Andre Garvin is a 35-year-old Hempstead native and business consultant who is among the younger generation of the Long Island African-American Chamber of Commerce.
As a younger member, Garvin figures to play a major role in a new effort by the nearly 20-year-old chamber: Establishing a foundation aimed at raising $1 million in the next few years to support small businesses in the Black community and in the wider Long Island business community as well.
“Business is more than having good ideas,” Garvin told the Press. “Those ideas are necessary, of course. But access to capital is a major issue too.”
Garvin said he has noticed that too many people who want to start small businesses lack adequate access to capital.
“We plan to raise money through the foundation and if we can give it out to people, that will spell hope for them,” Garvin said.
Garvin said the foundation will seek funds from corporations, individuals, and a wide variety of organizations on and off Long Island. He hopes the foundation will raise the $1 million “in less than a few years.”
The plan for the LIAACC’s foundation comes as the Trump administration cuts funding for a variety of nonprofits. Business leaders fear they cannot count on the federal government for much aid in the coming years. Federal funding is drying up not only for nonprofits but for health and educational programs as well. Several nonprofits on Long Island, including environmental and housing organizations, are facing stiff cutbacks.
Phil Andrews, president of the Garden City-based chamber, told the Press that the organization had become too busy with a variety of projects and needed to split off its workload to include a separate fund-raising program. Andrews said the foundation will have a separate board and an executive director.
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Foundations have been a part of the business scene on Long Island since the end of the Civil War, according to historical records. They grew significantly between 1900 and 1920, with key figures such as Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller playing major roles in building them over the years.
Foundations can provide grants to 501 (c) (3) public charities and schools or cities and make donations to other private foundations or individuals and businesses.
According to a recent county report, there are more than 76,000 grant-making foundations in the United States with assets of more than $646 billion.
They have continued to grow in the U.S., even after the dot.com bust and the Great Recession.
Andrews said the LIAACC foundation is off to a good start. Ikea, the furniture-store chain, has donated $25,000 to the project.
“This is a major step for us,” Andrews said.
The foundation, according to the chamber, will offer financial literacy training, entrepreneurial training, workforce development and access to capital.
There will also be efforts to promote economic development in struggling communities and workshops and counseling programs.
The chamber held a kick-off dinner in Freeport this past spring — on Andrews’s 62nd birthday — to promote the foundation.
Rose Ward, the chamber’s vice president and owner of NFocus Management Group, LLC, was master of ceremonies.
“If you don’t have funds, you run out of steam quickly,” Ward said. “We hope to be able to dedicate a lot of time to this. Small nonprofits don’t have a lot of staff and need the help.”
Anthony Quinones, also a chamber member who is playing a role in the development of a foundation, said, “Foundations are agents of change. This is going to help us bring change to small businesses and to the larger community as well.”
“This will drive revenue,” Quinones said.
The LIAACC started almost 20 years ago in the Freeport library. Only a few people attended meetings then. The organization now has about 400 members and an office in downtown Garden City.
