LEAP Together Land Stronger!

We envision a world where all individuals have access to opportunities to succeed and thrive in their communities. As a 501c(3) organization, Lifting Equity And Potential (LEAP) Together’s mission is to support equitable access to opportunities, increase social and economic mobility, and advance equity. LEAP’s initiatives center on democratizing access to capital, furthering non-extractive business development, and growing individual and community wealth building.

Democratize Access to Capital

The color of money is green but talent is colorless and genderless. We believe all promising entrepreneurs should have equal access to capital, regardless of who they are or where they are.

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Network of Mission-Aligned Mentors

Social capital is critical for success, that is why, in collaboration with diversity recruiting firm Potencity, we are building a network of experts who will guide the next generation and enable their successes.

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How You Can Get Involved

Donate, volunteer, partner or Contact Us to get involved

Volunteer

Having the right mentor to guide young talent is instrumental in driving success. Whether you want to volunteer for long-term (6 to 12 months) with a specific mentee or one-off opportunities, we welcome your expertise and support.

LEAP Leader Mentor signup

Partner with Us

We do not want to replicate what others are already doing well, so we welcome opportunities to collaborate with mission-aligned organizations.

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Sponsor Us

Corporate and philanthropic organizations who want to stand with us in supporting our mission, we certainly appreciate any support.

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What We Do

LEAP will initially focus on strategies to democratize access to capital and lower the associated costs to establish equitable small business development at scale. In collaboration with Kind Capital, we will create a marketplace to connect funders and investors with social and traditional organizations that will reduce the biases and obstacles underrepresented entrepreneurs face. Simultaneously, we will grow a network of successful professionals to mentor those from underrepresented communities. Our two-prong approach improves access to financial capital as well as social & intellectual capital, two pillars of entrepreneurial and economic success.

Our Story

Small businesses are the lifeblood of the U.S. economy, generating 44% of the US economy, two-thirds of net new jobs, and driving US innovation and competitiveness. When small business data is disaggregated, we find that BIPOC and female entrepreneurs have a much higher mountain to climb to achieve similar success as their white, male, counterparts. In fact, it is well-documented that such entrepreneurs face disproportionate barriers in accessing all types of financial capital, from grants to market-rate, and social capital- finding culturally-curated, small business support services and mentoring. Implementation of the COVID-19 economic relief program laid bare the stark inequities of our current systems and amplified the disparities geometrically. Kind Capital, an impact investing and advisory firm with a long track record in supporting BIPOC and female entrepreneurs, created LEAP Together to address this systematic issue.

Advisory Board Members

Carmen Heredia-Lopez

Founding Board Member

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Kristen Rolf

Founding Board Member

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Debbie McKeon

Founding Board Member

John Duong

Founding Board Member

Become a Volunteer Today

Nothing compares to professional and personal experience that can help guide the minds of future leaders. Whether you’re a senior executive, an experienced entrepreneur yourself, or an investor, share your expertise as one of our LEAP Leader Mentors! We want to ensure your time is not wasted and provide flexibility to how you may want to engage and volunteer, whether it’s a one-off event or a longer-term consistent connection with an ongoing mentee.

LEAP Leader Signup

Fundraising Campaigns

Launched by a group of mission-driven volunteer leaders bringing philanthropic, investing, and nonprofit expertise, we are raising funds to support various initiatives and hire staff. LEAP seeks to reach self-sufficiency once all its core initiatives are funded so that its earned revenue will fully allow it to scale impact without additional long term philanthropic support within seven years.

General Support

In order to fully execute our mission and scale, LEAP will need to hire additional staff. We operate very lean leveraging volunteers who bring various expertise but will need dedicated staff as we grow.

Capital Connect

We believe existing marketplaces and systems do not effectively nor efficiently reduce biases to democratize access to capital. In partnership with Kind Capital, LEAP seeks to build a tech-enabled, human-powered solution that can be fully self-sustaining without philanthropic support.

LEAP Leaders Network

All our work in connecting mentors to underrepresented entrepreneurs and leaders is currently done manually. We want to build a community that is AI-powered to automate many of the processes and optimize matches while tracking data on progress.

LEAP Library

We would like to aggregate a virtual library of helpful resources that will make it more efficient for entrepreneurs to find the needed information for success. We welcome partners or donors who are willing to add to the library, and fund our purchases and subscriptions to make available to our community pro-bono or at highly discounted rates.