As part of its mission to reach a million members each of the Black, Latinx and Hispanic communities in the US by 2023, Facebook has today updated its Elevate website, which provides a range of resources and tools to assist businesses in utilizing Facebook to expand their process.
As explained by Facebook:
“Today we launched a new Elevate site that makes it simple for businesses to find the resources they need to help them succeed. Now, you can easily find information about things like workshops, live events, coaching from Facebook mentors and more on the Elevate platform.”
Facebook first launched its Elevate site back in 2018, in order to ‘accelerate the economic success and impact of entities of color’.
“Elevate serves Black and Latinx and Hispanic small businesses, creators, nonprofits, students and job seekers. It provides education, community, mentorship and empowerment.”
More recently, as a result of the #BlackLivesMatter movement, Facebook has put even more emphasis on assisting minority businesses owners in the US, which has also included the creation of a new $25 million fund to assist Black creators and the addition of various new tools and resources.
The movement itself became even more pressing for Facebook after a group of civil rights activists lead a boycott of Facebook advertisers in July, which reportedly cost the company millions in ad revenue. Facebook met with various civil rights leaders as a result, who were not overly impressed with Facebook’s response to their concerns, but the company has committed to a $200 million funding program for Black-owned businesses. Even if it won’t change its policies around hate speech.
The updated Elevate platform is another part of this commitment, and as noted, it will help Facebook advance its efforts to assist more minority communities in order to maximize their opportunities.
I mean, change in policy would likely be more beneficial, but even so, Facebook is providing more resources that will assist – which is especially important given that Black-owned businesses have been closing at twice the rate of other small businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic.
You can check out the new Facebook Elevate site here.
