The Madison Black Chamber of Commerce, a nonprofit that provides services to Black-owned businesses and celebrates Black business excellence, has run out of funding and is looking for new support, according to its president, Camille Carter.
The chamber, which held its annual Eras Ball on Thursday night at the Monona Terrace, has exhausted funding from various grant sources, including a $3.6 million American Rescue Plan Act grant from the COVID era, which was used to build program and operational capacity.
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However, a lack of continuing federal support, both for the chamber and its nonprofit partners, has placed the organization in a position where it has to pivot in order to sustain that capacity, Carter said.
At the moment, none of the chamber’s remaining three employees are getting paid a salary or benefits.
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“It’s hard to do this kind of work without having people,” Carter said. “What we did last night, it looks good and we’re doing our job, but I couldn’t do anything like that without people and it’s the people that are committed to the work, myself included.
“My operations team and people that connect with these business owners and talk to them and find out what they’re doing and how we can connect them with other individuals to help them to accomplish their goals, that takes people,” she said. “So, when there’s no salary or no operational capacity, that gets hard.”
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The Madison Black Chamber of Commerce is located in the Black Business Hub, 2352 S. Park S., Suite 214, in Madison. Individuals, businesses and other organizations interested in supporting the chamber can call (608) 729-1238.
