planning investment was intentionally catalytic—not programmatic. Rather than funding a discrete set of services or a short-term program cycle, the investment supported ecosystem design, stakeholder alignment, and cooperative infrastructure development—laying the groundwork for institutional change and future capital alignment.
The goal of this investment was to test whether Savannah could support the launch of a cooperative business service model capable of:
- Incubating and stabilizing small Black-owned businesses
- Creating shared services, revenue generation, and collective bargaining power
- Laying the groundwork for shared and employee ownership pathways
This phase centered on design, alignment, and ecosystem trust-building. Step Up Savannah convened directly impacted stakeholders, mapped gaps in the local small-business support landscape and began co-designing a model rooted in shared ownership rather than fragmented services.
What Kindred learned: Early, flexible planning capital is essential for ecosystem actors to move from vision to structure—especially in markets where organizations are already stretched thin.
From Concept to Cooperative Infrastructure (IgniteAdvantage)
As Step Up Savannah’s ecosystem planning matured, the work moved from concept to formal cooperative infrastructure. This effort, publicly launched as IgniteAdvantage Savannah, translated years of listening sessions, steering committee work, and cross-sector design into a legally structured, member-owned shared services cooperative.
IgniteAdvantage was conceived by Dr. Alicia Johnson—now serving as a Public Service Commissioner for the State of Georgia—and designed as a Minority-Owned Business Service Cooperative, anchored by the Greater Savannah Black Chamber of Commerce (GSBCC) and governed according to cooperative principles of democratic ownership, equitable participation, and community benefit. As a member-owned shared services cooperative, the enterprise is collectively owned by participating businesses—each with a voice in governance—and structured to pool resources for mutual benefit. Rather than operating as a traditional business incubator or grant program, the cooperative enables members to share back-office services (such as accounting, marketing, administrative support, and benefits), aggregate purchasing power, pursue joint contracting opportunities, and reinvest earnings in proportion to member participation. Its model focuses on lowering the cost of doing business for minority-owned firms by creating a shared administrative infrastructure, while increasing access to capital and, contracts. For example, by aggregating member demand, the cooperative can negotiate group health insurance, accounting, and marketing services at reduced rates—freeing up working capital for reinvestment.
At the same time, the cooperative structure enables members to pursue larger public or private contracts collectively (rather than small, standalone firms), strengthening their ability to meet bonding, insurance, and capacity requirements. By presenting coordinated financial records and shared back-office systems, member businesses are also better positioned to demonstrate creditworthiness to CDFIs and lending partners, improving access to non-extractive or growth capital that might otherwise be out of reach.
This work gained broader public visibility through local media coverage highlighting the cooperative’s goal of breaking cycles of poverty by strengthening minority-owned businesses through shared ownership and collaboration—framing IgniteAdvantage not as a single program, but as long-term economic infrastructure for Savannah’s Black business community.
What Kindred learned: Cooperative development requires capital, legal and governance support, durable institutions, and trusted local anchors. Ecosystem investments pay off when ideas are allowed to mature into durable institutions.
Strengthening the Anchor Institution – GSBCC
With cooperative infrastructure underway, Kindred Futures deepened its Savannah investment by making a $25,000 catalytic capacity investment in the GSBCC through AWBI—recognizing the GSBCC as the ecosystem’s primary anchor and scaling vehicle. This investment was explicitly designed to strengthen organizational backbone capacity, not fund a single program. Funds supported administrative staffing, systems, communications, and data infrastructure—enabling the GSBCC to move from event-based engagement to sustained ecosystem leadership. A second investment of $40,000 funded a project manager to operationalize the cooperative—engaging businesses, coordinating partners, and activating contract opportunities.
Catalytic Impact of the Investments to date:
- $25K flexible investment unlocked $150K+ in public sectorand coalition funding, stabilizing cooperative technical assistance, shared-services infrastructure, and business support activities during reimbursement-based funding cycles.
- 31% growth in partnershipswith local, state, and nonprofit actors, positioning the GSBCC as a trusted intermediary across sectors.
- 361% increase in social media reachand 142% growth in website engagement, dramatically expanding visibility for Black-owned businesses.
- Expanded flagship convenings (EmpowHer, Black Business Expo, Black Excellence Gala), reaching thousands of attendees and vendorsand driving stronger B2B and B2C connections.
- Secured $136,000+to launch the Small Business Revitalization Grant program, directly supporting Black-owned businesses.
As anchor institution, GSBCC also plays a formal governance role—helping translate cooperative principles into practice while maintaining trust with hundreds of Black-owned businesses citywide.
What Kindred learned: When modest, flexible funding is invested in trusted local institutions, it can generate impact far beyond its dollar amount—unlocking new capital, strengthening partnerships, and building long-term community power when paired with cooperative and shared ownership strategies.
Kindred’s Savannah investments function as a place-based proof point within BUILD’s broader Southern strategy:
- Demonstrating how modest, flexible investments can unlock significant leverage
- Showing how cooperative and shared-ownership pathways must be paired with strong BSOs (Business Support Organizations—trusted intermediaries that provide technical assistance, capital navigation, conveningpower, and ecosystem coordination for small businesses) to succeed
- Generating lessons that inform Kindred’s work across Georgia and the broader nine-state Southern region
Savannah is no longer just a local investment—it is part of Kindred Futures’ learning engine for how strengthening ecosystems, helps build durable Black wealth.
Where the Story Is Now
Today, Kindred’s Savannah work reflects a clear throughline:
- Seed the vision(Step Up Savannah)
- Stabilize the backbone(GSBCC)
- Align toward shared ownership and long-term wealth
This progression—from planning, to capacity, to leverage—mirrors BUILD’s core belief: that repairing and growing Black wealth in the South requires patient, relational, and systems-oriented investment.
Importantly, the story does not end here.
The next phase of the work moves from building to execution: expanding strategic partnerships with the City of Savannah to advance cooperative and shared-ownership contracting as a proof point; identifying policy levers that strengthen the enabling conditions for cooperative models; and leveraging existing regional relationships—such as with the Georgia Cooperative Development Center and allied practitioners—to scale implementation, institutionalize shared ownership, and translate ecosystem design into durable economic outcomes. Savannah stands as an early chapter in that story—and a foundation for what comes next.
