GREENSBORO, N.C. — Black-led and Black-funded is the premise of the Black Investments in Greensboro (BIG) Equity Fund. It’s a permanent endowment created to focus on funding critical issues in Greensboro’s Black Community.
Athan Lindsay is the Vice President of Grants and Community Impact of the Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro. He said the fund is one of the foundation’s newest initiatives.
“What’s unique about BIG Equity Fund is it was led and initiated by a group of black donors. Big Equity Fund has a mission to really become a philanthropic powerhouse in Greensboro,” Lindsay said.
He said the fund is Greensboro’s first endowment focused on the Black community.
“When we talk about having full representation of the community, this has been an effort and a result of us to address that,” Lindsay said. “What BIG Equity represents is it allows this Community Foundation to be a better foundation because we now have the perspectives of black donors who can lead and speak to this. That makes the Community Foundation better.”
Established in December of 2019, over 80 donors have already contributed to the fund with roughly $1.5-million collected. Lindsay said the money will serve as a vehicle to address health disparities, promote black businesses, and tackle the education/digital divide. He said the digital divide only intensified due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“When we talk about the digital divide, we’re talking about education access,” Lindsay said. “How do we help stop the learning loss, but more importantly how do we focus on the recovery efforts?”
Jimmi Williams, Executive Director of Communities in Schools of Greater Greensboro, and Bishop Adrian F. Starks, Senior Pastor of World Victory Church, are two of the many founders of the fund.
They said the Big Equity Fund is all about leaving a legacy that will benefit the Black community for years to come.
“It’s very, very important for folks who look like us with our experiences though it is varied, simply for me it’s very important for people who look like me to invest in people who look like me,” Williams said.
Starks agreed.
“I’m a clergyman and there’s a scripture in the bible that says a good man leaves an inheritance for his children’s children. I think it’s a mandate, a moral obligation to our community at large,” Starks said.
The BIG Equity fund has a goal to become a $3-million endowment.