Q & A

We recently sat down with Stephanie Swepson - Twitty to find out more about her passions, her calling and generally dive in deeper to get to know her.

2

What are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced in your work over the last few years?

I was working alongside NCACDC (NC Association of Community Development Corporations) on a shared mission to build assets and create wealth, specifically focused on a EMSDC project. We were attempting to improve a blighted and slummed section of Asheville that was once a thriving area. This area was known as the Black Wall Street of Western North Carolina, and it had once boasted about 72 conventional residences and about 50 thriving small businesses, predominantly African American led and operated. By the time I came on the scene, they were down to two dilapidated buildings.

It became a moral imperative to take the project to fruition to return to the community some semblance of the rich heritage of Eagle Market Sts. In 2010, help came in the form of another nonprofit agency, Mountain Housing Opportunities Incorporated (MHO). Together the agencies agreed to co-develop Eagle Market, LLC. Together EMSDC and MHO co-own a block of real estate in downtown Asheville, and we continue working to get the once thriving, predominantly BIPOC  district back up  to its former vibrancy.

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Developing alternative business models to the startup status quo has become a central moral challenge of our time. These alternatives want to balance profit and purpose and put a premium on sharing power and resources. Why is getting investments in this alternative model crucial for those who seek it?

Part of the challenge for BIPOC and women-owned businesses is that they often don't have friends and family support. This was the most significant impetus for creating the Community Equity Fund, where we infuse BIPOC and women-owned businesses with pure equity versus debt. We give them a 24-month period of grace where they don't have to make interest bearing or principal payments. They have  the use of our funds to help them  grow their revenues and become job creators, or to buy a greater share of the market that will lead them to become job creators. Our product is an “equity with repay” infusion.

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How do we shift the narrative about the role of capital in BIPOC communities and reframe the perceptions of the risk involved?

There are a myriad of things that I could point to, but the main one is looking at success and what success would be for us [the BIPOC community], and understanding that it might not be the same for a majority of mainstream businesses. We need that person who says, “I really do understand that I'm entitled, that I've spent my whole life being entitled and that by virtue of that, someone else hasn't been able to have an equitable seat at the table. Even though I know that the norms of society say that I'll be taking a risk by partnering with that community, that business or that individual, I'm willing to put my trust in them and know that they will be successful.” It takes that small start, and it's discipleship, too–it's me making a disciple out of the next person, who then makes a disciple out of the next person. (Matthew 28:19-20)

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What are the top three pieces of  advice you would give to BIPOC entrepreneurs, who are dedicated to both purpose and profit, as they are starting or scaling their business?

I would say read My Grandmother's Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies. It talks about how trauma is so deep-seated in our country that scientists believe it is in our DNA, and we may pass our lived experience – our trauma – onto our children, who will pass it on to their children, and so on. This remains a huge barrier to overcome. We’ve become numb to it, this trauma. Another hurdle we continue to face is institutional and systemic racism. The advice I would give is to point it out when you have the opportunity. Don’t allow it to go unchecked. It’s a difficult conversation sometimes, but it has to happen.

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What is the call to action for investors who seek to promote social justice through investment solutions?

Institutionally in this country, over time, we built systems that excluded certain people. I do not think capitalism is the worst thing that could ever happen to us. I think that it can work. What isn't good about it, is that it allows for 2% of the country to amass all the wealth and have all the benefits while 98% of the country does not. When I think about that, I think about what I can do as a small organization. We can look at what we see as a challenge, that we are often unable to rely on friends and family for startup capital, and we can try and develop something to answer for that.