Black Student Fund

Forbright Bank prides itself on working with strong partners in the community. One such partnership is with the Black Student Fund, a nonprofit organization in the Washington, DC area supporting K-12 Black students since 1964.

Forbright and the Black Student Fund hosted the second annual Sustainable Solutions Summit from June 24-28, 2024 in Chevy Chase, Maryland. Students came together to learn from experts about sustainability and entrepreneurship and were challenged to develop their own sustainable business plans.

The people who spearheaded this yearly event include Natalie Chapman, Forbright’s Director of Community Impact and Leroy Nesbitt, the Executive Director of the Black Student Fund. Chapman and Nesbitt came together two years ago to create a program that tailored itself to what students were interested in, eventually circling in on environmental issues and entrepreneurship.

This year, nearly 30 students attended the summit, creating business plans in areas like sustainable fashion, clean water, and electric vehicles. Speakers also came to help students learn about the process of sustainable entrepreneurship including CEOs and founders of organizations with an environmental business focus.

None of this would have been possible without both organizations working together.

“It’s actually much more than a partnership; it’s a collaboration. And I think that’s what has made this successful,” said Natalie Chapman of Forbright Bank. “Obviously, Black Student Fund has a huge network across the DMV and even beyond, so they’re bringing that to the table, and then we as a bank are bringing our team’s knowledge of finance, and marketing, and leadership skills.”

When Chapman took on the Director of Community Impact role in 2022, she identified the Black Student Fund as a partnership that could be further aligned with the banks’ sustainability and community focuses. Nesbitt and Chapman started talking, and the rest is history.

“My theory is you come together around a problem to collaborate on the problem, and in doing so you build a relationship, you get to know the person, you get to know the entity, the organizations come to know each other and connect, and then from that you collaborate on a project,” said Leroy Nesbitt of Black Student Fund.

Both Chapman and Nesbitt emphasize the importance of collaboration in identifying problems and actualizing change.

In this case, Forbright Bank and the Black Student Fund came together to provide summer programming for high school students. And it certainly won’t be a one (or two) time thing. Both Nesbitt and Chapman aspire to continue the program and potentially grow it.

Preparing young people–a generation that is going to have to combat these issues–to have personal success in the business sphere while simultaneously saving the planet is the true aim of this wonderful collaboration.

“That’s why we’re all here is the students. It’s not about us. We want this to be a meaningful program for them that inspires them to consider the world in a different light and give them windows into what they could do or could be,” Chapman said.