The Black Opportunity Fund is proud to share our audited financial statements for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2024. These statements provide a transparent and comprehensive overview of our financial position, operations, and cash flows and are available for viewing. We invite stakeholders and supporters to review these documents to learn more about how we are advancing our mission and achieving sustainability in our initiatives.
Category: What’s Up
The Black Opportunity Fund 2024 Annual Report has been prepared to present and account for our fiscal responsibilities, operating activities, and achievements, to community, stakeholders, and funders for the fiscal year ended March 31st, 2024. The report is available for viewing. We invite stakeholders and supporters to review the report to learn more about how we are advancing our mission and achieving sustainability in our initiatives.
We’re excited to share highlights with you of the impactful work BOF achieved in 2023-2024, working to improve socio-economic outcomes for Black communities across Canada. Discover how we’ve been making a difference, empowering communities, and driving positive change. Watch now to see the impact of our work and join us in our mission to improve opportunities for Black Canadians.
Highlights include:
- Over $3.7 million allocated to support Black entrepreneurs and Black led, serving, and focused not-for-profits and charities (B3s) across Canada.
- $1 million used as collateral for loans for Black entrepreneurs declined loans by traditional banks.
- 1,448 Black businesses benefited from BOF supported capacity building programs
- $1,090,000 in grants given to Black community organizations leading impactful initiatives in Education, Health, Criminal Justice and Arts & Culture.
- $220,000 donated to Sick Kids Hospital to fund 2 important initiatives to improve outcomes for children being treated for Sickle Cell Disease.
- 244 Black entrepreneurs received non-repayable funding and subsidies to acquire permits, certifications and licenses, while enrolled in BOF supported capacity building programs.
- Launched a grant & capacity building program for Black led community organizations in partnership with Black Canadian Fundraisers Collective.
- Led national convenings to support policy initiatives around improving outcomes for Black people in Canada in the critical areas of Health, and Justice.
- Set up the structure to launch two $50 million investment funds – one aimed at creating home ownership opportunities for Black Canadians, and the other to invest in Black led businesses.
#BlackOpportunityFund #AnnualReport #WeBackBlack #Empowerment #Community
On September 4th, 2024, the Black Opportunity Fund in partnership with The Albany Club presents a compelling panel discussion as part of our Capitalism, Diversity & Inclusion Series: Black on Bay. This session will focus on “Celebrating Success and Overcoming Challenges,” featuring influential Black leaders from Bay Street who will share insights into their professional journeys.
Despite notable strides in diversity and inclusion initiatives, Black representation in executive roles remains scarce, and many Black professionals still experience cultural isolation and subtle forms of racism in their careers. The event presents an opportunity to hear from a passionate group of Black Bay Street leaders as they share their career journeys, the obstacles they’ve overcome, and the ongoing challenges that remain in the financial services sector.
Panelists Include:
- Konata T. Lake, Partner, Torys
- Kurankye Sekyi-Otu, Founder & CEO, Capoeira Partners
- Stanley Julien, Head, Special Accounts Management Unit – Canada, BMO
- Lori-Ann Beausoleil, CEO, Board Diversity Network, Retired PricewaterhouseCoopers Partner
The session is moderated by Colin Lynch, Managing Director & Head of Alternative Investments, TD Asset Management.
The panel discussion is followed by a networking reception and lunch. We thank CIBC for sponsoring the event.
For registration RSVP: reservations@albanyclub.ca or 416-364-5471
Event Details:
Date: September 4th, 2024
Time: Reception at 11:45 am, Lunch at 12:15 pm
Price: Members: $49 | Guests: $69 (plus taxes and house charge)
We look forward to seeing you!
#BlackOnBay #BlackLeaders #Event #BlackOpportunityFund
Black Opportunity Fund is announcing a new funding opportunity to support Black-owned and Black-led restaurants with a company that shares our mission.
Black Opportunity Fund needs your help! We’re seeking Volunteer Selection Committee members to review and adjudicate applications for the program. Committee members will review submitted applications and make funding recommendations based on specific criteria and an established assessment process.
To express interest in volunteering as an adjudicator, please complete the Program Adjudication Nomination Form. You will be required to upload your resume and we would like it to indicate:
- Why you’re interested in volunteering for this position
- Experience working in the restaurant and/or foodservice industry
- Language(s) spoken
- The region of Canada in which you currently reside
- Previous experience reviewing or adjudicating grant applications
Program Adjudication Nomination Form Link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/NQJ59FB
Black Opportunity Fund encourages applications from every region across Canada. If you have any questions about becoming a volunteer adjudicator for this program, please send us an email at BOFVolunteers@blackopportunityfund.org. We look forward to hearing from all of you! #BOF #WeBackBlack
As we approach the summer months, reams of data show that we can anticipate an increase in interactions between law enforcement and Black and Racialized communities. We can also anticipate an increase in retail profiling of Black Canadians, and in random stops predicated on racial profiling. We are hopeful that within the backdrop of this phenomenon, we will shortly see the release of Canada’s groundbreaking Black Justice Strategy. This is a generational opportunity by Government to develop a consistent framework to guide policy and practices to help dismantle systemic anti-Black racism in Canada’s Justice System.
Extensive national community consultations took place led by grassroots Canadian community organizations to inform the work of the Steering Committee. Black Opportunity Fund is proud to be a funder of the work of several of these organization. The Steering Committee, led by Professor Akwasi Owusu-Bempah, was tasked with developing the framework for the Black Justice Strategy.
Black Opportunity Fund’s National Justice Working Group consulted with and provided its recommendations to the Department of Justice and the Steering Committee. BOF’s National Justice Working Group, a coalition of grassroots organizations, scholars, Elders, cultural keepers, policy specialists, youth, and members of Black communities across Canada, working in various ways in myriad disciplines, to address systemic and structural inequities in the justice system.
We have seen previous consultations, on addressing the significant disparities in involvement with and outcomes for Black and Indigenous Canadians, which have fallen short, resulting in superficial recommendations focused primarily on symptoms, including recommendations for more policing, and police training. While there is certainly a need for more and better training of law enforcement, the strategy needs to be more about upstream solutions focused on reparatory and restorative justice for Black Communities. So we are very hopeful to see meaningful actions and strategies in the recommendations, as a result of the extensive listening exercises, and the leadership of the Steering Committee.
BOFs recommendations for Restorative and Reparatory justice for Black people in Canada, were framed around the following key urgent issues:
A. Black people, especially Black youth, have received harsher penalties for cannabis-related offences;
B. Culturally safe and responsive rehabilitation support for incarcerated persons, including culturally responsive and robust therapeutic and mental health supports, are few or non-existent;
C. There is a dearth of community-responsive alternatives to parole and incarceration;
D. Initiatives to ensure that the administrators of the criminal justice system (ie. prosecutors, parole board members, judges, etc.) better reflect Black communities, are in short supply;
E. There is no funding to develop and implement aggressive and culturally safe social reintegration programmes for Black Canadians who are released from incarceration;
F. There is a need for coordination with other relevant departments in order to ensure a multi-faceted, comprehensive policy approach toward the development of a Black Justice strategy.
G. Include mandatory Impact of Race and Culture Assessment Reports as part of pre-sentencing hearings for Black people found guilty of committing crimes;
H. A Reparatory Justice Plan, with the goal of providing recompense to Black people for harm caused due to well-documented systemic and structural injustices within the criminal justice system. Recompense can be in the form of financial contributions, and therapeutic healing from historical trauma, needs to be incorporated into policy decisions;
I. There is a lack of data collection standards to guide the gathering of race-based data in federal institutions which would enable effective measurement of outcomes.
Read the recommendations from the Black Opportunity Fund National Justice Working Group, to the Federal Government’s Black Justice Strategy, Click here to read BOF recommendations on Black Justice Strategy