North Carolina Institute of Minority Economic Development

The Institute is unique as a Black-founded and Black-led organization focused exclusively on creating fair and equitable economic opportunity for minority-owned businesses and their communities. We choose to tackle racial and gender disparities in economic outcomes by improving the ecosystem for diverse small businesses and increasing access to capital for business and communities of color. To learn more, visit our Theory of Change on page 5 of our strategic plan.

Our core competencies include business and entrepreneurial education, technical assistance, research and advocacy, community development (CDFI) financing, and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). Through a variety of place-based and demographically oriented programs, The Institute helps emerging leaders, business owners, non-profit organizations, HBCUs, and our strategic partners to contribute to growth, sustainability, and economic justice in low-to-moderate income communities. Examples include:

• We provide services that specifically support women as providers and leaders through our Women’s Business Centers (WBCs) in Durham, Charlotte and Richmond.
• We educate small business owners about issues that affect them, aiming to strengthen their participation and voices in policy issues and self-advocacy.
• We highlight disparities and effective solutions to both public and private policy makers. For example, in 2020 we conducted quarterly surveys and made a series of policy recommendations for more equitable delivery of COVID19 relief resources to low-income communities and communities of color. We also work with corporations and local government to improve their supplier diversity initiatives, most recently with the County of Durham.
• We offer diversity, equity and inclusion training, which is a first but important step in creating institutional change, and we exemplify these principles in everything we do.
• We provide social impact and access to higher education for opportunity youth through our Public Allies program, partnering an average 24-30 talented individuals annually with nonprofit organizations who offer skill-development and leadership coaching.
• We convene constituents and policymakers to better understand the economic and policy issues relevant to racial disparities, changing the way we engage across sectors in order to support a healthier, more equitable system.
• We deliver capital to small businesses, CDCs and affordable housing developers, and other community initiatives so they can build wealth, create jobs, build power, and make social change happen.

The National Institute of Minority Economic Development is unique in its origins as a Black-founded, Black-led organization focused on the equitable economic development needs of minority-owned businesses and their communities. We are a respected opinion leader and expert in minority business issues at the local, statewide, and regional levels. We bring direct business support through our Center for Entrepreneurship, advocacy and policy change through our Policy Center, funding equity through our CDFI, Institute Capital, and professional development and corporate advisory services through our Center for Entrepreneurship. In addition, we bring strength in relationships, from funding sources to programmatic collaboratives.

Our ability to provide impact and influence is documented in our organizational success.

• Since inception, we have helped more than 10,000 MBEs obtain over $1 billion in financial contracts and awards and to secure more than $140 million in bonding.
• We have nurtured broad civic and policy networks to help improve the small business ecosystem for businesses of all sizes. We have leveraged these networks to publish dozens of assessments and studies in support of improved pathways for MBEs, workforce development, and policies and strategies that support minority communities in general. Examples include an assessment of MWBE certification programs in the state of NC, an assessment of the NC Department of Transportation’s Small Business Enterprise Program, and most recently, a series of quarterly surveys and recommendations examining the effects of the COVID pandemic on operations and viability of small businesses in North Carolina.
• We are trusted advisors to local government, including the County of Durham, which contracted with The Institute to increase its utilization of MBE firms. The contract resulted in a 7% increase in MBE subcontractor utilization, for a total rate of 45%.
• We played an instrumental role in gaining State of NC commitments to conduct MBE disparity studies in North Carolina, with the latest just published in March 2021.