Rewind to April 2021: We’d just committed to spending $2 billion with Black-owned businesses by 2025. The goal: create more equitable and welcoming experiences for our Black guests, and use the full impact of our company’s size, scale and resources to create economic opportunity for Black-owned businesses here at Target and beyond. We pledged to not only grow the number of Black-owned brands available in our stores and online, but also to spend more with Black-owned suppliers and build new resources for Black entrepreneurs. And we said we’d do it while staying transparent about our progress along the way.
Fast forward to today and we’re on track to meet our goals. Plus, we’re launching a new media fund initiative through our in-house media company, Roundel. (More on that below.) Compared to 2020, we’ve increased the amount of money we’ve spent with Black-owned companies and suppliers by more than 50%, and we’ve doubled the number of Black-owned brands across our assortment to more than 100. And our support extends beyond getting more Black brands on our shelves: We also launched Forward Founders, Target’s new accelerator program designed to help early-stage Black-owned and diverse businesses increase their potential to be the next wave of wealth-building companies.
Here’s a closer look at what we’ve accomplished, plus a peek at what’s next:
Expanding our efforts with a new space for diverse brands to tell their stories
As we look to the work ahead, we’re proud to introduce a new initiative to take our efforts even further: the Roundel Media Fund. Designed to offset the cost of marketing programs at Target, the new fund will award more than $25 million in media to Black, Indigenous and people of color (BIPOC) brands by 2025. The Fund will allow businesses to tap into paid media through Roundel at a fraction of the cost while receiving the same benefits and reach as a typical marketing program. It’s yet another way we’re amplifying the reach of Black founders and creators in the media industry, as we work toward our commitment to invest 5% of Target’s annual media budget with Black-owned media by the end of 2022.
We’re just getting started
While we’re proud of our impact so far, we’re not done yet. Check out Target’s Racial Equity Action and Change page for more on our journey and to track our progress.
