The Equity Fund
The Equity Fund centers the voices of queer entrepreneurs of color in the community. Funding cohort members build supportive peer networks with one another and collectively identify areas of interest for training as emerging entrepreneurs.
The 2023 grant cycle for the Equity Fund is closed. You can read a full list of 2023 Equity Fund grant recipients by clicking here. We anticipate offering another round of Equity Fund grants in summer 2024.
Am I Eligible to Apply?
2023-24 Equity Fund grants will be awarded across three major categories:
The Equity Fund for Twin Cities Queer Entrepreneurs of Color. 18 - 25 grants to queer small business owners of color based in the Twin Cities.
The Equity Fund for Minnesotan Queer Entrepreneurs. 15 - 20 grants to Minnesotan queer small business owners. We especially encourage LGBTQ+ entrepreneurs who live in rural Minnesota (outside the seven-county Twin Cities metropolitan area) or identify a gender-expansive (transgender, nonbinary, or genderqueer) to apply.
The Equity Fund for Midwestern Queer Entrepreneurs of Color. 12 - 15 grants to queer small business owners of color from North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, Wisconsin, and the First Nations therein.
You can also watch the video of the recent informational webinar PFund held regarding the Equity Fund by clicking here.
To learn more about the work completed by the Equity Fund in its first three years, please download our program progress report (pdf).
2023-2024 Equity Fund Grant Recipients
Belo Miguel Cipriani is a 2022-23 Equity Fund grant recipient. Cipriani is the founder of Oleb Media, a digital inclusion consulting firm in Minneapolis that specializes in accessibility testing and remediations for websites and other digital spaces. Read more about Cipriani’s story and the work he does via Oleb Media here.
