Written by Stephanie Terry, Executive Director and Rinnie Orr, Associate Director
Greetings. Welcome to the WEBB Squared blog page. I am Stephanie Terry, the Executive Director of WEBB Squared. And I am Rinnie Orr, the Associate Director.
And together we have a story to share with you – how a church secretary and a caterer decided to tackle one of our country’s biggest problems – the racial wealth gap.
During the long dark months of Covid, we each had plenty of time to think. At the beginning of the pandemic, Stephanie couldn’t cater because of health department restrictions and Rinnie lost her job.
As we were licking our wounds, we began to have deep and rich conversations with each other about how hard it is to be a Black entrepreneur, how difficult it is to find meaningful work, and a bunch of stuff about race.
And then something magical happened….
And we kept following the magic and letting it unfold…
And when we looked up…
…we were the founders of a new nonprofit called WEBB Squared.
WEBB Squared is an acronym for “Wealth through Entrepreneurship for Black Businesses” with a two-fold mission…
- Supporting Black entrepreneurs in North Carolina make their business dreams come true…
- while doing that…chipping away at the racial wealth gap one successful Black entrepreneur at a time.
For those of you who may not be aware, the racial wealth gap is a wealth gap between Blacks & Whites created through centuries of racism and discrimination. Black entrepreneurship is a means to close this gap.
“The racial wealth gap is a chasm. According to the Survey of Consumer Finances, in 2019 (the most recent survey conducted), the median net worth of Black households was $24,000 as opposed to $189,000 for white households. This shortfall in financial wealth creates a cascade of inequalities in education, homeownership, and simply saving for emergencies. And while it will take multiple solutions to solve these enormous problems, entrepreneurship can provide the best opportunity to build sustainable, long-term wealth.”
~ Brian Thompson, The Key To Closing The Racial Wealth Gap: Black Entrepreneurship
Forbes Magazine, June 17, 2021
The way we see it, if we can support a budding Black entrepreneur, a startup Black business, or help grow a mom-&-pop Black business, by turning their idea into a business, scaling that business to make a profit, and squaring those profits, we have helped the entrepreneur, their families, their networks and their communities.
WEBB Squared is more than a direct service nonprofit. We are building a community, because community is everything. Community centers relationships.
We want to share where we are thus far. We want to introduce you to the entrepreneurs we are working with. We know that you know Black entrepreneurs who can use this type of support. And we also know that there is expertise amongst our friends that can help make this organization better, stronger, and more impactful.
We know that this work is ours to do.
Even though the journey to race equity is arduous with many unknowns, we are committed to walk it.
We hope you will join us.