Our CEO Pledge
The BlackNorth Initiative's CEO Pledge has been signed by 500 corporations, public entities, and charitable institutions, with business leaders committing to fostering diversity and equity within their workplaces, particularly by empowering Black employees.
We have developed several initiatives aimed at achieving our mission of ending anti-Black systemic racism in Canada, which you can learn more about on our organization’s website here.
About B.E.G.I.N.
Empowering Black entrepreneurs to launch and grow successful businesses!
Due to systemic barriers, Canadian Black entrepreneurs struggle to access the funding and support they need to succeed, and resultingly, Black-owned businesses are only half as likely to reach the maturity stage compared to White-owned businesses. Given these unacceptable facts, we decided to build the Black Entrepreneurship Growth and Innovation Network (B.E.G.I.N.).
B.E.G.I.N. is an entirely free ‘one-stop-shop’ directory of resources and tools Black entrepreneurs can use to build their businesses. The platform that exists today is only ‘Wave 1’ of our long-term vision and will be followed by future releases that will continue to expand on the best-in-class offerings we already provide.
Built with Black entrepreneurs
It was our first and foremost priority to make sure B.E.G.I.N. was built with input from Black entrepreneurs throughout each stage of the development process, from identifying core challenges faced by Black entrepreneurs to collecting feedback on website prototypes.
As we continue to build B.E.G.I.N., we’d like to continue involving the community. If you’d like to provide a testimonial or participate in a focus group to help us improve this website, please contact us.
Why it Matters
of Canadian Black entrepreneurs believe that race makes it harder for them to succeed as an entrepreneur
reported using personal funds for their business and earn less than $100,000 in annual business revenue
