9/24/2021 Foundry Giving Friday: Latino Economic Development Center

• Posted on 22 September 2021
• Posted in Foundry Giving Friday
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Every Friday The Foundry Home Goods donates 5% of our total sales to a different community-nominated small-and-mighty cause. This Friday's Foundry Giving Friday recipient? Latino Economic Development Center!

Operating in St. Paul but also working throughout the Twin Cities and greater Minnesota, the Latino Economic Development Center is a local Latinx-led non-profit using the power of small business support to create economic opportunity for the Minnesota Latinx community (300k strong!). The LEDC focuses on entrepreneurship growth, workforce advancement, education opportunities, and supporting business development as a way to reduce social and economic disparities.

As nominator Hayley says: "The LEDC has heard story after story of hardworking Latinx being denied loans due to language barriers, cultural barriers, lack of credit, or concerns around immigration status."

As a small business ourselves, we know that being the boss of your own biz can provide a pathway to economic prosperity and self-determination, create new opportunities, and foster a deep sense of community connection. For many in the Latinx community, this sense of what is possible (or conversely, what is at stake) in the traditional sense of small business ownership is magnified by these systemic barriers to access—when those barriers are removed, the resulting prosperity, self-determination, and essential cultural services that come with "community building" isn't just a business success story, it becomes chance at charting a whole new life, laying the foundations of possibility for generations to come.

Businesses like ours are made possible by a TON of hard work, a little luck, a few good dogs...AND because of generations of access to capital and support systems—foundations laid well before we had the dream of our shop. We had the chance to build on that opportunity, and so should everyone else. 

If you don't need anything from us, please consider donating directly to Latino Economic Development Center here.

If you DO find yourself in need of delightful new soap or a holy-moly-it's-getting-dark-earlier-already!? beeswax restock, know your purchase goes to support good change happening on the community level.

Thanks to Hayley for the nomination!

If YOU have a worthy cause to nominate for our Foundry Giving Friday initiative, pop on over to our Nomination Page and drop us a line. We're all in this together.