Colour Conscious

I can provide THREE main reasons that I am applying for the Elevate Prize...

First, I am a woman. Second, I am a Black... and third, I'm attempting to decolonize the non-profit sector!

Due to those three main reasons, listed above, I am saddened to say that this is actually my SECOND attempt to "officially launch" my organization! 

According to Crunchbase, women received less than 2.3% of venture capital funding towards FOR PROFIT businesses in 2020.  Add being Black into the mix and that number drops to less than 1%.

Imagine the struggle of a Black female founder trying to raise the capital to launch a NONPROFIT organization? An industry that is dominated by the caucasion demographic, at a rate of roughly 93%. (racialequity.org)

Due to the current climate of our country, you would think that these three obstacles could be easily overcome.  Especially since corporations are publicly pledging large sums of money to demonstrate their support of the Black community. Unfortunately, I am finding that these pledges are being  publicized without "follow through." 

As a result, I am applying for the Elevate Prize as a means of navigating through those false promises and overcoming those three main barriers...

Hello... my name is Michellett Whitney. I studied at California State University of San Bernardino holding a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Liberal Studies with a Concentration in Humanities and a Minor in Biology.

One "fun fact" is that my initial career path was pre-med.  Luckily, I discovered that my desire to help the less fortunate could prove more beneficial assisting charitable organizations.

Now, I am a fifteen year veteran in the non-profit sector working for international companies such as Americorp, YMCA, and Boys and Girls Club.  During this time, I have had the amazing opportunity to serve under resourced communities at various levels of my career overseeing initiatives such after-school programming and subsidized childcare.

My experience with subsidized programs has acted as the catalyst in bringing Colour Conscious into fruition.  I believe that such programs, in addition to historical implications, have been an added impediment to the Black community's ability to acquire wealth.

As a member of this marginalized demographic. I look forward to partnering with those in alignment with my effort and have a deep desire to accelerate change. I hope that, together, we can help provide the necessary resources to help overcome this tragic disparity!

According to a report released by the Corporation for Economic Development and the Institute for Policy Studies, it will take 228 years for the average Black family to accumulate the same amount of wealth as the average White family, today.

Colour Conscious is a grassroots nonprofit organization that is dedicated to overcoming those statistics by granting seed capital to Black start-up businesses to economically revitalize underserved communities and close the racial wealth gap.

Our program involves a paid externship in the industry of pursuit, a mentor from start to finish, professional and cultural workshops reflecting the Black diaspora, an experienced business consultant, content branding tools, personal marketing team, a cash business grant and a chance for Black start-ups to pay this opportunity forward to the local community.

We want to accomplish the unheard by developing an enterprise of urban communities that will curate their own path to the "American Dream" regardless of educational background or non-violent criminal history.

A few subsidiary issues that we hope to indirectly resolve through our mission, also include the following:

1) Gentrification

2) School to Prison Pipeline

3) Unemployment

4) Financial Illiteracy

5) Wealth Inequality and

6) Glass Barriers

I was once asked, by a City official, to change my target demographic to include ALL minorities if I wanted a chance to receive funding through their Block Grant.  

What makes my work innovative is that I openly acknowledge the suffrages being experienced by all minorities, here in America, but I am brave enough to acknowledge that 400 years of slavery, Jim Crow, segregation, and police brutality has induced a tremendous amount of trauma on the Black community that no other minority group has had to endure.

The mere fact that our ancestors weren't even permitted to read for nearly 250 years of that time and barely allowed to vote no more than 55 years ago is demonstration enough that the Black community needs access to a different set of resources to even attempt to "catch up" with other cultures.

The tools that I am trying to offer the Black community, through my organization, is the support that we've so desperately needed since the emancipation of our ancestors, when they were slaves.

Unfortunately, the needs of the Black community have always been tied to ALL minorities.  I am making an effort to change that reality...

According to blacknews.com, Black businesses are only capable of providing employment opportunities to less than 1% of America's Black population. As a result, a 228 year wealth gap has developed between the average Black family and their White counterparts.

This reality has lead to the deterioration of our neighborhoods such as gentrification...poverty...the school-to-prison pipeline...unemployment...financial illiteracy...and glass barriers.

In order to over-turn these issues, there is now a dire need for the reintroduction of small Black owned businesses into our neighborhoods.

With over a trillion dollars of buying power within the Black community, an investment in Black entrepreneurship will disperse those dollars back into impoverished neighborhoods by creating jobs and economic stability.

Colour Conscious simply seeks to expedite this process.