FOUNDERS FORWARD PROGRAM HELPS MINORITY SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS

J.P. Morgan Chase’s Founders Forward Program provides small business owners with resources and assists them with solving challenges within their businesses. PHOTO PROVIDED BY J.P. MORGAN CHASE.
J.P. Morgan Chase’s Founders Forward Program provides small business owners with resources and assists them with solving challenges within their businesses. PHOTO PROVIDED BY J.P. MORGAN CHASE.

FOUNDERS FORWARD PROGRAM HELPS
MINORITY SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS

BY TIA CAROL JONES

A program launched by J.P. Morgan Chase is
providing small business owners with the resources necessary for them to sustain and scale their businesses.

The Founders Forward Small Business Mentoring
Program was launched in 2018 to support minority small businesses by way of its Global Philanthropy Portfolio. It brings together teams of J.P. Morgan Chase volunteers to support small businesses by spending six to eight weeks with them and addressing strategic challenges.

While the program started in New York, it has
expanded to 10 cities. It launched its first cohort in
Chicago in 2020, with 10 small businesses. It has
recently completed its third cohort of small business owners here. Since it was launched in Chicago, 33 small businesses have come through the program.

“The program is really meant to address strategic
challenges in helping minority businesses to sustain and grow. When you think about some of those challenges it can be anywhere from operations, human resources, marketing, financial modeling …,” said Tasha Brokenberry, Vice
President of Employee Engagement Manager at JPMorgan Chase & Co.

The volunteers for the program come from all different facets of J.P. Morgan Chase and include employees from asset and wealth management, commercial banking, as well as from the corporate sector. The are helping small businesses with data and analytics, marketing, e-commerce, and whatever else small businesses might need assistance with, and helping them get to the next level.

The participants for the cohort are chosen through J.P. Morgan Chase working with its small business services organizations that are direct grantee partners of its grant foundation portfolio. These partners are grassroots on the ground supporting small businesses through tech and access support
or capital support.

“We are directly funding them through the J.P. Morgan Chase Foundation. We go directly to those organizations and ask if there are businesses
that are within your network that would benefit
from this program,” Brokenberry said.

The businesses that participate have to be minority, women, Veteran or LGBTQ owned. They
have to be an early stage business – between 2 and 3 years in operation. The goal is for the businesses to be bankable and get a banking
relationship that allows them to be successful.

Once the businesses are chosen, J.P. Morgan
Chase identifies the challenge they need support
for; if the challenge can be supported in six to eight
weeks; and if the challenge can be supported by a J.P. Morgan Chase team. The goal is to have a tangible deliverable at the end of the six to eight weeks.

Anywhere between 10-20 small businesses participate in a cohort. Having a cohort that size creates a network of community and it enables the business owners to get to know each other and the volunteers in the program.

“With the Chicago program, we’ve had great success with alumni. We’ll have businesses that will come through the program and bring a challenge in one year and come back to have
us support them on something else. So, it’s really cool to see the business grow from year to year and to hear the impact the volunteers had from the first time to the second time,” Brokenberry said.

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