R/GA Welcomes Ten BIPOC Businesses to Inaugural Make/Good for Businesses Cohort

R/GA’s commitment to battling systemic racism goes beyond our corporate strategy for racial equity, Make / Change. We also enable our people to use their creative and strategic talents to support BIPOC-owned small businesses, and in so doing, do our part to help close the racial wealth gap.

In April, we launched Make/Good for Businesses, our flagship impact program which provides Black, Indigenous, Latine, and Asian-led businesses and nonprofits with our digital marketing, brand identity, and campaign services pro bono. Over 100 businesses and organizations from across the globe applied, representing a wide range of sectors applied. It was a massive challenge to choose just ten from the incredible applicants changing their industries with their innovative initiatives, and we’re happy to announce the inaugural cohort that will work in partnership with our regional offices.

US:

• Central Texas Allied Health Institute, led by Dr. Jereka Thomas-Hockaday, a non-profit educational institution recently featured on Netflix’s Queer Eye, which provides affordable training to students in the areas of allied health. The team will work with our R/GA Austin office with the goal of attracting more students, particularly in lower-income communities, to support their professional development.
• Shop Causes is a nonprofit connecting organizations that serve the immigrant and refugee communities to fund their registries with 100% tax-deductible donations. The organization is led by Ivy Teng Lei who will work with our Brand Design Consultancy Group (BDC) to bring more awareness to causes impacting the communities Shop Causes serves.
• R/GA California and Shelly Xu, founder of SXD will work together on the company’s design-tech software solution that turns leftover or wasted textiles into beautiful zero-waste clothing through a manufacturing process that costs about 55% less than current methods.

EMEA

• Just across the pond, R/GA London will work with Esé Oghene, founder of Yanwu, a peer-to-peer mental wellbeing platform for the Black community. Yanwu is currently in the beta stage, and this partnership will focus on the company’s brand identity in preparation for its launch.
• For the second year in a row, R/GA Berlin has partnered with Founderland, the only non-profit organization in Europe focused on supporting women of color founders along their entrepreneurial journeys, which participated in the Make/Good for Businesses pilot. Our partnership with Founderland last year helped the nonprofit to receive a $750K grant through Google.org’s Impact Challenge for Women and Girls. The Berlin team has already helped Founderland to launch Compass, their investor readiness program supporting women of color founders navigate negotiations and sharpen their fundraising pitching skills.

LATAM

• R/GA Buenos Aires has already begun working with three non-profits in Argentina: Natalí Dafne Flexer Foundation, an NGO that helps children with cancer and their families, which recently launched an NFT fundraising campaign; Club Argentec, Argencon’s open platform for digital skills trainings; and Pata Pila, an NGO that fights child malnutrition in the country. The services provided range from content curation for professional training courses to marketing consulting and campaign fundraising services.
• Our São Paulo office has also begun to work with one of the two non-profits they’ll be supporting through Make/Good for Businesses. Casa Florescer, is an NGO that serves as a shelter, health, educational, and professional development center for transgender women. The other nonprofit, Museu da Cultura Afro Brasileira in Salvador da Bahia, is home to the city’s richest art and culture artifacts celebrating Afro-Brazilian culture. R/GA São Paulo will support both of these organizations by providing them with campaign services to support their fundraising efforts.

All projects will wrap in November and we will showcase all work before year’s end. Our teams are extremely excited to work with these businesses and nonprofits and use their time, talents, and skills to make good. Supporting organizations led by under-supported communities feels even more important as we experience a period of economic uncertainty. And at a time when the world overall seems to be upside down, leaning into work that lights up our hearts and fuels us to keep pushing forward is just what is needed.