For the first time, the Fifteen Percent Pledge will host its third annual fundraising gala in Los Angeles and will award a dedicated beauty grant, for $100,000, sponsored by Sephora.

The event, which has been held in New York since its inception, will take place on Feb. 3 at Paramount Studios. This year, the gala — the largest fundraiser for the nonprofit, which Brother Vellies founder Aurora James launched in 2020 following the murder of George Floyd — will also serve as the opening night of a two-day long shopping event (sponsored by Citi and at the same venue) that’s open to the public. It will also recognise actress and Pattern beauty founder and CEO Tracee Ellis Ross with a “Trailblazer Award.”

Like many organisations championing diversity, the Pledge — which today has a dozen or so employees working out of offices in New York and Los Angeles — has had to shoulder a particularly challenging climate for diversity initiatives over the past year. Its response, James said, has been to double down on its goals.

“2024 is going to be a really critical year in this country… just in terms of how we’re thinking about allocating support for people of colour especially given the Supreme Court decision on affirmative action,” she said. “So for us, it’s really about a convening of people that are trying to close the racial wealth gap, and believe in programmatic support in order to do that.”

Despite what some insiders have described as an industry-wide stalling of diversity initiatives, James said the nonprofit’s pledge takers (which include Nordstrom, Victoria’s Secret and The Gap) have “continued to stand by doing this work.”

“Ultimately, the work we do is generative and profitable and good business,” she said. “Pursuing a business strategy that’s innovative and profitable is really the focus here. So that’s not changing for us or our Pledge takers.”

The gala will bring back its Google-sponsored grants, which award $200,000 to one Black business owner, and $35,000 and $15,000 to two runner-ups, respectively. Staffers at The Pledge narrowed down the grant applicants to a list of 10 — based on product uniqueness, business model, profitability and community impact, among other considerations. On the organisation’s website, the general public votes to whittle that down to three finalists. Gala attendees will cast their votes to rank the top 3 during the event. The Sephora prize will also be awarded the night of the gala.

That Sephora — the first organisation to sign the Pledge’s call to action and aim to dedicate 15 percent of its shelf space to Black-owned brands — opted to sponsor an award this year is a testament to the fiscal value of retailers’ diversifying their product assortment, James said.

“Anything that we can kind of do to get some of these entrepreneurs access to capital is absolutely critical,” she said. “If you look at the success of Black-owned brands like Topicals, Eadem, Danessa Myricks… they’re crushing it — giving other people the opportunity to get their hat in the ring is great.”

In the year ahead, the nonprofit plans to launch a Citi-sponsored “virtual microsite” where consumers will be able to shop Black brands online and an in-person event for businesses in the Business Equity Community, the Pledge’s directory of over 5,000 Black-owned businesses ranging from tiny makeup start-ups to established fashion labels.