C2FO launches empowerment grants to boost Black-owned businesses, entrepreneurs

A new grant program from one of Kansas City’s most high profile scaleups is expected to empower — and help fund — three nonprofit organizations serving Black-owned businesses and entrepreneurs, said Jessie Fields.

Jessie Fields, C2FO

“We know small business owners, and especially diverse business owners, face so many challenges,” said Fields, director of talent development and DEI for Leawood-based, global fintech powerhouse C2FO. “That’s why we’re so excited to have a grant that focuses on the needs of the Black-owned business community and takes a step forward in making the system more equitable.”

C2FO announced its Business Empowerment Grant Program in observance of the Juneteenth holiday. The company has donated more than $220,000 to local nonprofit organizations that support Black entrepreneurs and businesses in honor of Juneteenth over the past two years.

Its 2023 Juneteenth Grants initiative launched the week of June 19 with up to $154,400 in donations slated for up to three organizations. (Grant amounts are funded from C2FO’s U.S. marketplace revenue earned on Juneteenth.) Applications opened June 21 and run through Aug. 1. Recipients are expected to be announced the week of Aug. 8.

Click here to learn more about applying for 2023 Juneteenth Grants. 

Organizations are invited to review the eligibility criteria and apply if their programs or initiatives fit within the grant requirements. Noted focuses for potential awardees include efforts that benefit Black-owned businesses and entrepreneurs in these areas:

• Technology 
• Financial literacy and independence
• Business mentorship
• Leadership
• Addressing a clear, identified area of need in the community that may otherwise go unaddressed through normal means, such as the nonprofit’s operating budget
• Provide lasting benefits for the community

“We choose to invest in our communities by supporting 501(c)(3) organizations that educate and provide resources to entrepreneurs and local businesses because we know that when all businesses have access to the capital they need — when a financial system is truly inclusive — we all win,” C2FO said in an announcement of the Business Empowerment Grant Program.

Diversity, equity and inclusion efforts not only offer commercial appeal and profit motive, but a moral imperative for companies like C2FO, said Sandy Kemper, founder and CEO of C2FO, during a 2021 Startland News event focused on inclusive workplaces.

“Do it for the right reasons,” said Kemper, who has largely eschewed publicizing C2FO’s previous Juneteenth funding efforts. “There’s a cynical eye right now because there were a lot of folks doing a lot of [talking] and have not followed up after BLM, after Trayvon [Martin], after Ferguson [Missouri]. There’s a lot of talk and not a lot of action.”