Build brand purpose

One Million Black Women

Goldman Sachs

Services we provided:

  • Content & Creative Development

  • Paid Media

  • Strategic Communications

Over the past several years, BPI has worked with Goldman Sachs to clearly articulate their efforts to positively impact the economy. In 2021, that meant tackling one of their biggest challenges yet: a $10B investment over the next 10 years to help narrow the race and gender wealth gap for Black women. With many other companies launching DEI programs, we needed to ensure Goldman’s historic initiative was able to break through and authentically reach both financial and policy elites as well as Black Community leaders.

The initiative itself centered Black women, built around a strategy of listening to, learning from and investing in them. We extended that strategy to our communication efforts through a network of Advisory Council members and Implementation Partners.

This allowed us to lead with credibility; critically important to the success of Goldman’s efforts. News of this initiative was launched with an Essence exclusive and social media by the partners themselves - and only then were those efforts then amplified by Goldman channels, including leading executives.

Over time, OMBW has continued to engage not only leaders from Secretary Rice to Ayesha Curry, but also the Black sororities, prominent social media voices, and millions of Americans.

To further the One Million Black Women Initiative, BPI supported the announcement of the 50 recipients of Goldman’s Black Women Impact Grants (BWIG) – a $10 million grant program supporting community-driven nonprofit organizations led by and for Black women and girls. From more than 800 applications, 50 organizations were selected in partnership with the One Million Black Women Advisory Council. These leaders will receive funding between $50,000 and $250,000 over the next two years. The BWI Grants are a direct result of 50 listening sessions and feedback from over 20,000 Black women which emphasized a lack of access to unrestricted, multi-year funding as a persistent challenge facing nonprofit leaders. The Black Women Impact Grants program is designed to directly address this need.

Outcomes

  • Goldman’s commitment to supporting Black women has resulted in partnerships with impactful Black women-led organizations, including:

    • The King Center: Support the launch of the reimagined Beloved Community Leadership Academy over the next two years, creating a One Million Black Women cohort for Black girls across the country.

    • New Leaders: Work towards New Leaders’ mission to recruit and train more principals of color. A grant that will develop a one-year pilot program to support Black women in education leadership.

    • Black Girls Breathing: Address systemic issues impacting Black women and girls’ access to healthcare by providing free and accessible mental healthcare resources.

    • Eat. Learn. Play.: Combat food and security and low literacy rates with Ayesha and Stephen Curry’s foundation. Black woman-owned restaurants provide meals and distribute 500,000 books through Eat. Learn. Play libraries and bookshelves.

  • Our strategy led with the voices of Black women, both internally at Goldman and externally through partners. This created an echo chamber with 75+ social partners posting during launch.

  • Our initiative gained amplification from notable community leaders like Melanie Campbell from Black Women’s Roundtable, Bernice King, and celebrities like Kerry Washington and Reese Witherspoon.

  • We also held events hosted by influencers like Ayesha & Stephen Curry, Valerie Jarrett, Dr. Johnnetta Betsch Cole, and historic Black sororities.

  • This historic initiative has broken through and authentically reached financial elites, Black community leaders, and political elites. In the first 48 hours alone, we garnered over 6,700 organic mentions on social media.