Table of Contents
- Shop With Intention at Black-Owned Businesses
- Use a Black-Owned Business Directory to Find Local Shops
- How to Promote Small Businesses Through Social Media and Reviews
- Fundraising Ideas for Non-Profits That Partner With Black-Owned Brands
- Support Black Entrepreneurs Beyond Black History Month
- Help Black-Owned Businesses Gain Digital Visibility and Capital Access
- Champion Supplier Diversity and Inclusive Procurement at Work
- Frequently Asked Questions
Last Updated: September 13, 2026
Shop With Intention at Black-Owned Businesses
Black-owned firms grew their gross revenue by 66% between 2017 and 2022, climbing from $127.9 billion to $211.8 billion, according to [Pew Research Center's analysis of Black-owned business(/blogs/news/black-owned-business-fundraising-ideas) growth | pewresearch.org]. That number is the strongest argument for learning how to support black owned businesses beyond hashtags and holiday posts. At African American Expressions, we have spent 34 years watching that growth happen from the inside, and the pattern is consistent: businesses that get steady, repeat customers survive, and the ones that get one-time sympathy purchases do not.
Deliberate shopping means choosing where your dollars land before you need something. It is the practice of checking ownership, planning purchases around businesses you want to keep alive, and treating your spending as a vote. The payoff is measurable. Research from Harvard Business School Working Knowledge on digital labeling of Black-owned businesses found that platforms which identify and label Black-owned businesses boost online engagement, phone calls, food orders, and in-person visits for those firms.
Start with the basics:
- Pick one category you buy from monthly (coffee, gifts, hair care, books) and switch it to a Black-owned source
- Set a recurring reminder to reorder, not just buy once
- Save the business's contact info so you can refer friends by name
One purchase is a gesture. A monthly order is revenue a business can plan around.
Use a Black-Owned Business Directory to Find Local Shops
A Black-owned business directory is an organized, searchable listing of businesses owned by Black entrepreneurs, usually filterable by city, category, and service type. BuyBlack.org alone hosts a directory of over 110,000 Black-owned businesses, per BuyBlack.org's national directory, which means the "I can't find any near me" excuse stopped being valid years ago.
Directories do more than help you shop, they give owners a digital storefront when they cannot afford one. Listings go stale, so call ahead or check the business's own page before making a trip, and report wrong or outdated listings to keep the directory useful for the next person searching.
How to Promote Small Businesses Through Social Media and Reviews
The fastest free way to promote a small business is a specific, public recommendation: not "support Black-owned" as a caption, but a named business, a named product, and a reason. Social media moves a business from invisible to findable; reviews move a browser to a buyer.
Here is what actually converts:
- Tag the business's handle in the post, not just the photo
- Name the specific item or service you bought
- Leave a review on Google and on the platform where you found them
- Share the post to a local group or community board, not just your own feed
Review volume matters: a business with 40 reviews outranks one with 4 in local search, where most first-time customers come from. One honest paragraph from you is worth more than a paid ad the owner cannot afford.
Fundraising Ideas for Non-Profits That Partner With Black-Owned Brands
Fundraising through a Black-owned brand funds your organization and routes money to a Black-owned business at once. Schools, churches, and community groups can run product fundraisers, gift-card drives, or vendor markets where the supplier is Black-owned and proceeds split between cause and seller.
African American Expressions runs a fundraising program built for this, where schools, churches, and organizations earn 40% on every sale of culturally inspired gifts, stationery, and home decor, the difference between funding one event and funding a program for a year.
A simple structure that works:
| Fundraiser Type | Effort Level | Best For | Payout Structure |
|---|---|---|---|
| Product catalog sale | Low | Churches, small schools | 40% of every sale |
| Gift-card drive | Low | Any size group | Fixed margin per card |
| Vendor market booth | Medium | Community organizations | Booth sales minus cost |
| Online storefront share | Low | Groups with social reach | Percentage per order |
Pick the structure that matches your group's size, not the one with the biggest headline number. A small church with 30 active members will raise more from a catalog sale than from a booth it cannot staff.
Support Black Entrepreneurs Beyond Black History Month
Support that stops in March is not support, it is seasonal attention. Black-owned businesses represent roughly 3% of all classifiable firms, according to the District of Columbia Department of Small and Local Business Development, a figure that stands out against the 14% Black population share. The gap does not close with a February shopping spree.
What closes it is repetition. A birthday gift in July, a holiday order in December, a recurring subscription in April. Community engagement works the same way: attend the market in June, not just the one advertised during Black History Month.
Help Black-Owned Businesses Gain Digital Visibility and Capital Access
Digital visibility and capital access are the two bottlenecks consumer spending alone cannot fix. A business can have loyal customers and still fail because it does not show up in search results or cannot get a loan to expand. Here is the playbook for both.
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The digital visibility playbook
Most Black-owned businesses that are hard to find online are not missing a marketing strategy. They are missing the free infrastructure that search engines and map apps read first. If you have a few hours and any of these skills, this is the highest-return volunteer work available:
- Claim and complete the Google Business Profile. This is the single highest-impact free fix. Verify the address, set hours, pick the primary category precisely ("soul food restaurant" beats "restaurant"), and upload at least 10 photos. Businesses with complete profiles get dramatically more calls and direction requests than incomplete ones.
- Fix the name, address, and phone number (NAP) consistency. The same business often appears with three different phone numbers across directories, which suppresses local ranking. Pick one canonical NAP and update every listing.
- Add structured data to the website. A LocalBusiness schema block tells search engines exactly what the business is, where it is, and when it is open. It is a 20-minute job for anyone who can edit HTML.
- Build a review engine, not a review ask. A one-time "please leave a review" text rarely works. A QR code at the register, a follow-up text 24 hours after purchase, and a saved reply template for responses convert far better.
- Write one useful page of content. "How to choose a caterer for a 50-person event in [city]" will outrank a generic homepage for the searches that actually convert.
If you do not have these skills, you can still help by leaving detailed reviews, uploading photos to the business's Google profile, and correcting wrong hours or addresses when you spot them.
The capital access playbook
Only a small share of Black-owned businesses survive the startup stage, and the Brookings Institution's research on systemic barriers points to investment access and development suppression as persistent causes that consumer spending cannot resolve on its own. The gap is not effort, it is navigation. Most first-time founders do not know which programs exist, which ones they qualify for, or how to write an application that survives review.
Here is how to help, in order of leverage:
- Point them to the right federal contracting and capital programs. The U.S. Small Business Administration runs the 8(a) Business Development Program for socially and economically disadvantaged small businesses, the HUBZone program for businesses in designated areas, and the Women-Owned Small Business federal contracting program. These are not grants, they are set-aside contracting advantages that can be worth more than a grant.
- Walk them through the Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) route. CDFIs are mission-driven lenders that underwrite differently from banks and are far more likely to fund a Black-owned business with thin credit history. The U.S. Department of the Treasury certifies them, and a search for CDFIs by state returns a workable list.
- Help with the paperwork, not just the introduction. The bottleneck is rarely the connection, it is the business plan, the cash-flow projection, and the personal financial statement. An hour spent reviewing a loan package is worth more than ten introductions.
- Connect them to a Small Business Development Center (SBDC). SBDCs offer free one-on-one advising and are funded in part by the SBA. Most founders do not know they exist.
- Teach the grant calendar habit. Most grants have annual windows. A shared spreadsheet tracking deadlines, eligibility, and required documents turns a one-time application into a repeatable process.
Do not offer to "help with marketing" in the abstract. Offer one specific deliverable, "I will claim and complete your Google Business Profile this Saturday", and the business will actually take you up on it.
That is the honest limit of shopping your way to change. Pointing entrepreneurs toward grant navigation, financial literacy, and mentorship programs is the next layer of support, the layer that compounds.
Champion Supplier Diversity and Inclusive Procurement at Work
Supplier diversity is the practice of deliberately including minority-owned businesses in an organization's supply chain, the single highest-leverage way an individual can support Black-owned businesses without spending their own money. One procurement contract can be worth more than a thousand individual purchases, and it is the section most guides skip.
The certifications that make a vendor "count"
Corporate procurement systems usually require third-party certification before a vendor counts toward a diversity spend goal. If you are helping a Black-owned business onto a vendor list, certification is the gate:
- National Minority Supplier Development Council (NMSDC), the most widely recognized certification for minority-owned businesses in corporate supply chains. It requires 51% minority ownership, management, and control.
- Women's Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC), for women-owned businesses, which overlaps with many Black-owned firms.
- U.S. Small Business Administration, the 8(a) Business Development Program, HUBZone, and the Women-Owned Small Business program all create federal contracting advantages.
- State and local certifications, many cities and states run their own minority business enterprise (MBE) programs that unlock local government contracts.
A business can be Black-owned and still invisible to a procurement system if it is not certified. Helping a founder complete one certification application is often the most valuable hour you can give.
How to actually move spend at your workplace
- Find out whether your organization tracks supplier diversity spend at all. Many mid-size companies do not. If no one is measuring it, no one is managing it.
- Ask for the current spend breakdown by category. Printing, catering, office supplies, event services, IT support, and facilities are the categories where Black-owned vendors most often already exist and are most often overlooked.
- Identify one category and one vendor. Do not try to overhaul the whole supply chain. Pick a single category where a Black-owned vendor can compete on price and quality, and pilot it.
- Push for a written policy with a target and a report. A supplier diversity policy without a number and a quarterly report is a press release, not a program.
- Protect the pilot from the "we've always used X" reflex. The most common failure mode is a pilot that gets quietly dropped at renewal because no one championed it.
Intuit's guidance on supplier diversity programs notes that organizations are increasingly encouraged to integrate Black-owned businesses into their supply chains to foster economic equity. Corporate strategies that promote minority-owned businesses can drive consumer support while managing potential market backlash, according to research from the Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis.
The trade-offs nobody mentions
Supplier diversity programs fail for predictable reasons, and knowing them makes you a better advocate:
- Cash-flow mismatch. Large companies pay on 60- or 90-day terms. A small Black-owned vendor may not be able to float that. Ask whether your organization offers early-payment options or supply-chain financing.
- Insurance and bonding requirements. A vendor that can do the work may be disqualified by a $2 million general liability requirement it cannot afford. Flag this early.
- Minimum order sizes. A vendor that cannot meet a national contract's volume may still be the right fit for a regional or single-site contract. Scope the pilot to what the vendor can actually deliver.
- The certification lag. NMSDC certification can take months. Start the vendor on certification before you need them on a contract.
Frequently Asked Questions
How can I promote Black-owned businesses in my community?
Share their posts on social media, leave detailed positive reviews on Google and Yelp, and mention them in local community groups. Harvard Business School research from 2025 found that digital platforms which identify and label Black-owned businesses boost online engagement, phone calls, and in-person visits. You can also organize a pop-up shop event or a group outing with friends and family to drive foot traffic to businesses in your area.
Is there a directory of Black-owned businesses I can search?
Yes. BuyBlack.org hosts a directory of over 110,000 Black-owned businesses as of 2025. Other options include the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's local chambers, which often maintain their own lists. A Black-owned business directory lets you filter by category, city, and product type, so you can find everything from restaurants to stationery brands without guessing which companies are Black-owned.
How can organizations partner with Black-owned businesses for fundraising?
Schools, churches, and nonprofits can run product fundraisers through Black-owned retailers that offer commission-based programs. African American Expressions, for example, lets organizations earn 40% on every sale through its fundraising program, which has generated millions of dollars for groups since 1991. This model supports Black-owned businesses while giving your organization a revenue stream, and it works for groups of any size.
Why is it important to support Black-owned businesses year-round?
Black-owned firms' gross revenue grew 66% from 2017 to 2022, reaching $211.8 billion, according to Pew Research Center. Yet Black-owned small businesses still represent only about 3% of all classifiable firms, and just 4% survive the startup stage. Year-round spending, not just seasonal support, gives these businesses the steady revenue they need to hire, scale, and close the wealth gap in their communities.