Tanya Morris is well aware of the challenges facing Black women entrepreneurs like herself, writes Sophia Schmidt for WHYY. 

Morris is the founder and CEO of Mom Your Business, a nonprofit focused on helping Black and Brown women overcome obstacles and achieve social and economic success by connecting them with much-needed tools, resources, opportunities, and capital to do so. 

Fittingly, Morris and Mom Your Business recently hosted the Black & Bankable event designed to support Black entrepreneurs in building a financial strategy for growing their businesses to address the racial gap in business funding.  

The racial gap is of great importance to Morris. 

“Black women are the fastest growing group of entrepreneurs [but] the least funded,” she said, considering that Black women entrepreneurs get less than 1% of venture capital dollars each year.  

While the nationwide racial justice protests after the 2020 murder of George Floyd led to billions of dollars going toward advancing racial equity, three years later, some of it is being undone. 

“This work that we do in supporting Black and brown founders is under attack,” Morris said. 

While Mom Your Business awards funding to businesses through pitch competitions and an accelerator program, the Black & Bankable event served to ensure support remains available through panels, tips, networking, technical support, and real-life stories from business owners. 

Learn more about the event in WHYY. 

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Tanya Morris mentors many other Black women entrepreneurs.