My Black Receipt, launched by Kezia M. Williams, CEO of the Black upStart, has reached its goal of tracking more than $5 million spent from 18,000 consumers supporting Black-owned businesses. It only took them 16 days. Since then, the campaign has continued to produce tangible transactions with Black businesses totaling well over $7.6 million.
#MyBlackReceipt was launched by The Black upStart, a national training and development platform with a mission to increase the number of Black-owned businesses that have the capacity to employ others. It is a digital initiative to challenge everyone to buy from a Black business and share their receipts, and demonstrates the power of intentional spending with Black businesses and the positive downstream impacts those dollars create within the Black community.
The #MyBlackReceipt campaign kicked off on Juneteenth and ran through Independence Day, and asked consumers and businesses to share their receipts from patronizing Black-owned businesses. Torrence Reed of Zoom Technologies and HBCU Wall Street, Darryl Perkins of Broccoli City, Talib Graves-Manns of Knox St. Studios and Partners in Equity N.C., 19 Keys of Unity is Wealth App, also serve as collaboration partners on the campaign.
Kezia comments, “The #MyBlackReceipt Movement is the first, digital initiative to challenge Black consumers and allies to buy from a Black business and upload their receipt into a platform that publicly displays how individual purchases can make a collective impact. We know that the recirculation of dollars through Black businesses has multiplier effects, just like it did in Black Wall Streets across the country. Black businesses hire Black, create Black products, give to Black causes and pass down assets to Black families.”
Participating in the #MyBlackReceipt movement was simple: Participants had to buy Black, then upload the receipt and transaction details. Each purchase was added to thousands of others buying Black on those dates to demonstrate the impact of intentional spending with Black-owned businesses.
In a time where communities are coming together to protest and demand change, the act of sharing receipts shows that supporters of the movement are committed to empowering the Black community by driving purchases to Black-owned businesses. A receipt is a tangible acknowledgment that something of value has been transferred from one party to another, and in this way, a gesture that Black lives and businesses do, indeed, matter.
Buying Black is not limited to consumer products and services. Buyers can support Black-owned businesses at all levels, including business-to-business commerce. For the purposes of the campaign, receipts can include invoices that show orders from Black-owned companies. Business-to-business purchases and expansion of supplier diversity programs to include more Black-owned businesses are strongly encouraged.
#MyBlackReceipt represents the digital rebirth of Black Wall Street: thriving communities of commerce founded and supplied by Black entrepreneurs. Black entrepreneurs sustained by the Black dollars in their Black communities. This rebirth provides an opportunity for everyone to participate in buying Black, spending Black, and supporting Black.
For more information, visit MyBlackReceipt.com
For press inquiries, contact hello@theblackupstart.com