Music icon Beyoncé recently announced a two million dollar donation to BIPOC students and owners of small donations.
On her Renaissance World Tour, the singer will be giving out relief grants through her BeyGOOD Foundation. For the students, the grants, known collectively as the RENAISSANCE Scholarship Fund, will be given to institutes such as colleges and universities in ten tour stop cities. A total of $100,000 will be given to each; with the funds, the school also has the ability to choose which students will receive the award.
For entrepreneurs, the foundation will host luncheons in select cities around the world the tour will stop from the start in May to the end in September. Known as part of the Black Parade Route, each luncheon will help entrepreneurs with advice and will provide networking opportunities. At each event, one business owner will win $100,000 in grants. With the one million dollars allocated to them, about 1,000 BIPOC small business owners will receive financial support from BeyGOOD.
“We believe that everyone has the right to economic equity. And we are keenly aware of the barriers to access, opportunity, and resources that disproportionately impact BIPOC communities,” said the Executive Director, Ivy McGregor, per a statement. “Our work is rooted in the belief that education, pathways for employment and support of entrepreneurship are vehicles that help drive sustainable outcomes.”
Founded in 2013, BeyGood is a public charity that focuses on achieving economic equality by providing support to BIPOC communities that are underserved. In the past, the foundation has helped communities around the world, including those in South Africa, Haiti, the U.S., the United Kingdom and the Caribbean, amongst others.
The foundation was particularly instrumental throughout the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic; in the beginning of the pandemic, BeyGood offered $6 million dollars to health services, partnering with UCLA and the National Alliance in Mental Illness to provide mental help for those affected.
In December of the same year, BeyGood also helped provide $5,000 in grants to help those that were facing eviction in the housing crisis during the pandemic.
“I am hugely proud of the work we have done over a decade at BeyGOOD, here in the US and around the world,” said founder Beyoncé per a statement.”From scholarships to the water crisis in Burundi, to helping families during Hurricane Harvey in my hometown, Houston, it has been beyond fulfilling to be of service.”
“Now as a foundation, we will continue the work of engaging partners through innovative programs to impact even more people,” she added.
