Operation HOPE CEO and founder John Hope Bryant announced a massive $1.8 million donation to 70 Albany State University graduates who want to pursue entrepreneurship, WALB reports.
Bryant delivered the news as he spoke as the commencement speaker at the HBCU’s fall graduation on Dec. 14 in Albany, Georgia.
Each graduate will receive $25,000 along with a “special forces team” to assist them in getting their businesses off the ground: “a free domain name that they own, a free website that they own, a free payment system set up that they own, a Shopify account for e-commerce, and all the banking support.”
While Bryant isn’t an Albany State alumnus, his philanthropic work pushes toward the need for more Black-owned businesses in the world.
“In every community, there’s a Steve Jobs. In every community, there’s an Oprah Winfrey. In every community, there’s a hero waiting to be born, but somebody’s got to pull that out of this community and shine a light on them,” Bryant said. “I mean, that’s really the whole point of power. You gather it so you give it away.”
All of the graduates will receive financial support and payment systems free of charge, along with a free business plan and time to sit down with both a lawyer and accountant.
“They will also get a business manager and an e-commerce executive,” Bryant added.
Historically Black colleges and universities like Albany State are known to play a crucial role in producing Black business owners and entrepreneurs. A 2022 report from global management consulting firm McKinsey & Company found there is an opportunity for HBCUs to “help train and develop the next generation of Black entrepreneurs and to help Black entrepreneurs scale up and sustain businesses in their communities,” according to Forbes.
It was revealed that other venture capitalist firms like Andreessen Horowitz and SoftBank “made multimillion-dollar pledges to invest in Black entrepreneurs.”
The opportunity to uplift the next generation of entrepreneurs is one of the reasons Dr. Lawrence M. Drake, II, ASU’s interim president, invited Bryant to speak at the commencement ceremonies. He said there was a time in his life when no one believed or invested in him.
“John and I are good friends. We’ve known each other for a while. I also thought he could relate to the audience effectively. He and I both share a journey that’s similar to many of those students that are sitting there today,” Drake said. “So when we were looking for the kind of person that we wanted to ignite and be a person that our scholars would remember, John certainly came to mind.”
There is still work to be done on the criteria to determine which Albany grads will receive the grant; however, GPA, business goals, and an essay will be taken into consideration. The criteria will be confirmed after the holiday break.
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