In the last few months of 2021, Embody Yoga owner Joanna Brooks raised more than $79,000 on the crowdfunding site FundBlackFounders to finance the growth of her Milwaukee business.
By hitting that milestone, she said she unlocked an additional $10,000 in grant funding from the Jrue and Lauren Holiday (JLH) Social Impact Fund, an organization that initially awarded her and other local recipients $15,000 as part of its $1 million effort to support Black-owned businesses and nonprofits in Milwaukee, New Orleans, Indianapolis and Los Angeles.
Originally started in 2020 by Milwaukee Bucks player Jrue Holiday and his wife, Olympic athlete Lauren Holiday, the impact fund is now in its third year of providing unrestricted grants to Black entrepreneurs and nonprofits. Since its founding, the organization has expanded to offer business training and coaching through partnerships with other organizations and companies.
In 2022, the JLH Social Impact Fund will again provide up to $1 million in grants, the organization said Tuesday. It's offering up to $10,000 to each recipient plus an additional $10,000 for recipients who raise at least that much on the FundBlackFounders platform. Applications are open through Feb. 25.
Recipients will also participate in a 14-week training program starting in April with executives at FundBlackFounders and The Kinship Advisors, which manages the JLH Social Impact Fund and also provides life coaching and business consulting services.
Additionally, the JLH Social Impact Fund has partnered with Motorola and Lenovo, which donated $50,000 to the fund and is also donating 300 Moto G Stylus phones that grantees can use to incentivize their crowdfunding campaigns, according to Tuesday's announcement.
Before receiving the grant funding as part of the organization's 2021 cohort, Brooks said she hardly knew what crowdfunding was. She learned about it through the training sessions offered through the program.
"I wasn’t familiar with the process and didn’t think of it as a viable option," Brooks said.
The money Brooks raised from 390 different backers who each pledged relatively small sums on FundBlackFounders will finance two new studio spaces at her business's new location on Port Washington Road in Glendale. The Redmond Co. is providing construction services for the project, which is expected to be completed by mid-March or April, Brooks said.
Milwaukee entrepreneur Montreal Cain, another 2021 JLH Social Impact Fund grant recipient, just completed the most recent cohort of the organization's business training program and is getting ready to launch a crowdfunding campaign on FundBlackFounders, he said. Cain is building a preventative care mental health mobile app.
