Economic Empowerment at the Nexus of Racial and Gender Equality
Text on screen: PIMCO
Footer Overlay: PIMCO provides services only to qualified institutions, financial intermediaries and institutional investors. This is not an offer to any person in any jurisdiction where unlawful or unauthorized.
Text on screen: Nathaniel Brown, Director of the PIMCO Foundation
Nate Brown: Today I have the pleasure of introducing two incredible leaders — Sonya Passi, founder and CEO of FreeFrom, and Shelly Omilàdè Bell, we call her Omi, founder and CEO of Black Girl Ventures. Both are visionary leaders who are uncompromising in their pursuit of equality.
We'll take a moment to learn about both of these leaders and their organizations. Omi, let's start with you.
Text on screen: Shelly Omilade, Founder and CEO, Black Girl Ventures
Shelly Omilade Bell: At Black Girl Ventures, we work to create access to capital, capacity, and community for black and brown women founders.
Images on screen: Black Girl Ventures events
We have unique programming centered around Black history, actually, so our pitch program is where we include the community in donating to Black or Brown founders. And it actually comes from during the Great Migration, where Black people were unable to pay their rent due to discrimination. And so they threw these great parties in their homes to actually use the admission fees to pay their rent.
And so we're carrying that history through and noticing that as Black and Brown women founders were starting businesses at six times the national average, yet receiving less than 1 percent of venture capital, we realized that legacy and business growth is a part of the community's vulnerability and wanted to make that stronger.
Images on screen: Black Girl Ventures events
With our fellowship program, we also work in communities to help people map their local ecosystems. Which then addresses some of the disparities in being locked out of information that other people may have historically had access to. And then we have our next-gen program, which is early access to entrepreneurship, where we're working with HBCUs to give student visionaries an opportunity to get their ideas funded and to launch them. So the early access to entrepreneurship, creating community and navigation locally to find resources, and through access to capital we bring these together, and you have Black Girl Ventures.
Nate Brown: Sonya, let's pivot to you.
Text on screen: Sonya Passi, Founder and CEO, FreeFrom
Sonya Passi: FreeFrom is a national organization on a mission to create pathways to economic security, with and for survivors of gender-based violence. 1 in 2 women, and 1 in 2 trans folks in the US will experience intimate partner violence, specifically, in their lifetime. And when you're talking about 1 in 2, 1 in 4, you're really talking about a national crisis. And the number one obstacle to safety for survivors is financial insecurity.
Images on screen: FreeFrom events
Everything that FreeFrom does is to interrupt this nexus between gender-based violence and economic security.
We have a cash assistance program for survivors, where we give folks no-strings-attached cash to spend as they needto support their safety. We have a savings matching program, where we are supporting survivors in building an emergency savings net to support their long-term safety. We have a social enterprise gifted by from FreeFrom. It is an online store, exclusively selling products made by survivor-owned businesses, and employing survivors
Images on screen: FreeFrom events
to fully operate the store. We do policy work at a federal level, state level.
We work with employers to implement better policies to support employees who are experiencing intimate partner violence. We work with banks. And really want to shift our society's response from this short-term crisis intervention to understanding that this is a structural, economic problem that really requires every pillar of our society to do their part.
Images on screen: FreeFrom events
And, that really understands that we are not going to be able to live in a world free from violence, unless we understand the complexity of the situation, and we are doing more than just offering short-term relief at a moment of acute crisis.
Text on screen: For more insights and information, visit pimco.com Text on screen: PIMCO
DISCLOSURE
This material contains the opinions of the manager and such opinions are subject to change without notice. This material has been distributed for informational purposes only and should not be considered as investment advice or a recommendation of any particular security, strategy or investment product. Information contained herein has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable, but not guaranteed.
PIMCO as a general matter provides services to qualified institutions, financial intermediaries and institutional investors. Individual investors should contact their own financial professional to determine the most appropriate investment options for their financial situation. This is not an offer to any person in any jurisdiction where unlawful or unauthorized. | Pacific Investment Management Company LLC, 650 Newport Center Drive, Newport Beach, CA 92660 is regulated by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission.| PIMCO Europe Ltd (Company No. 2604517) is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (12 Endeavour Square, London E20 1JN) in the UK. The services provided by PIMCO Europe Ltd are not available to retail investors, who should not rely on this communication but contact their financial adviser. | PIMCO Europe GmbH (Company No. 192083, Seidlstr. 24-24a, 80335 Munich, Germany), PIMCO Europe GmbH Italian Branch (Company No. 10005170963), PIMCO Europe GmbH Irish Branch (Company No. 909462), PIMCO Europe GmbH UK Branch (Company No. 2604517) and PIMCO Europe GmbH Spanish Branch (N.I.F. W2765338E) are authorised and regulated by the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) (Marie- Curie-Str. 24-28, 60439 Frankfurt am Main) in Germany in accordance with Section 15 of the German Securities Institutions Act (WpIG). The Italian Branch, Irish Branch, UK Branch and Spanish Branch are additionally supervised by: (1) Italian Branch: the Commissione Nazionale per le Società e la Borsa (CONSOB) in accordance with Article 27 of the Italian Consolidated Financial Act; (2) Irish Branch: the Central Bank of Ireland in accordance with Regulation 43 of the European Union (Markets in Financial Instruments) Regulations 2017, as amended; (3) UK Branch: the Financial Conduct Authority; and (4) Spanish Branch: the Comisión Nacional del Mercado de Valores (CNMV) in accordance with obligations stipulated in articles 168 and 203 to 224, as well as obligations contained in Tile V, Section I of the Law on the Securities Market (LSM) and in articles 111, 114 and 117 of Royal Decree 217/2008, respectively. The services provided by PIMCO Europe GmbH are available only to professional clients as defined in Section 67 para. 2 German Securities Trading Act (WpHG). They are not available to individual investors, who should not rely on this communication.| PIMCO (Schweiz) GmbH (registered in Switzerland, Company No. CH-020.4.038.582-2). The services provided by PIMCO (Schweiz) GmbH are not available to retail investors, who should not rely on this communication but contact their financial adviser. | PIMCO Asia Pte Ltd (Registration No. 199804652K) is regulated by the Monetary Authority of Singapore as a holder of a capital markets services licence and an exempt financial adviser. The asset management services and investment products are not available to persons where provision of such services and products is unauthorised. | PIMCO Asia Limited is licensed by the Securities and Futures Commission for Types 1, 4 and 9 regulated activities under the Securities and Futures Ordinance. PIMCO Asia Limited is registered as a cross-border discretionary investment manager with the Financial Supervisory Commission of Korea (Registration No. 08-02-307). The asset management services and investment products are not available to persons where provision of such services and products is unauthorised. | PIMCO Investment Management (Shanghai) Limited Unit 3638-39, Phase II Shanghai IFC, 8 Century Avenue, Pilot Free Trade Zone, Shanghai, 200120, China (Unified social credit code: 91310115MA1K41MU72) is registered with Asset Management Association of China as Private Fund Manager (Registration No. P1071502, Type: Other) | PIMCO Australia Pty Ltd ABN 54 084 280 508, AFSL 246862. This publication has been prepared without taking into account the objectives, financial situation or needs of investors. Before making an investment decision, investors should obtain professional advice and consider whether the information contained herein is appropriate having regard to their objectives, financial situation and needs. | PIMCO Japan Ltd, Financial Instruments Business Registration Number is Director of Kanto Local Finance Bureau (Financial Instruments Firm) No. 382. PIMCO Japan Ltd is a member of Japan Investment Advisers Association, The Investment Trusts Association, Japan and Type II Financial Instruments Firms Association. All investments contain risk. There is no guarantee that the principal amount of the investment will be preserved, or that a certain return will be realized; the investment could suffer a loss. All profits and losses incur to the investor. The amounts, maximum amounts and calculation methodologies of each type of fee and expense and their total amounts will vary depending on the investment strategy, the status of investment performance, period of management and outstanding balance of assets and thus such fees and expenses cannot be set forth herein. | PIMCO Taiwan Limited is managed and operated independently. The reference number of business license of the company approved by the competent authority is (110) Jin Guan Tou Gu Xin Zi No. 020. 40F., No.68, Sec. 5, Zhongxiao E. Rd., Xinyi Dist., Taipei City 110, Taiwan (R.O.C.). Tel: +886 2 8729-5500. | PIMCO Canada Corp. (199 Bay Street, Suite 2050, Commerce Court Station, P.O. Box 363, Toronto, ON, M5L 1G2) services and products may only be available in certain provinces or territories of Canada and only through dealers authorized for that purpose. | PIMCO Latin America Av. Brigadeiro Faria Lima 3477, Torre A, 5° andar São Paulo, Brazil 04538-133. | No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form, or referred to in any other publication, without express written permission. PIMCO is a trademark of Allianz Asset Management of America L.P. in the United States and throughout the world. ©2022, PIMCO.
CMR2022-0401-2108607