#Roommates, since we are currently in the season of giving, it’s very fitting that popular business rating system Yelp is putting its money where its mouth is. Yelp recently confirmed that it plans to move $10 million of its current cash reserves into Black-owned banks—which is a big step for such a prominent company.
@CNN reports, Yelp just announced plans to transfer $10 million of its own cash into Black-owned financial institutions that specialize in lending to underserved communities. The decision makes Yelp one of the latest corporations to increase its support for minority-owned banks in 2020 in the aftermath of the murder George Floyd, which compelled the business world to do more to combat institutional racism and inequality. Yelp stated that it’s moving a total of $10 million into three Black-owned banks: Broadway Federal Bank in Los Angeles, Carver Federal Savings Bank in New York City and Citizens Savings Bank and Trust Company in Nashville.
The company said it deposited $2.5 million with Carver Federal to advance the bank’s mission of supporting minority and women-owned business enterprises and empowering low- to moderate-income communities. Citizens Savings received another $2.5 million from Yelp to advance the bank’s support of small businesses and financial literacy in the Tennessee cities of Nashville and Memphis. The remaining $5 million was deposited into Broadway Federal to fund multi-family housing lending and affordable housing for low and moderate-income communities in the Los Angeles metro area.
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“We recognize that the distribution of financial capital is not equitable in the United States, particularly in Black communities,” Yelp CFO David Schwarzbach said in a written statement. “And we know we have a role to play to support a more equitable financial system.”
Additionally, Yelp said its Black, Latinx, and Native American workforce has grown by 13.6% from 2019. Its total head count of Black, Latinx and Native American managers has increased by about 13% from last year.
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