Truist Foundation today announced Kindred Futures as the top recipient of the inaugural Inspire Awards grant, a program inviting nonprofits that support Black-, Indigenous-, and people of color- (BIPOC) and women-owned small businesses across the country to submit innovative solutions to address the complex challenges facing small businesses. The inaugural event was hosted by TV personality and author Lisa Ling.

After each nonprofit finalist pitched their solutions to a panel of expert judges, Kindred Futures was named the recipient of a $250,000 grant to bring its project to life. Kindred Futures is addressing Atlanta’s racial wealth divide with a solution focused on bolstering Black businesses through research and data, growth and scale, workforce development and retention, and anti-displacement.

Today’s racial wealth gap stemmed from decades of economic policies that excluded Black people. This Atlanta Journal-Constitution article highlights how preparations for the Atlanta Olympics contributed to the racial wealth gap.

Emory is one of nine initial “anchor partners” for Kindred Futures’ campaign to support 1,000 Black businesses in 1,000 days.

As part of Kindred Futures’s (KF) Advancing Collective Prosperity: 1,000 Black Businesses in 1,000 Days campaign, KF is partnering with Emory University who will serve as the initial anchor partner in our efforts to drive resources in support of a local and inclusive economy.

“We have redefined wealth.”

Latresa McLawhorn Ryan, Kindred Futures’s Executive Director joined Reconstruction podcast host Monique Aiken to talk about strategies to build income and wealth for Black Atlantans.

Why is Atlanta, long known as a mecca for upward-mobile African-Americans, number two in America in income inequality? And as home to the second-largest number of Black-owned businesses in the country, why are their employees often not counted in census data?

Latresa McLawhorn Ryan of Kindred Futures shares with Changing the Trajectory how her nonprofit challenges systemic bias and introduces new systems and structures of capital to achieve shared prosperity. Learn how KF helps people of color build wealth in a way that has a responsibility to community.

After a year of cutbacks and layoffs, small businesses in the historic Westside that survived the pandemic look forward to returning business and expansions.

COVID-19 has devastated the entire world. In the past few months, it’s grown from a harrowing health crisis to an economic crisis.

However, as you have probably seen in the news, this pandemic is having disproportionate effects on certain demographics in the United States.

Seeking to offer support and financial stability to small businesses in Atlanta that have been hard hit by the COVID-19 crisis, Kindred Futures (KF) today announced it has launched the COVID-19 Small Business Relief Fund. The program will make $500,000 in grants and forgivable loans available to qualified African American businesses in Southwest, Southeast, and Northwest Atlanta.

According to KF, the resources will be distributed in three ways: as general operating support grants for nonprofits supporting the Black business community; as grants for community-based small businesses, as well as forgivable loans to small businesses that can also serve as a vehicle to establish business credit for those who are able to pay off the loan. Since the COVID-19 crisis hit Atlanta, Kindred Futures has already provided support to 15 small businesses across the city including Local Green, a Westside Atlanta restaurant focused on reducing health disparities in underserved populations by providing healthier food choices to communities who need it most.