Black Opportunity Fund (BOF) is a community-led Canadian charitable foundation that mobilizes capital for Black-led businesses and Black-serving charities and nonprofits across Canada, delivering loans, equity investments and multiple grant programs in entrepreneurship, education, health, justice, arts, culture and youth. View Black Opportunity Fund (BOF)'s website for more information.
Black Opportunity Fund (BOF) is a community-led, registered Canadian charitable organization created in 2020 to confront the long-standing underinvestment in Black communities and the impacts of systemic and anti-Black racism. Working nationally, BOF brings together businesses, philanthropists, foundations and community leaders to channel sustainable, needs-informed capital into Black-led initiatives across Canada.
BOF fulfills its mandate by facilitating access to capital for Black-led businesses and by providing grants to Black-led, Black community–serving charities and non-profit organizations. Support is delivered through a mix of loans, equity investments and other financial tools for for-profit enterprises, alongside philanthropic grants and capacity-building support for non-profits. The fund explicitly aims to disrupt ineffective and disempowering funding practices by putting decision-making in the hands of Black communities.
BOF’s portfolio includes dedicated programs for business financing, sector-specific grants, and partnership initiatives with corporate and philanthropic funders. Examples include entrepreneur support programs, a Black Business Loan Program, the DoorDash #BlackFoodEnergy Restaurant Grant, a Justice Grant Program supporting access to justice, and collaborative grant and capacity-building programs with the Black Canadian Fundraisers’ Collective and other partners.
Black Opportunity Fund uses a trust-based, participatory decision-making model, recognizing the power imbalances inherent in traditional funder–fundee relationships. Decisions are guided by an anti-oppression and intersectional lens so that communities most impacted by BOF’s work have a meaningful say in how funds are allocated and how programs are delivered.
Operating across all regions of Canada, BOF backs both grassroots and established organizations as well as small and growing businesses. Its grants and investments help scale up community programs, strengthen organizational capacity, and enable Black-owned enterprises to expand markets, upgrade equipment and create jobs. By combining financial capital with coaching, training and strategic partnerships, BOF seeks to build a prosperous, healthy and thriving Black Canada.