Meet today’s BCG Charity Spotlight: The Own The Vision Foundation (OTVG). The foundation recently launched a national campaign to ensure “Black lives truly matter,” with its mission to develop a financial pipeline to support Black businesses, nonprofit organizations, communities and HBCUs across America. The foundation will do this through its #DollarAndADream campaign.
“Black lives have not mattered in America’s capitalistic society since we were brought here as slaves, because we have failed to participate or understand the rules of capitalism,” said Jason Warner, Chief Vision Owner of the OTVF. “Unfortunately, the system has been setup where Black America has been on the bottom of the totem pole, due to lack of equity. We have developed an inclusive process where we create an economic infrastructure for Black America that will only take $1 per month,” he added.
According to research from the Harvest Institute, Black America has a nearly 46% unemployment rate, versus the national average of 5.5%. This rate is due to a lack of corporate ownership in Black America, which is a direct result of the inequity created from slavery, Jim Crow and the systematic racism in America today.
“What if I told you racism has never been about color, but about groups (teams) racing to control commerce and the means of production. You become a victim of racism when you don’t work as a team to win,” said Warner.
There are roughly 44 million Black people in America. Through the #DollarAndADream campaign, the OTVF is requesting that every Black person in America donate $1 per month. With the $44 million per month collected, the foundation will redistribute the funds back into the community in six areas: HBCUs, National Nonprofits, Land acquisition, Business, Legal and Media.
HBCUs – We must support our historically black colleges and universities. Monthly we will support 4 of the 107 HBCUs across the country so that every other year each HBCU will receive funding and support. But, we just won’t fund these institutions, we will go insure the institutions have the tools they need to be sustainable organizations
National Nonprofits – Our goal is not to reinvent the wheel, but to provide the financial resources to the organizations that support Black America day in and day out. We will fund monthly, organizations like the National Urban League, Black Lives Matter, NAACP, Push, National Action Network and other national organizations whose mission is to positively impact the Black community.
Land Acquisition – We can not continue to allow neighborhoods and communities to fall apart, then have developers come in and purchase homes and businesses in our communities, force us out, and establish thriving new communities. Our plan is to purchase property, land and business locations to rebuild our communities to thriving ones; resulting in higher property value thus promoting greater educational opportunities for our youth.
Business – For Black businesses to thrive, we have to support them. At the OTVF we will have a registry of Black businesses in every city across the county, and highlight businesses weekly. We are also going to be there for them financially and systemically. When our business fall into trouble who is there to “bail them out?” Our plan, is to work with businesses to find out why they are having troubles, fix the problems and financially support them and ensure they are run efficiently and professionally.
Legal – The OTVF will establish a legal fund to help in defending Black people and file civil suits where injustices occur against Black people.
Media – We will support media outlets to help tell our stories, and advertise Black businesses around the country.
For more information about the OTVF, please visit www.ownthevision.com, like them on Facebook, and follow them on Twitter and Instagram @ownthevision.
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