Your Latino business idea could be worth 10K

Despite Latino small businesses' significant contributions and growth to the U.S. economy in recent years, Latino Entrepreneurship often faces unique social and economic challenges. To ease some of these challenges and support Latinos with their business journey, the Hispanic Heritage Foundation (HHF) has partnered with AT&T to launch the Grow Your Chispa Program, an initiative that offers grants to Latino entrepreneurs who with their businesses, look to directly impact their communities and also paved the way for future generations.

By providing small business grants, AT&T and HHF hope to not only alleviate financial burdens but also foster a support system that encourages entrepreneurship and helps small businesses thrive. Antonio Tijerino, president and chief executive officer of the Hispanic Heritage Foundation,  said these grants are different from other types of entrepreneurship programs or grants because they aim to support new ideas, ideas that according to Tijerino, “oftentimes don't get fomented, that don't get worked on, because of lack in investment.” 

“This is a program that combines the idea of social impact and new and exploding ideas,” Tijerino told CALÒ NEWS. “That's why we decided to name this Grow Your Chispa Program. The chispa is a spark of an idea that one might have, and we want to support those ideas, those efforts that people are coming up with, because they are going to know how to impact their communities better than we can ever know.” 

One of the five $10,000 grants will be awarded to a Latino in Los Angeles, the remaining grants will be given to each of the following cities: Dallas, Miami, Houston and Phoenix, places where there is a high number of Latinos. 

According to the 2023 report by the Stanford Latino Entrepreneurship Initiative (SLEI), the United States is currently home to more than 62.5 million Latinos. With an economic output of $2.8 trillion, there are approximately 5 million Latino-owned businesses across the U.S., generating more than $800 billion in annual revenue. Although there is a growing number of Latino businesses, Tijerino believes a small business’s root problem is having access to capital. 

“When [Latinos] come to this country,  we're entrepreneurial from the time we get here. When you see somebody on a strip selling flowers or selling fruit, that's entrepreneurialism. It’s the way that we can be self-sufficient, a way that we can be self-reliant and that's what we want to support,”  Tijerino said. “We need to support small businesses for our country to move forward because our entire small business ecosystem is really dependent on the Latino community.”

Since its establishment by the White House in 1988, the HHF has worked to connect and prepare Latinos in six areas of focus: education, workforce, social impact, justice and culture through leadership. With the support of donors and creative partnerships, like that of AT&T, HHF hopes to continue to help Latinos across the country through innovative programs like the Grow Your Chispa Program.  

According to Celeste Carrasco, director of federal public affairs at AT&T, the Grow Your Chispa Programs began as a conversation at the end of 2023. “When this idea came about internally I just said we need to pitch this to [Tijerino] to see if this aligns with any of the ideas and values HHF already has” Carrasco told CALÒ NEWS. 

Since the start of  2020, there has been a lasting surge in business applications and startups in the county. Average monthly business applications were 50% higher in 2021-2023 than in 2018-2019, and nearly 25% of all new entrepreneurs in 2021 were Latino, according to the U.S. Department of Treasury. Carrasco said she believes many Latinos oftentimes do not apply monetary programs like this because of fear, doubts, or imposter syndrome. “Someone's idea may be the idea that changes an entire community. We want to make sure that Latinos are getting the same opportunities as the next person,” she said. 

The UCLA Latino Policy and Politics Institute along with the California Latino Legislative Caucus reported in 2023, that Latino-owned businesses had lower revenues than white-owned businesses. “Only 22% of LOBs in California earned receipts of $1 million or more in 2020, compared to 31% of white-owned firms. Additionally, Latino-owned firms in California generated similar earnings as Latino-owned firms nationally,” stated the survey overview. 

More than alleviating the immediate financial challenges of beginning a small business, these grants are designed to support the ongoing process of maintaining a small business. Tijerino said that by fostering entrepreneurship, encouraging growth, and helping small businesses thrive, HHF looks to be a support system for the 5 Latino winners of these grants. 

He understands that initiating a business is only the beginning of a journey. “It's not just getting that grant, we want to build a cohort made up of the grantees to make sure they are getting access to additional resources, support in filling out applications or documentation for their businesses, and also that they get connected to other small businesses so that then there's this mentoring piece to it and also building social capital within the entrepreneurship base,” Tijerino said.  

Carrasco and Tijerino both hope that Grow Your Chispa will be an ongoing program done every year. “Please apply. I think we are guilty of sometimes rejecting ourselves before we even get started. We all bring value to the table, it is important for all of us to understand that,” Carrasco said. 

Los Angeles Latino entrepreneurs can apply for the grant here. The last day to apply is February 16. Grant recipients will be announced in March.