Elizabeth L. Carter, Esq., LLC

10/01/2023

Congratulations to (KOCO) KENWOOD-OAKLAND COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION for this amazing community development win! 🙌🏾

09/11/2023

Together we rebuild! 💪🏾

08/29/2023

08/13/2023

Legendary summer nights w/ ☀️

06/30/2023

Black Metropolis. An oasis, if you will. Working with .build to rebuild Chicago for and by the community. 💪🏾
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05/02/2023

ATTENTION: residents and friends of Chicago’s Roseland neighborhood and the 9th ward

This Thursday, May 4th, we will be hosting a community design event focused on community-wealth building and inclusive redevelopment opportunities at the historic Roseland Theater Building (and nearby adjacent vacant land).

Please join us and our supporting partners from 5:30 pm – 7:30 pm at the Woodson Regional Library Auditorium located at 9525 S. Halsted St., Chicago, IL to express your ideas and vision for Roseland.

Refreshments will be provided! We hope to see you there!

Please take a minute to fill in the following info

04/29/2023

We were selected through the City of Chicago ‘s RFQ process to develop the Historic Roseland Theatre Building and adjacent vacant site. This proposed 60,000 sq ft. development is part of our community-wealth building and inclusive redevelopment work.

You want to know what the icing on the cake is? Our Managing Member Elizabeth L. Carter, Esq. is a resident of the area! This is how you revamp the Development landscape!

Rarely, do you see resident, Black women -led redevelopment projects occurring in historically disinvested Black communities like Roseland/West Pullman, Chicago (“the Wild 100s”)

Learn more at https://lnkd.in/gBvKJNGg

03/24/2023

“The number of women starting businesses is increasing every year and now exceeds male-led businesses. A report from revealed that there are 11.3 million women-owned businesses in the U.S., generating more than $1.6 trillion in revenue annually, and yet they still do not have the same access to capital. In fact, around 40% of women business owners applying for funding will not obtain it, hindering their ability to grow and scale.

The Rogue Women’s Fund also found that women-led startups are five times more likely to become billion-dollar companies compared to male-led businesses. Female-led startups also generate more revenue, achieving more revenue per dollar invested compared to men….

[Yet, at] every level, there is a lack of gender diversity, from the investment tables to the entrepreneurs receiving funding. A lack of access to financial resources, networking and support means that female founders and their business successes now equate to a $3 trillion…”

Read more on our LinkedIn. Link in bio.

If you are a woman-owned or led business or current or aspiring attorney, explore our website and send us a message today! We are also offering 50% off consultations to those who send us “Happy Women’s History Month” to [email protected].

03/23/2023

Interested in Black Women’s History!? Then we encourage you to check out an article we wrote on one of our favorite Black women cooperative leaders whose shoulders we stand on today: Fannie Lou Hamer!

“In 1969, [Fannie Lou] Hamer founded the Freedom Farm Cooperative. With the help of a $10,000 donation from a charitable organization based in Wisconsin, she purchased 40 acres of prime land in the Mississippi Delta. Co-op membership dues were $1 a month. Although only 30 families could afford membership dues, another 1,500 families belonged to the Freedom Farm by name.

Using donated funds, the co-op purchased an additional 640 acres in 1970, and started a “pig bank.” Hamer had conceived of a “pig bank” as a basis for building out the farm cooperative. The program was established in association with the National Council of Negro Women, which purchased and donated 55 pigs.”

Read more about HerStory and her cooperative organization on the articles page of our website.

03/22/2023

Last year we meet with Angela Dawson of (the first and only national agricultural collective) to discuss her and her organization's experiences as a Black-founded and BIPOC cooperative serving organization that supports farmers using alternative means and institutions.

During our interview, she shared the critical need for Black social entrepreneurs and organizations to have culturally representative legal support. The lack of culturally representative legal support led to a decline in her organization’s growth, capital, and resources during a time of high cooperative membership interest.

Her organization particularly entered investment contracts with investors who weren’t mission and valued-aligned and in some cases, extractive of 40 Acre Co-op’s value, knowledge, and assets. This resulted in her organization having to pause membership acceptance and investments.

With the proper culturally representative legal support, her organization would have raised more capital and avoided pitfalls that slowed her organization’s growth, said Dawson.

Listen to more of her perspective at “ : Angela Dawson of 40 Acre Co-op” on , and contribute to our efforts to increase culturally representative legal support on our Legal Fund website page.

03/17/2023

Our client, Bridging the Gap Development, was recently featured in a The New York Times] article focused on the barriers that Black and Latino real estate developers experience in the real estate industry in addition to the solutions they are currently implementing in response.

“Derrick Tillman, 42, grew up in Pittsburgh in Section 8 housing that he described as ‘substandard.’ He recalls his mother and younger brothers being displaced when a new owner came in and doubled the rent. And the same thing happened to him in his first apartment.

‘Just seeing developers kind of come into our community and not really respect or honor those that were there, I knew there was a better way,’ he said.

In 2006, Mr. Tillman co-founded Bridging the Gap Development, which focuses on equitable community real estate development, like his company’s 36-unit Miller Street Apartments, an affordable housing project in the Hill District, a predominantly Black neighborhood of Pittsburgh." The New York Times]

Read more at “‘Excuse After Excuse’: Black and Latino Developers Face Barriers to Success” by Colette Coleman of the New York Times.

03/16/2023

Elizabeth L. Carter, Esq., LLC is a proud member of the Inclusive Capital Collective (ICC) - a collective of community fund managers and entrepreneurial technical assistance providers creating, pooling, and redistributing inclusive and equitable capital to BIPOC communities.

Check out our Founder and Managing Attorney’s membership profile on the ICC website to learn more about our work and thoughts on capital, investments and entrepreneurship in the BIPOC community.

You can also get involved in ICC by visiting https://www.inclusive-capital.us/get-involved.