Aurora James’ The 15 Percent Pledge Marks Its 3-Year Anniversary

When Aurora James launched the Fifteen Percent Pledge three years ago, it was a call to action that spread like wildfire.

It’s only fitting that entrepreneur, fashion pioneer, social activist, and now best-selling author James — whose first name Aurora literally translates to “dawn” — is ushering in a new day for Black entrepreneurs.

So far, the Pledge’s impact can be seen in the impressive numbers. More than 625 Black-owned businesses have developed business relationships with companies that have taken the Pledge. The Pledge’s work, along with its partners, has created the potential to shift over $14 billion to Black entrepreneurs and businesses.

After reaching an important milestone with its third anniversary, the Pledge has set its sights on achieving even greater heights: By 2030, the Pledge hopes to drive $1.4 trillion of wealth generation by Black entrepreneurs, and increase Black business representation by 14.6%.

After the murder of George Floyd in May of 2020, the Brother Vellies founder was underwhelmed by corporations’ diversity pledges and anti-racist donations. She took her message to Instagram, and tagged the world’s largest retail brands, asking them for fair Black representation on their shelves. “OK, here is one thing you can do for us,” it started.

“I am asking you to commit to buying 15% of your products from Black owned businesses… We represent 15% of the population and we need to represent 15% of your shelf space,” she wrote in a post.

Her message reverberated quickly and James was interviewed on CNN that same week. The momentum proved to be more than a moment — the powerful request blossomed into a nonprofit organization and a global movement, known as the Fifteen Percent Pledge.

The Fifteen Percent Pledge is a racial and economic justice nonprofit organization urging major retailers and corporations to commit 15% of their shelf space to Black-owned businesses. It was born from seeing multiple acts of social injustice in the United States, with a lack of accountability for the systemic issues at play.

To date, 29 companies across three countries have committed to multi-year, contractual agreements (some as long as 10 years) with the Pledge, including Ulta, Sephora (U.S. and Canada), Vogue, Macy’s, Bloomingdale’s, Blue Mercury, Indigo (the first Canadian retailer to take the Pledge), Gap Inc., Kith, Moda Operandi, Next Model Management, Hudson’s Bay, J. Crew, Matches Fashion (UK), and Nordstrom.

“It’s really about continuing to build on what we’ve already started and taking it to the next level,” James shares. “There’s been so much progress made, but there’s still work to do — I never want to rest on our laurels. We’ve put more than 600 Black-owned brands on the shelves with Pledge takers, which is super exciting, but there’s still a lot more shelf space to be had. And even when we look at access to capital, less than 1% of all VC dollars are going to Black women.”

This is what inspired James to launch the Friends and Family Collective, a new project she announced yesterday (on Juneteenth), which in partnership with the private equity firm VMG Partners, hopes to tap into an $850-million VC fund that will focus on founders of Black-owned businesses. This is a natural extension of James’ work with the Pledge, as well as of the investments she’s made in Black-owned brands (along with Alisa Williams, a partner at VMG Partners).

In a study conducted by J.P. Morgan, “Black women are the fastest growing demographic of entrepreneurs in the US, but they face disproportionate financial headwinds.” In 2021, Black woman start-up founders received just 0.34% percent of the total venture capital spent in the US.

And yet, according to the Harvard Business Review, “In the United States, an astounding 17% of Black women are in the process of starting or running new businesses. That’s compared to just 10% of white women and 15% of white men.”

But it’s a marathon, not a sprint, and the Pledge has already made tremendous strides in its three years since launching. Victory will only be attained once Black entrepreneurs, especially female ones, have the same access to capital, as well as all the resources their white counterparts have.

In addition to a new office in NYC, the organization is continuing to bolster its team (the Pledge currently boasts 17 team members), including a focus on key members of its executive team. One such hire? LaToya Williams-Belfort, in the role of Executive Director. As a non-profit leader and equity champion with over 18 years of professional experience, Williams-Belfort has partnered with James to lead the Pledge’s staff, programs, fundraising, expansion, and execution of its mission.

With support from Google, the Pledge created the Business Equity Community (BEC) — an online ecosystem to connect Pledge takers directly with Black entrepreneurs. More than 5,000 Black businesses across all industries and product categories are in the BEC.

“We think about 29 retail partners and other strategic partners coming to the table to work with the Pledge and these 5,000 businesses — you really get the collective action movement of many stakeholders coming together,” Williams-Belfort shares.

A major highlight in the past year: its Holiday Campaign, which included the Pledge’s first-ever physical pop-up shop in Soho, NYC, and a curated microsite, in partnership with Citi. The campaign, which launched in November 2022, created more than $1 million in estimated revenue growth for over 100 participating Black brands, including Theophilio clothing, KNC Beauty and Ghetto Gastro.

The “Gifteen” shop’s high-traffic location was intentional, at the iconic intersection of Spring and Lafayette. Also significant: while the Pledge’s standard commitment is 15% shelf space to Black-owned businesses, the Gifteen shop saw 100% of shelf space allocated to Black brands.

“People were blown away,” James recalls. “For shoppers to see all the incredible products and actually put their money where the movement is, was really powerful. I’m so grateful to Citi for being able to bring that to life, for all of us.”

Another impactful highlight from 2022?

The Pledge launched its first-ever Achievement Award, presented by Shop with Google: a $200,000 grant presented to a Black business owner. In total, the Pledge provided $295,000 in grants to five Black brands. (The top prize was awarded to 54 Thrones; the other winners included Sergio Hudson, Puzzles of Color, Hyper Skin, and Busayo NYC.)

As James shares in her memoir, Wildflower, there were several barriers to entry and challenges for her as a Black female founder. In order to try and level the playing field, and fuel Brother Vellies (to expand production, for example), she had to take out a $70,000 loan with very unfavorable conditions. When James received a grant from the CFDA Vogue Fashion Fund, it helped propel her business to the next level.

(Today, James is a vice chair of the Council of Fashion Designers of America.)

“I received a grant when I was just starting out,” James shares. “So I was over the moon that we were able to give our first-ever Achievement Award at our benefit this year. Knowing what I was able to do with the opportunity and access that I was given as a founder, and as a human, I think about what we will do with all of these other women who are coming up and becoming super successful as a result of the Pledge, and their own incredibly hard work.”

As Williams-Belfort points out, the remarkable thing about the Pledge’s work is that there’s a similar data pattern within the Pledge’s Business Equity Community, and a post-2020 statistical increase of Black businesses being started by Black women.

“While the first barrier to entry is access to capital, the second barrier to entry is marketing and brand visibility,” Williams-Belfort continues. “If you’re doing all this fabulous product innovation, but you don’t have a seat at the table and don’t have a wider ecosystem to really reach the masses, then you’re never going to be able to build wealth in a way that creates a systems change. We really have to think about the wraparound approach.”

For the Pledge, it’s about continuing to think about its proposition in this way: that supporting Black businesses is good for everyone — consumers, retailers and businesses.

“What we’ve learned with our retail partners, which Black founders already knew, is that they’re creating products that are sustainable, innovative and have universal appeal,” Williams-Belfort shares.

From an innovation perspective, Black entrepreneurs having more access to retailers and partnerships creates a marketplace that’s more robust and therefore, an economy that’s more robust.

As James said in her Instagram post announcing the launch of the Friends and Family Collective: “Black business is the future of America.”

For Williams-Belfort, it’s also personal. With two sons who want to be entrepreneurs, Williams-Belfort hopes that once they enter the professional world, they will really have an equitable opportunity and be judged on their vision and work.

“Over the last few years, I continue to be invigorated with power and passion, because I see the data moving towards real systems change. I think what we’ve proven over the last three years with the Pledge is that Aurora was absolutely right. It works.”

“Sometimes your best mode of transportation is a leap of faith,” James says in Wildflower. “For me, that’s not my best mode; it’s my only mode.”

What gives James hope for the future?

“Progress is happening. People are having tough but courageous conversations. That’s how we learn and how we grow as individuals — and we need to keep pushing our own growth.”