RUNWAY
is a financial innovation firm
committed to dismantling systemic barriers and reimagining financial policies and practices–all in the name of Black liberation.
We are 100% Black and Brown-women led. Our work helps build Black community wealth through early-stage funding, holistic business support and innovative financial products and partnerships.
About
Our Vision
We envision a world where Black entrepreneurs thrive in a reimagined economy rooted in equity and justice.
Our Mission
Our mission is to advance resiliency for Black businesses and the communities they serve by building emergent financial practices and infrastructure that close the racial wealth gap for good.
Our Values
We believe the first step to create an economy rooted in equity and justice that supports Black entrepreneurship is to reimagine what the world would look like if the racial wealth gap closed. By reimagining current financial policies and practices and building an emergent infrastructure meant to dismantle systemic barriers, we actively heal, repair and restore resiliency within the Black community.
re-imagination
We believe in Black resiliency. In the way Black people have overcome disasters, both natural and man-made, they have thrived, innovated, and shifted culture together by centering joy and self-determination. We commit to upholding a culture of self-care, healing and restoration within black-led organizations to encourage and empower financial sustainability that aligns with our communal capacity to recover and build resilience.
resilience
We believe it is necessary to instill collaboration, collectivism and connection into our practices to ensure a more equitable economic vision takes root and closes the racial wealth gap for good. By acknowledging Black history, speaking the truth into power, actively healing financial trauma, and being in “right relationship” with wealth holders and investors who will commit to the same, we’re able to incorporate systems change, rebuild community, and empower the circulation of the Black dollar with Black communities.
restoration
We believe that justice-centered financial innovation and self determination are key levers to economic resilience for healthy and whole Black communities. By co-creating new models of fundraising and social financing that is entrepreneur-centric, we build a bridge between investors and the Black community that repair the conditions that uphold the racial wealth gap.
repair
Our story
RUNWAY (formerly known as The Runway Project) was founded on the belief that justice-centered financial innovation and self-determination are key levers to economic resilience for Black people. We provide “Friends & Family” style capital for Black entrepreneurs and advance equity-centered practices within financial and philanthropic institutions looking to serve Black entrepreneurs and Black led-organizations.
We are where restorative capital meets community.
Much of RUNWAY’s story is about rewriting the story – on new ways of being, transforming broken systems, and journeying together to build a more just, restorative, and equitable economy. As a financial innovation firm, we are reimagining capital as a tool that can heal, repair, and connect.
In 2016, the concept for RUNWAY was catalyzed following the devastating events of Hurricane Katrina and the questions that surfaced in the aftermath around racialized economic disparities. Reports at that time reflected a racial wealth gap of over $100k between Black and white households. How were Black communities expected to be resilient after natural or manufactured disasters with such disproportionate economic securities and access to aid, resources, and care? Additional studies revealed that the lack of capital for Black businesses was a significant impediment to the recovery and resiliency of the communities impacted. The need for equity-centered solutions became clear.
In 2017, the RUNWAY pilot program was launched by social entrepreneur Jessica Norwood in partnership with Oakland-based entrepreneur community leaders Konda Mason, co-founder of Impact Hub Oakland; community finance and impact investing strategist Nina Robinson; and Rani Croager-Langer of Uptima Entrepreneur Cooperative. Since its inception, RUNWAY has assembled a powerhouse team of financial activists, justice advocates, strategists, educators, and creatives to collectively dream, scheme, and design financial solutions that center our values.
To truly reimagine the economy, we must reimagine how we work and engage with one another. At RUNWAY, our culture centers healing, the entrepreneurial spirit of experimentation, and collective leadership. We have traded hierarchical structures for circular ones and have embraced transparency and collaboration in all aspects of our work. We model the practices of a cooperative business in the form of a self-directed non-profit.
As we continue to investigate what would be required for thriving Black businesses and communities to exist across this country, we rejoice in focusing our attention on the collective resistance strategies we can ignite while rooting into the transformative splendor of the Black imagination.
our leaderfull team
OUR work
Our 2020 Impact Magazine
We’ve always challenged the status quo of reporting. During 2020, in the midst of building a new world, we decided to publish a magazine that describes our work in both qualitative and quantitative ways. Welcome to Runway Magazine!
Learn about our Programs
Download the one-pager PDF
Press & media
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September 16, 2021 | Thrive Global
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August 24, 2021 | Authority Magazine (via Medium)
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July 8, 2021 | San Francisco Business Times
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February 6, 2021 | KUNM
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January 25, 2021 | Scripps National News
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January 15, 2021 | Bloomberg
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July 25, 2020 | Boston Globe
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July 21, 2020 | Doyenne Group
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June 22, 2020 | American Banker
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June 4, 2020 | Tech Crunch
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June 3, 2020 | Impact Alpha
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June 2, 2020 | Next City
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May 31, 2020 | SoCap
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Feb. 18, 2020 | Next Economy Now (Podcast)
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December 14, 2019 | Common Future
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June 10, 2019 | Chordata Capital
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February 18, 2019 | See Change
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December 14, 2018 | Yes Magazine
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November 26, 2018 | Common Future
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November 4, 2018 | San Francisco Chronicle
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November 25, 2016 | Wharton University of Pennsylvania