Meet Tracey Jarmon
Tracey Jarmon is a strategist, project manager and facilitator with a focus on strengthening nonprofit leaders and organizations to effectively serve communities. She has extensive experience in administration, talent development, event planning and project management in the philanthropic and nonprofit arena.
Prior to joining CapEQ, Tracey served as the Director of Communications, Mobilization and Partnerships at the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, where she worked to accelerate improvement in education and teacher development through national networked improvement community initiatives (i.e., Network to Transform Teaching [NT3]) and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs.
Tracey has also worked in Talent and Organizational Development at Living Cities, where she spearheaded efforts to attract, retain and develop diverse results focused leaders. She has also worked in donor relations, including developing strategic grant-making initiatives for the Community Foundation for the National Capital Region and managing donor-advised fund administration at the Calvert Foundation.
Tracey received a Bachelor of Arts in Linguistics from Georgetown University and a Master of Business Administration from Howard University with a concentration in Supply Chain Management. She is an active member of and volunteer for several DC-area nonprofits.
"My family is from North Mississippi,
and my great-great-grandfather was
the biggest Black landowner in the county.
I can’t imagine what it took to do all that.
He paid bail for some of the white Freedom
Riders who got arrested. He was big on
‘We can all do something’ in our work.
We can never stop fighting, because actually
the same things that he was fighting back
then are the same things my family
members are fighting there today."
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MISSION
Help organizations move from talk to action. Allow organizations to continue to grow without CapEQ.
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VISION
To change how the world does business.
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SEEKING
We are looking for partners from all backgrounds and sectors to join us on the Path to 15|55 to help support and accelerate Black business growth.
Tracey’s Story
Tracey “TJ” Jarmon was born and raised outside of Atlanta, Georgia, by a family who comes from descendents of formerly enslaved people in the Deep South. She has always had a keen awareness of the racial disparity in the U.S., something she witnessed first-hand when she participated in one of Atlanta’s desegregation busing programs and was confronted daily with the economic imbalances in her Black neighborhood as compared to the white neighborhoods on the other side of town.
Tracey now calls Washington, D.C. home. She went to D.C. for college thinking she was going into law but quickly realized every other person in D.C. is a lawyer, so found another path and in the world of philanthropy and socially responsible investing. Tracey doesn’t consider herself a numbers person, but she is fascinated by the “how” behind numbers and knows enough about finances and the business model to be dangerous. She is passionate about bringing stakeholders together to dissect big, thorny ideas and make meaningful changes. At times, she serves as a facilitator or project manager for various philanthropic collaborations.
Tracey recognizes that there are a lot of people working to improve equitable access to capital for marginalized communities. They collectively want to change the behaviors, policies and the practices that are behind how money flows and how decisions are made. This is what drives her to work every day as Chief of Staff at CapEQ. Launched in 2012, CapEQ is a Black woman-owned impact and advisory firm that is composed of a driven, passionate team of strategists, consultants, investors, entrepreneurs, social change agents and operation professionals. Tracey helps lead these pragmatic optimists who daily inspire each other with their insights and expectations.
"We’re breaking away from the traditional path of
business support and development by going even further
and creating alternative financing models; new network
connections; and new opportunities for investment.
Q & A
We recently sat down with Tracey Jarmon to find out more about her passions, her calling and generally dive in deeper to get to know her.
1
ICC has grown to over 250 practitioners and allies, all deploying a range of debt, equity, and real estate instruments to support BIPOC entrepreneurs and catalyze community wealth. How did you discover ICC and what drew you to become a partner?
CapEQ works with investors and companies, so we have a balcony view. We often see some systemic issues that we could be contributing and partnering on, which led us to a couple of things. One of which being the Path to 15|55 initiative, an initiative inspired by research that shows if 15% of Black owned businesses could add at least one new employee, it would add 600,000 jobs and $55 billion in the economy. If we think about ways to close the wealth gap, it is through business ownership. We got together with folks across sectors, who have been working on this for a while and said we’ve been all working on this, it’s not as connected as we would like it to be, how do we make sure that we’re all working on strategies that we know work? That is really how we came to the ICC table because we're trying to work with stakeholders to ensure that we’re removing barriers to capital, changing policies and the narrative. ICC really provided us with that network, which has been invaluable. Working with ICC partners, whether we were introduced to them through ICC or knew them before on other work, is a really great way to get exposure to individuals and organizations who are aligned with our goals.
2
What are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced in your work over the last few years?
Before the murder of George Floyd and the pandemic, we were talking about how to build awareness with the stakeholders who we’re trying to get to change their behavior–about the fact that they should care about Black owned businesses. Then March 2020 happened and people cared a whole lot, and they just didn’t know what to do or how to do it. One of the frustrating things is knowing there is a window, and I hate to say it, but I feel maybe we are coming up on the end of that window of focused attention. It feels like quite the race before this window closes. We ain’t new to this, we true to this. All of us at ICC, we have been doing this work for years, and we are still gonna be here. There’s this element of how we make sure that we capture this moment, but also change it so it is not just a fad. How do we make sure folks who come claiming to know and help are staying in relationship with the community? There are still challenges in raising capital and getting the first investment.
3
Developing alternative business models to the startup status quo has become a central moral challenge of our time. These alternatives want to balance profit and purpose and put a premium on sharing power and resources. Why is getting investments in this alternative model crucial for those who seek it?
We did a report about usable capital, and the three main barriers, and how alternative models are addressing these barriers. One barrier is gaps in the underwriting process. How can we change the underwriting structures and gaps in the capital stack? We are thinking about what types of products are provided, the different types of capital that businesses may need as they grow. We also highlighted the lack of connection to networks as a barrier. A lot of alternative models in addition are providing relationships and technical assistance. Those are the pieces that are being addressed by these models.
4
How do we shift the narrative about the role of capital in BIPOC communities and reframe the perceptions of the risk involved?
One of the things that we’ve been working on at Path to 15|55 and CapEQ, we partnered with the Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN) to develop their racial equity theme. GIIN is an international platform where impact investors from across the globe come together if they care about gender, water, or now racial equity. This is one way to change the narrative, and that is the floor. It is the first time we’ve gone through the process of developing something of this nature with academic rigor of certain case studies. We are really excited about continuing this work. For overall investors, it is really about reframing risk. We are going to bring together folks at financial institutions to really think through what the barriers are to navigate the challenges they have and document those playbooks to encourage other institutions to adopt. Ultimately, we need to change our mindset of how to make this investment work and shift from looking for the negative things.
5
What are the top three pieces of advice you would give to BIPOC entrepreneurs, who are dedicated to both purpose and profit, as they are starting or scaling their business?
None of this is a straight line. I thought I would go to college and get a job, work the same job, like my dad did for 40 years. No, I’ve had numerous jobs. Be confident in your hypothesis, your best guesses and move forward, and then don’t be afraid to iterate or shift based on what you’ve learned as you go down the path. It’s okay that it is a cricket path. Also, build a relationship with a banker before you need one.
6
What is the call to action for investors who seek to promote social justice through investment solutions?
Move the money. Cut the check. There’s been a lot of work and talk and effort, but has any money actually moved? We can help you! Our founder, Tynesia Boyea-Robinson, has a book out called “The Social Impact Advantage” that discusses every business, regardless of sector, has three choices: how you make your money, how you spend your money, and how you treat your people. We at CapEQ are trying to change the mindset, that’s how we change how the world does business in ways that are authentic.
Tracey Jarmon is currently looking
for people who meet the following
criteria to work together.
ABOUT US
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