Michigan Ross Open Road, Geek Squad // MDBBA

To close out our team’s Open Road experience, we did our final stop right in our backyard — Detroit! We were honored to work with and support a revolutionary organization, the Metro Detroit Black Business Alliance (MDBBA), which exists to help Black-owned businesses not only survive, but thrive in Detroit’s growing business environment. MDBBA launched in 2021 with the mission of developing programs and advocating for policies that result in profitable and sustainable Black-owned businesses that are connected to public and private economic opportunities while building trusted relationships. They currently have six unique offerings to make this happen — everything from their Black Business Resource Center to Capital Connect, a technical assistance program helping Black-owned businesses access funding.

From our very first interaction with President/CEO Charity Dean and COO Kai Bowman, we knew that MDBBA was truly making a difference in Metro Detroit, and were thrilled by the opportunity to help them with capacity building. As we all know, securing grants as a nonprofit takes a great deal of effort, so we supported the organization by developing a Master Grant Document to house all important information in one place and streamline the process for applying for grants. Given that MDBBA is only a team of three, we were confident that this project would not only ease the burden on them but also better equip them to secure funding and ultimately achieve their mission.

In addition to the impactful work we were able to do during our time with MDBBA, Charity and Kai made sure we had a good time in Detroit. They got us hip to all the amazing Black-owned restaurants and bars, and even took us out to lunch at a famous deli owned by one of MDBBA’s Board Chairs, Chuck Nolen. While the week went by fast, we are really looking forward to continuing the relationship and supporting more Detroit Black-owned businesses throughout our time at Ross.