IGNITE ALABAMA

IGNITE!s Doing Business in Alabama (DBIA) Minority Business Training Pilot Project seed funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation ensures Small Black Business Owners and Nonprofits have a clear understanding of and receive access to, funding opportunities, resources, and technical assistance needed to competitively compete, succeed, and excel in the marketplace.

Utilizing a custom designed salesforce system that assesses businesses, develops “Individualized Business Action Plans” and make referrals to an ecosystem of 50+ statewide partner agencies best equipped to provide immediate assistance relevant to participants current/most pressing needs.

KEY IGNITE! DBIA ELEMENTS:

1.     Counting & Connecting US! Minority Small Business and Nonprofit Census

o   Quarterly Surveys (February, June, August, November)

2.  AEDC Ecosystem Coordination

o   Facilitate Monthly Meetings

o   Promote and coordinate support of partner events

·       Digital Promotion (emails, social media post, etc.)

·       Vendor Resource Tables

o   Maintain/Update Quarterly Resource Directory distributed to Business Owners

o   Seek, identify, and lead collaborative efforts on National and/or Federal Funding Opportunities

3.     Minority Business Owner Awareness / Education

o   Monthly Virtual Workshops including but not limited to:

·       Mental Health and Emotional Wellness Services

·       Intensive Business Supportive Services, Financial Literacy, and Technical Assistance

·       Legal Services

o   Contract Opportunities for Minorities Symposium (February)

o   Empowerment Summit (October)

o   Business Vision Board Workshop (November)

4.  Direct Services / Case Management

o   Forensic Financial Analysis (Triage) via Salesforce System

o   Individualized Business Action Plan (Action Steps)

o   Case Management (Technical Assistance and Accountability)

o   Success Advocates

o   Financial Coach

IGNITE! alleviates three challenges facing minority and women entrepreneurs:

Limited Access to Capital: According to a recent nationally representative survey, Black and Hispanic-owned businesses start with about half as much capital as nonminority-owned firms. Women start with a little more than half the capital with which men start. These initial disparities persist and can grow over time, as limited capital constrains a business’s ability to grow. Minority-owned businesses rely significantly on personal wealth and investments from family members versus external debt or equity. Estimates from U.S. Census Bureau indicate non minorities have wealth eleven to sixteen times that of Blacks and Hispanics, receiving on average less than half the equity investment that nonminority businesses receive.

Limited Access to Business Networks:  Although it is difficult to find concrete evidence on the impact of business networks, it’s widely accepted they provide information, advice, knowledge of new opportunities, and useful relationships in operating a business. Unfortunately, minorities cannot easily tap into these networks. Mainly because professional networks typically consist of people with similar backgrounds. So fewer successful minority owned businesses, makes it more difficult for them to be welcomed and/or maximize participation in established business networks.

Limited Opportunity for Business Skills Development: Studies consistently find education levels of a business owner positively correlates with entrepreneurial success. Businesses with highly educated owners have higher profits, survival rates, and hire more employees than businesses with less-educated owners. Thus, lower levels of education and experience among racial minorities may be a barrier to entrepreneurship.

Female, Black, and other Minority Business Owners, Entrepreneurs, and Nonprofit Leaders Economic Inequality and Barriers to Entry, is the problem that IGNITE! addresses.

We believe our solution, IGNITE! DBIA aligns perfectly with the Challenge because in a relatively short time, utilizing data from surveys, focus groups, and partnerships, IGNITE! has realized tremendous success in providing access to capital for minorities by demonstrating power of connectivity, community building, and open communication amongst minorities and Service Providers. 

Since our inception, IGNITE! has blazed the way amongst minority business owners and nonprofit leaders in helping them understand the necessity of leveraging technology to maximize resources, human capital, increase operational efficiency, sustainability, and impact.

According to Isaac McCoy, Dean–Stillman College School of Business, Entrepreneurship, and Computational & Information Sciences, “IGNITE! and the Doing Business in Alabama Minority Business Training Pilot Project is essential to Alabama's economic and business ecosystem. This initiative is intentionally designed to connect minority entrepreneurs, business owners, and social conscious organizations to resources that lead to growth and sustainability. For Alabama to actualize the economic growth it envisions, it needs entrepreneurs, businesses owners, and social conscious organizations to grow and thrive.”

Finally, to proactively combat subproblems that plague the Black community due to years of Economic Inequality and Barriers to Entry, IGNITE! proactively supports/reinforces other black led nonprofits who specifically target black female HBCU students, at-risk and low income youth, with a sole goal to build a robust/sustainable pipeline of future Female and Black Innovators, CEOs, & Employees.

According to a 2019 study by Alabama Possible, Alabama is the 6th poorest state in the U.S. with over 800,000 Alabamian's living below poverty thresholds.  Statistics show while 72% of Alabama’s "Heads of Households" are black women; they are underpaid 51% more than white women AND 61% underpaid more than white men.  Additionally, although 26% of the State’s population are black; they only own 3% of Alabama’s businesses with employees. 

Headquartered in Birmingham, IGNITE! targets Birmingham, Huntsville, Mobile, Montgomery, Tuscaloosa, and cities located throughout Alabama’s Black Belt.

- Birmingham, most populous city located in north central region of Alabama.

- Huntsville, fourth largest and fastest growing city located in Appalachian region of northern Alabama; known for its advances in technology.

 - Mobile, third most populous city in Alabama, and largest municipality on the Gulf Coast between New Orleans, Louisiana, and St. Petersburg, Florida. 

 - Montgomery, Capital and second most populous city in Alabama.

- Tuscaloosa, fifth largest city in Alabama, located on the Black Warrior River at the Atlantic Seaboard fall line of the Piedmont.  Known as the regional center of industry, commerce, healthcare, and education in West Alabama; Tuscaloosa has been noted as one of the “Best Places to Launch a Small Business.”

- Plagued with declining populations due to high unemployment, poor access to education and medical care, substandard housing, limited or in many cases, NO access to broadband network; the Black Belt houses 9 of the 10 poorest counties within Alabama. 

The great news is that IGNITE! provides solutions by convening/coordinating a holistic and supportive ecosystem comprised of over 50 agencies that work together to increase chances of survivability, consistently provide resources, training, support and access to capital information designed to level the playing field of success for minority Small Business Owners, Entrepreneurs, and Nonprofit Leaders.

Although we launched, operate, and are perfecting this pilot project in the State of Alabama, the sole goal of IGNITE! DBIA is to create a replicable model that can serve minority businesses throughout the United States.  

If approved, this Truist grant will allow us to begin to strategically expand our footprint through a partnership with some of our current national partners; and serve as the Minority Business Clearinghouse for businesses in the states of Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas.

Sustain Small Businesses:

IGNITE! is a holistic and supportive ecosystem designed to educate and bridge communication gaps between organizations, service providers, and minorities within the State of Alabama, especially African Americans and Female Business Owners. 

Our mission is to ensure that minorities stay informed, have a clear understanding, and receive access to Federal, State, and Local Funding, as well as resources and technical assistance needed to competitively compete, succeed, and excel.

Please view the attached link to see IGNITE!s Logic Model for more details related to our theory of change 

https://www.igniteal.org/_file...

IGNITE! Doing Business in Alabama Minority Business Training Pilot Project is currently providing direct services to 319 Program Participants gained during the first year of service.

Now that we are in hear two of the pilot project, and have perfected our model, IGNITE! DBIA is on track to serve our original goals as follows:

One Year - 2022 Annual Service Goal is to provide direct meaningful services to 500 unduplicated DBIA Program Participants

Five Year Service Goal is to provide direct meaningful services to 2500 unduplicated DBIA Program Participants

Since our 2019 inception, IGNITE! Alabama has provided consistent programming to lessen stress, frustration, and burdens of minorities, providing direct services to over 1,800 Black Small Business Owners, Entrepreneurs, and Nonprofit Leaders, hosting virtual programs with over 65,000 views.

However, this has only been accomplished because of support from IGNITE! stakeholders to include the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, City, County, and State Leaders, a host of Alabama based Foundations and Corporate Sponsors, as well as the following key partner agencies to include but not limited to the AL Cooperative Extension Services (ACES), AL Small Business Development Center (SBDC), AL Procurement Training Assistance Center (PTAC), Balch and Bingham, CREATE Birmingham, Hope Credit Union, Innovation Depot, Grow with Google, Opportunity AL (OPAL), PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), Regions Bank, REV Birmingham, SCORE, TruFund Financial Services, Wells Fargo Bank, UA Culverhouse School of Business.

IGNITE! DBIA is the solution, for the following reasons:

1.) AEDC Ecosystem Coordination

Here in the State of Alabama, the need is great as it relates to serving minority business owners; especially those owned by someone black.  Interestingly, the first thing that was noticed during our first year, is that while many agencies existed, and most were serving minorities in a GREAT way, the problem was, that prior to IGNITE! being formed, NONE of the service providers were working together.  

So, the very first thing that we began to do, was diligently strive to build and now maintain TRUST amongst service providers via a statewide ecosystem that consistently promotes collaboration and effective communication. 

IGNITE! has been able to achieve this groundbreaking feet by consistently hosting events to bring everyone together, convening and facilitating a monthly meeting, and consistently, but subtlety reinforcing that we are NOT COMPETITIORS, instead, we are Stronger, MORE Effective, and Efficient Together!

Additionally, to alleviate barriers for potential new agency recruitment, we removed "IGNITE!" from the group title, renaming the ecosystem formerly known as the “IGNITE! Coalition” to the Alabama Enterprise Development Consortium (AEDC) - a supportive ecosystem comprised of business, financial, legal, mental health, and/or other technical assistance providers that serve State of Alabama Minority Small Business Owners, Entrepreneurs, and Nonprofits; especially Black, Hispanic, and Women.

AEDC Entrepreneurial Ecosystem members intentionally meet monthly to keep the lines of communication open, maximize resources, and NOT duplicate efforts.

IGNITE! facilitates a virtual monthly meeting each 2nd Thursday from 10am - 11am CST 

“The development of the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Alabama has lagged behind that of neighboring states including Florida, Georgia, and Tennessee.  The development of the ecosystem supporting African American owned and female owned businesses  has been particularly underdeveloped.  Over the last year Torin and her IGNITE! Alabama team have become influential advocates and one of the key catalysts in laying the foundation for building a more fertile and robust entrepreneurial ecosystem in Alabama.  In 2021, the IGNITE! Alabama team launched a number of key initiatives including Counting Us!, DBIA, and AEDC that will continue to grow and enhance new venture formation and resiliency.  More importantly, perhaps, through Torin’s leadership IGNITE! Alabama has become a valued partner to organizations such as ours who are seeking to understand and alleviate the challenges faced by entrepreneurs from historically disadvantaged populations”

Lou Marino | Professor of Entrepreneurship & Strategic Management

Chair, Department of Management  The University of Alabama 

Culverhouse College of Business

2.) Custom designed CRM that streamlines the process, improves efficiency, and helps maximize resources 

Utilizing a custom designed salesforce system, IGNITE! has become a Minority Small Business and Nonprofit Clearing House that thoroughly assesses businesses, develops “Individualized Business Action Plans,” and makes referrals to partner agencies best equipped to provide immediate assistance relevant to participants current/most pressing needs.

Partner agencies provide resources and conduct regular workshops on the following topics to include but not limited to:

Business Formation, Business Scaling, Business Structure

Financial Reporting, Human Resources                     

Business and Personal Credit, Access to Capital

Legal (Review and/or creation of Formation Documents, Trademark Applications, Contracts, Service Agreements, etc.)                                

Social Media, Websites                                      

Corporate and/or Government Contracts                

How to pitch, Marketing, Branding, PR

Admittedly, while originally designed with IGNITE! DBIA Program Participants in mind; the “Forensic Financial Analysis” has become an invaluable resource to partner agencies, as it streamlines the process, improves efficiency, and helps maximize resources by allowing them to serve the right client, at the right time.

3.) Success Advocates 

Success Advocates is an exclusive position unique to IGNITE! DBIA that functions in the capacity of a Customer Service Representatives, Accountability Partners, and Case Managers.

Their sole responsibility is to ensure that IGNITE! DBIA Program Participants understand the process, next steps, stay connected, and most importantly, remain motivated and encouraged as the challenges of life come their way.

Success Advocates are required to check in with those assigned on their caseload weekly via call, email, and/or text, as well as send cards and gifts to acknowledge key events from celebratory to sympathy cards.

1.) IGNITE! builds trust with community services providers via AEDC Entrepreneurial Ecosystem monthly meetings where members work together to keep lines of communication open, maximize resources, and NOT duplicate efforts by:

• Clearly articulating services and/or products they provide, as well as their target customer
• Regularly share information about products, services, and/or upcoming events
• Referring clients to each other
• Collaboratively Seek Funding (especially federal/national opportunities)
• Support each other’s applications with letters of support 

2.) IGNITE! builds trust with the minority Small Business Owners, Entrepreneurs, and Nonprofit Leaders by:

• Making sure they clearly understand the process by conducting the Forensic Financial Analysis AND providing, explaining, and maintaining progress on "Individualized Business Action Plans"
• Respecting their time by sending targeted communication, ensuring they only receive information relevant to them and their needs
• Thoughtfully curating events full of information and contacts, that in most cases, they didn't even know existed.

Overarching Goals of IGNITE!s DBIA Project is to serve 2500 Minority Small Business Owners, Entrepreneurs, and Nonprofit Leaders collectively in a five year period, ensuring that at least 500 unduplicated DBIA Program Participants (100 annually):

• Increase capacity and success through Forensic Financial Analysis (FFA) & Individualized Business Action Plan (IBAP)
• Gain Access to Capital
• Learn, Understand, and Apply Core Business Competencies & Business Skill Development

IGNITE! DBIA goals are achieved by delivery of intensive supportive services and a series of quantitative metrics to include # of completed Forensic Financial Analysis, # of completed Individualized Business Action Plans, # of participants at events, # of jobs created / retained, pre & post assessments and surveys, # of business mentors, # of loans acquired, # of contracts secured, % of increase of revenues/profits. 

Focus groups and interviews will be conducted at incremental times to include beginning and end of DBIA Program Participation. 

We will service 1600 Participants annually to achieve expected project outcomes.  We measure effectiveness by at least 100 unduplicated Participants’ each year completed IBAP action items & goals, increased credit scores, # of procured contracts, # of grants awarded, # of increased staff, and office space expansion, etc.

With a bachelor’s degree from Samford University, over 18 years of Executive Level Grants Management, 24 years of Resource & Partnership Development resulting in over $20 million dollars of funding and/or direct services to date, Program Development, Event Planning, and Project Management; Torin has a proven and dedicated career of promoting economic equality and advancement among disadvantaged populations throughout the State of Alabama.

So, after years of NOT understanding “why” it was so hard to realize upward mobility in the black community, Torin created IGNITE! - an inclusive supportive ecosystem, to BE the Change desperately NEEDED in the black community!

As a 45 year old black female nonprofit trailblazer, Torin’s creativity, passion, drive, and fortitude enables her to continually lead a stellar team to develop strategic partnerships, execute innovative programs, and events that IGNITE! Alabama.

Minorities, especially women and blacks “do the best they can, with what they have” simply because they don't have access to capital, networks, or resources, forcing forces them to operate in LACK.....

Lack that prohibits access to influential circles where decisions are made.

Lack which limits the ability to gain skills/implement efficient processes.

Lack that prevents understanding the importance of professional development, learning, and imploring wealth strategies.

Lack which limits the ability to dream/innovate.

Lack which forces one to work hard/not smart.

Lack that propels minorities onto a systemic and inequitable treadmill expending tons of energy but going absolutely nowhere!

Despite a minority leader's best efforts, LACK often prevails...

For example, even after 3 years of established & documented success, and securing a $600k seed grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation; IGNITE! submitted and never received a response to a $10k funding request to a local corporation. However, that same corporation gave a $200k Seed Grant to another NEW white led organization, WITH an eerily similar mission to IGNITE!, that had NOT provided any service. 

It is also important to note, that the new white led nonprofit was able to launch with a team of full time staff, whereas IGNITE! powered by faithful volunteers for four years, just hired our first full time staff person last month.

So, we hope TRUIST will help continue to strengthen IGNITE! - an inclusive, supportive, sustainable ecosystem designed to give minorities the Much NEEDED and DESERVED hand up! 

Staff Training, Development, Salary, and Benefits

Program Participant CASH Incentives

Honestly, IGNITE! has mastered the art of developing and maintaining strong partnerships.  

IGNITE! honestly just needs help developing a sustainable financial strategy, financial support, and training for our leadership and staff.

IGNITE! needs to be connected to other National Organizations doing similar work as we started out of passion just trying to BE THE CHANGE we NEEDED to see! 

However, we are very interested in being made aware of & networking with other entities across the nation doing similar work. 

We believe that "good" IS the enemy of BEST! So, we really want to keep our hand on the pulse of new and innovative ways to serve!