Minnesota is a state in the United States with a reputation for progressive politics. Many Minnesotans thus have been surprised to learn that Minnesota, and the Minneapolis and St. Paul (Twin Cities) metropolitan area in particular, have some of the worst racial inequalities in the country. These disparities are apparent across a range of indicators, including employment, household income and household wealth. Meanwhile, a bright spot has been minority-owned business growth at a higher rate than white-owned business growth, although minority-owned businesses have on average lesser sales and capitalization. In addition, minority-owned businesses in comparison with white-owned businesses disproportionately hire employees of color. Support for minority-owned businesses thus represents an important approach to addressing severe income inequality.
This case study tracks a collaborative effort on the part of seven nonprofit organizations to change the social field (or ecosystem) of support for entrepreneurs of color and minority-owned businesses in the region. The collaboration is called the Minority Business Development Cohort (MBDC). Their effort potentially represents one of the most effective ways of helping address some of the serious inequalities that exist between majority and minority communities. The MBDC's work is also one of the most promising ways of fostering economic growth in the state as a whole.
The case study traces the creation of the cohort from its genesis as an idea in 2014 through a number of overlapping stages. After receiving a grant from a philanthropic foundation, the cohort initially engaged in over a year’s worth of trust building activities. Later it launched four cross-organizational work groups focused on: building a common IT intake and referral platform; developing a common marketing and branding approach; creating major new credit and loan instruments; and establishing shared performance metrics. The cohort also developed guiding principles and a Memorandum of Understanding signed by all member organizations. Recently the group has collaborated on fundraising and advocacy designed to change the way philanthropic foundations, banks, other business, governments, and public policy makers approach support for minority-owned businesses.
The data on which the case study is built includes: archival data; monthly interviews and cognitive maps tracing the thinking of the chief initiator and champion of the MBDC effort (25 plus maps to date); periodic interviews of all of the MBDC CEOs and many of their staff members; periodic interviews of a number of other key stakeholders; and participant observation of CEO and work group meetings. The result is a very rich longitudinal data set and narrative of change.
Connecting the study of collaborations: integrating separate case studies into a collectiv
