Goldman Sachs has 'about a billion dollars' behind One Million Black Women initiative so far: Exec

DAVOS, Switzerland — Goldman Sachs is putting big money to work as part of its One Million Black Women initiative.

"We launched about a year ago, a $10 billion commitment, on top of that $100 million in philanthropic capital, to improve the lives of at least a million Black women over the next decade," Goldman Sachs Global Head of Corporate Engagement Asahi Pompey told Yahoo Finance Live at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland (video above). "We've made about a billion dollars of investments so far."

Launched in early 2021, Goldman's One Million Black Women initiative aims to advance racial equity and economic opportunity in Black women. In January of this year, the investment bank revealed a suite of 17 new investments, partnerships and grants.

Organizations that have received capital thus far range from those making loans to underserved communities (Chime Solutions) to building multi-family housing units in Georgia (South Meadows).

(Goldman Sachs)

"On the philanthropic side, it's really around a number of things around the pillars of healthcare, education, access to capital, closing the digital divide that we all know is more important than ever," explained Pompey, who. is also president of the Goldman Sachs Foundation. "And so, really making investments in those seven pillars, as well as our philanthropic grants and commitments."

Research from Goldman underscores why it's driving hard to meet its goals on the initiative.

Single Black women are six times less likely to own stocks than single white men. Further, single Black women are nearly 50% less likely to own a home. Goldman's research also shows that a mere 0.5% of single Black women have their own business, a rate that is 24 times lower than single white men.

Black women in the United States are paid 35% less than white men and 15% less than white women.

The bank estimates that closing the earnings gap would add 1.2 million jobs to the economy and add an estimated $300 billion to U.S. GDP per year.

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Brian Sozzi is an editor-at-large and anchor at Yahoo Finance. Follow Sozzi on Twitter @BrianSozzi and on LinkedIn.

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