L'Oréal USA launches Inclusive Beauty Fund with NAACP

By

Robin Driver

Published
Jan 30, 2021

L’Oréal USA has announced that it is teaming up with the NAACP, the country’s largest civil rights organization, to launch the Inclusive Beauty Fund, an initiative offering funding to Black-owned small businesses and Black entrepreneurs and professional services operating in the national beauty industry.

 
The fund’s first round of financing will make 30 one-time grants of $10,000 each available to all kinds of beauty businesses, including salons, spas, barber shops, stylists, makeup artists, entrepreneurs, startup founders, haircare specialists, and beauty schools.
 
Along with this funding, L’Oréal USA said that it will also provide grantees with professional mentorship and business development support. This will include the participation of executives from the company’s portfolio of beauty brands, as well as from its professional beauty products distributor, SalonCentric

“As the leading beauty company in the United States, we believe that we have a responsibility to invest in the small business owners and entrepreneurs who are the lifeblood of our dynamic beauty industry,” said L’Oréal USA’s chief diversity & inclusion officer, Angela Guy, in a release.
 
“We are proud to team up with the NAACP to advance our shared mission of creating a more inclusive and equitable world during this time of great economic vulnerability for so many,” added Guy. “We hope the Inclusive Beauty Fund will introduce us to entrepreneurs in the beauty industry that we can build strong relationships with well into the future.”
 
According to L’Oréal USA, the Inclusive Beauty Fund is just one part of a wider commitment to supporting the NAACP, a partnership which will lead to further initiatives in the future.  
 
The fund is backed by L’Oréal USA’s recently created Diversity & Inclusion Advisory Board, which is made up of more than 20 internal and external stakeholders.
 
The NAACP will work in collaboration with small business platform Hello Alice to administer applications for the fund. Applications are open now on the Hello Alice platform and will close on February 18, 2021.