New Voices Foundation’s Post

One Million Black Women: Day 1 Recap! Thank you so much for the kind words on my previous post about the program!! I deeply appreciate all the support! Applications for the fall 2024 cohort are open! Check the link in my comments! Goldman Sachs’s One Million Black Women: Black in Business program is a FREE business education program for sole proprietors. Day 1 was filled with excitement and meeting Internet friends in real life. Jessica Taylor, National Director of OMBW, kicked us off with a warm welcome. Shoutout to her and her team for this program! They ate! No crumbs left behind 🙌🏿. Then, Asahi Pompey dropped facts on facts and shared that Goldman Sachs research shows that reducing the earnings gap for black women has the potential to create 1.2 - 1.7M jobs, and increase the annual US GDP by $300 - $400B in current dollars. 🤯 Lastly, Melissa Bradley of 1863™ Ventures dropped gems on gems about entrepreneur mindset. Day 1 biggest takeaway: It’s time to shift from being a Founder to being a CEO. A Founder spends a lot of time working in the business (me currently 🥴), while the CEO works on the business (me soon 😁). #womeninbusiness #businessaccelerator #womenentrepreneurs #womenbusinessowners

One Million Black Women: Black in Business, here I come!! I'm in the spring 2024 cohort of Goldman Sachs's One Million Black Women: Black in Business Program. This is a FREE 10-week program that teaches Black women sole proprietors the tools necessary to turn their business potential into business growth. The program includes a three-day orientation at Goldman Sachs in New York in March, so I'll post daily recaps of my experience before the month ends! I dropped the link for more information about the program in the comments. Make sure to take the survey, so you can get on the mailing list and be the first to find out about the application for the fall 2024 cohort. 👇🏿 I applied for the fall 2023 cohort and didn't make it to the interview round. I was disappointed for a day and months later, I got a second chance! I got an interview for the spring 2024 cohort and I was accepted. I have to trust that it's all in divine timing. If there's a program that you want to apply for, go for it. If you don't get accepted try again or try another program. As a business owner, you'll face a lot of rejection and it's OK if you're upset or disappointed. Don't let the disappointment stop you from trying again. The right opportunity will arise at the perfect time! #womenbusinessowners #womeninbusiness #womenentrepreneurs #ombwblackinbiz

An interesting piece on the latest developments & trends at U.S. corporations around diversity, equity & inclusion ("DEI") efforts, as well as the impact of litigation and even politics. Thanks, Janet Tiebout Hanson, for sharing this article. [Excerpts] "The seemingly small changes — lawyerly tweaks, executives call them — are starting to add up to something big: the end of a watershed era for diversity in the US workplace, and the start of a new, uncertain one ... Recruitment programs aimed at women and minorities — a key tool for recruiting diverse talent — are being reworked. In-house affinity groups, specific workforce targets and even boardroom diversity initiatives are all up for review, executives, consultants and lawyers say ... Bankers and lawyers contend they have little choice but to reframe or pause new diversity initiatives and to get ahead of the blowback and potential litigation." #WallStreettoMainStreet #DEI #postCOVID19era #changingworkplacelandscape #whatexecsconsultantslawyersaregrapplingwith #litigation_corporateactivism_quietbacklash #setperformanceexpectationsandmanage

TELL US SOMETHING WE DON’T KNOW 😜 I don’t know the age range of the women availing themselves of this Goldman Sachs scheme, but I was heartened by the fact that two of the interviewees were over 40. Black women are shattering entrepreneurial records, but women over 40? We’re not just a trend; we’re a force to be reckoned with. Here's why we deserve a closer look from investors: Experience is Everything: Years of navigating the workforce has honed our business acumen. We’ve seen challenges, adapted to change, and understand what it takes to succeed. Passion with Perseverance: Many mature Black women have overcome significant hurdles. This resilience translates into a deep well of passion and unwavering determination to see our businesses flourish. Building Bridges, Not Walls: We possess a unique understanding of community needs and a commitment to building bridges. Our ventures often cater to underserved markets, creating a social impact alongside financial gain. A Network of Support: We’ve built strong professional networks over time. This translates to access to talent, resources, and potential customers, creating a ripple effect that benefits everyone involved. Wisdom and Vision: We’ve seen trends come and go. Our perspective helps us identify sustainable opportunities and make strategic decisions for long-term growth. Black women entrepreneurs over 40 are the perfect blend of experience, vision, and determination. So, the next time you're looking for an investment opportunity, consider the power of the mature Black woman. You might just be surprised by the returns. #thiswomancan #blackwomenover40

Since the Supreme Court's decision to ban race as a factor in college admissions last year, American companies have been trying to figure out how the ruling might affect their own efforts to recruit from underrepresented groups. On Wall Street, banks have been quietly reassessing their promises to level the playing field, as executives try to head off accusations of reverse discrimination amid a growing conservative assault on DEI and pockets of resentment among White employees. Goldman Sachs for example, has opened its “Possibilities Summit” for Black college students to White students. At Bank of America, certain internal programs that used to focus on women and minorities have been broadened to include everyone. And at BNY Mellon, executives are being urged to reconsider hard metrics for workforce diversity. They may seem like small changes -- lawyerly tweaks, executives say -- but they are starting to add up to something big: the end of a watershed era for diversity in the US workplace, and the start of a new, uncertain one. One influential Wall Street banker said he’s observed that the sway executives in charge of diversity recruitment used to have with decision makers has diminished. He said that colleagues who'd been willing in recent years to be open to diverse recruitment are reverting back to the way they were before Floyd’s murder. Don't miss this important story from Max Abelson, Simone Foxman, Ava Benny-Morrison, Sridhar Natarajan and Jeff Green that looks into what's changing and what that actually means. With special thanks to Subha Barry, Valerie Irick Rainford and Ana Duarte McCarthy for sharing their insights. https://lnkd.in/gcQqSrGM

Imagine organizations without diversity and inclusion practices. What would be different? The following article examines current trends, including drumbeats following the July 2023 Supreme Court decision on affirmative action in higher education, on Wall Street firms. To what extent has your organization reconsidered workforce diversity strategies? #diversityandinclusion #cdos #diversitymatters Max Abelson

#wallstreet #dei #levelplayingfield #usa 'Goldman Sachs Group Inc. has made a surprising change to its “Possibilities Summit” for Black college students: It’s opened the program to White students. At Bank of America Corp., certain internal programs that used to focus on women and minorities have been broadened to include everyone. And at Bank of New York Mellon Corp., executives are being urged to reconsider hard metrics for workforce diversity. Lose them, lawyers have advised. This is what diversity, equity and inclusion looks like on Wall Street today: anxious, fraught – and changing fast. From C-suites down, American finance is quietly reassessing its promises to level the playing field. The growing conservative assault on DEI, coupled with pockets of resentment among White employees, have executives moving to head off accusations of reverse discrimination. It’s not just Wall Street. In recent weeks, Zoom Video Communications Inc. cut its internal DEI team amid broader layoffs and Tesla Inc. removed language about minority workers from a regulatory filing. The seemingly small changes — lawyerly tweaks, executives call them — are starting to add up to something big: the end of a watershed era for diversity in the US workplace, and the start of a new, uncertain one. Wall Street has long skewed White and male, as it still does. Even an inkling that banks are retreating from DEI has some women and minorities questioning how real promises of change were in the first place. Recruitment programs aimed at women and minorities — a key tool for recruiting diverse talent — are being reworked. In-house affinity groups, specific workforce targets and even boardroom diversity initiatives are all up for review, executives, consultants and lawyers say. It’s a remarkable turn. Less than four years ago, amid lofty talk of a “racial reckoning” and an “inflection point” in the wake of George Floyd’s 2020 murder, America’s CEOs were vowing to embrace inclusive hiring, promote minorities and narrow the gender pay gap. Now, after the US Supreme Court rejected affirmative action at the nation’s colleges, the legal assault on corporate diversity initiatives is gathering steam. The right has villainized DEI from Disney World to Harvard University as an engine of left-wing indoctrination and the banks don’t want to become a target for lawsuits claiming reverse discrimination. Wall Street has made some progress toward diversity over the years. Still, the numbers are sobering. At Goldman Sachs, 3.7% of senior executives in the US are Black, according to the bank's most recent report. That figure is about 5% at JPMorgan Chase & Co., and it's 8.7% inside Citigroup Inc. By comparison, Black people are about 14% of the overall US population. And yet those statistics represent hard-won improvement for the banks over past years: The percentage of senior Black executives and managers at all three fell from 2012 to 2016.'

I and nearly 150 women officially graduated from Goldman Sachs One Million Black Women: Black in Business program!!!!! What a journey! Day 2 was the official graduation ceremony and I give major kudos to the Goldman team for making the day very special for us. We learned from Mori Taheripour and Dolly Chugh, and heard beautiful words of wisdom from David Solomon, Melanie Campbell, Dr. Valerie Montgomery Rice, Dr. Ruth Simmons, and many more. My biggest takeaways: 💡 When negotiating, spend most of your time in the information exchange phase. It makes the bargaining part much easier. 💡 Listen to understand the end goal. The way you get there might not be what you originally planned, but you'll get there. 💡 Don't ask someone to do what you're unwilling to do. 💡 Take every opportunity to show up. Graduation was the celebration of the program ending, but it's only the beginning for each of us. We're ready to scale our businesses, increase revenue, hire people who look like us, and invest back into our communities. In the words of Hyacinth Tucker, MBA, "Watch out Wall Street, we're coming for you!!” #blackinbusiness #womeninbusiness #entrepreneurship #ombw #womenownedbusiness

It’s really a privilege to witness collaborators such as Janet Tiebout Hanson grow in their journey — and her recently published BROAD STREET: My Mostly Bullish Career at Goldman Sachs has set the bar high for us as entrepreneurs. When she and I worked to reshape 85Broads after the 2008 market crash, she showed me by example that there’s room at the table for more than one female leader and in our case that two female entrepreneurs were stronger and more capable than one. Her co-mentorship showed me what's possible. #entrepreneurs #mentors #leaders

Uplifting news from ForbesBLK (Jabari Young) in the wake of the recent Fearless Fund debacle. Goldman Sachs says it has deployed nearly $3 billion in capital for #OneMillionBlackWomen since its 2021 launch. Its “Black in Business” education course, designed to help sole proprietors scale into employers, has credentialed 750 Black women, including the 146 individuals in its fifth cohort on June 18. #BlackinBusiness is a free program and serves as the foundation of One Million Black Women because it may help close the wealth gap and grow the U.S. economy by adding jobs in the Black community. Goldman Sachs works with NYU Stern School of Business to curate a 10-week virtual business course covering topics including consumer acquisition costs, #marketingstrategies, and #staffing. “Our big task is to move #solopreneurs to bonafide entrepreneurs who have employees and others who are helping to achieve their business goals,” Asahi Pompey says. The investment bank says businesses have made $22.4 million in revenue since it created Black in Business. Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon told attendees that 65% of graduates reported an increase in revenue after six months, and 50% added employees. #BlackWomenInBusiness #DiversityInFinance #WomenEntrepreneurs #InvestInBlackWomen #FinancialInclusion #EconomicEmpowerment #CorporateResponsibility #BlackExcellence #WomenInFinance #EquityInBusiness #MoneyMoves #GetTheBag https://lnkd.in/g_7kgD9c