Description and Purpose

Beyond Open Small Business Grant Program (Beyond Open) is administered by FFTC Partners For Empowering Communities, a supporting organization of Foundation For The Carolinas. The program is made possible by support from the Wells Fargo Open for Business Fund. The Beyond Open grant program will help diverse, small business owners in Charlotte-Mecklenburg by investing in capital assets such as equipment, technology, inventory, and real estate, for the purposes of relieving poverty, eliminating prejudice and discrimination, reducing neighborhood tensions, and combatting community deterioration. Specifically, Beyond Open grants will focus on retaining jobs, encouraging job growth and economic development, and inspiring new entrepreneurial endeavors in communities with low economic mobility (with a focus on Charlotte's "Corridors of Opportunity"), as well as creating opportunities for small businesses to provide goods or services in, or start businesses in, areas of affluence where minority business owners have been historically under-represented.

  • Round 1 + Round 2 Facts

    • Total # grants: 292

    • Total $ grants: $10.7 million

    • Grant amounts: $5k - $250k

    • Owned by persons of color: 91%

    • Woman-owned: 60%

    • LGBTQ+ owned: 11%

    • Veteran owned: 6%

    • Under 20 employees: 90%

Beyond Open Advisory Council

Role - the Advisory Council provides strategic guidance, experience and expertise to Beyond Open with the goal of maximizing impacts and benefits for diverse small business owners as a part of building economic mobility in our community. In this role, Advisory Council members help inform the program and also support diverse small business owners applying to Beyond Open. The Advisory Council is not a decision-making body.

Membership - the Beyond Open Advisory Council is composed of diverse representatives from organizations that support diverse small business owners, the Corridors of Opportunity, and diverse small businesses in our community.

Eligibility and grant making integrity - Advisory Council member organizations are eligible to participate in Beyond Open as applicants in order to help strengthen the services, programs and supports they provide to diverse small business owners, and to enable their contributions to the program. The following provisions help ensure the integrity of the grant making process while also providing a pathway for participation:

  • The Advisory Council is separated from input or participation in application review, application scoring and grant award recommendation processes;

  • Application review, scoring and grant award recommendations are conducted by a separate, independent team of outside reviewers;

  • Grant awards made to nonprofit organizations on the Advisory Council are allocated apart from the $15 million allocation ($5 million per round) solely dedicated to grants for diverse small businesses.

  • J'Tanya Adams

    Historic West End Partners

  • Jose Alvarez

    Prospera

  • Gris Bailey

    Latin American Chamber of Commerce of Charlotte

  • Rod Banks

    Wells Fargo

  • Manolo Betancur

    Manolos Bakery

  • Blake Bourne

    Veterans Bridge Home

  • Alex Bui

    Vietnamese Association of Charlotte

  • Manuel Campbell

    Aspire Community Capital

  • Melissa Gaston

    North End Community Coalition

  • Rocio Gonzales

    The Women's Business Center of Charlotte

  • Damian Johnson

    No Grease, Inc.

  • Federico Rios

    Foundation For The Carolinas

  • Henry Rock

    City Startup Labs

  • Chad Turner

    Carolinas LGBTQ+ Chamber of Commerce

  • Cathay Dawkins

    Charlotte Mecklenburg Black Chamber of Commerce

Beyond Open Review Team

Review Team role and membership

The review team is an independent, diverse group whose role is to review, score and make recommendations for grant awards in each round to Foundation For The Carolinas (FFTC). The review team does not include members of the Beyond Open Advisory Council. No member of the Advisory Council participates in the grant review or decision-making process.

Review team members are drawn from the Charlotte-Mecklenburg community and are representative of the racial, ethnic, gender and socio-economic diversity of the community, as well as the diverse small business owners at the center of the program’s focus. Review team members are highly qualified to review and assess applications via professional backgrounds, training and expertise. Members are selected to contribute a blend of professional and lived experiences, talents and skills, including:

a) a background in one or more of the following - small business ownership, advising/technical assistance, finance and capital access;

b) community engagement, outreach and awareness;

c) knowledge of on-the-ground realities and awareness of the challenges faced by small business owners on access to capital funding;

d) belief in the core goals of the program and commitment to helping small business owners succeed.