The second annual Minority Women-Owned Business Pitch Competition is accepting applications from business owners across New York City who are women of color. Four winners will be selected this year to receive a grant prize of $10,000 each.
The contest is put on by Carver Federal Savings Bank, a federally chartered stock savings bank founded in 1948 and headquartered in Harlem to serve African-American communities, in partnership with the Greater Harlem Chamber of Commerce. This year, Mastercard is a new sponsor.
Lloyd Doaman, executive director of Carver Federal Savings Bank, told amNewYork Metro that this year’s contest has expanded and upped the ante by doubling the amount of winners and quadrupling the total prize amount.
“We wanted to come up with an innovative way to provide support to small businesses that will come up with ideas to reduce their carbon footprint,” Doaman said. “We started this competition in response to climate change, and the disproportionate negative impact on communities of color.”
Applicants must be based in any of New York City’s five boroughs, own an operating business, and be a woman of color. They will need to provide information about their business and detail what their plans for the grand proceeds are and how the award will impact their business and reduce their carbon footprint. In this case, a business’s carbon footprint is the amount of greenhouse gases generated by said business.
“We thought that it would be great for us to create this program to support businesses, so that they can actually focus on how to create more energy-efficient business operations,” Doaman said. “But at the same time, businesses that are located in communities of color will also reverse the negative impact of climate change through their operations through their projects and how they allocate these resources.”
The grant proceeds could be used for equipment for operational systems, materials, and other business-related…
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