Two Coramino Fund Recipients Are Championing the LGBTQ+ Community During Pride and Beyond
This year, the Coramino Fund, a nationwide partnership between LISC, Gran Coramino Tequila, and Kevin Hart to help entrepreneurs serving Black and Latino communities, awarded $10,000 grants to 50 businesses. For Pride Month, Coramino Fund grant recipients Thrive Cakery and Officiant NYC shared how cookie sales and personalized ceremonies support the LGBTQ+ community year-round.
Photo above (courtesy of Officiant NYC): Alex Perez officiating a wedding ceremony
Black and Latino entrepreneurs often have less access to cash reserves, credit, and capital, and they’re likely to encounter even more challenges if they identify as LGBTQ+. Due to bias and discrimination LGBTQ+ small businesses who are applying for capital can miss out on opportunities. While LGBTQ+ business owners contribute $1.7 trillion to the U.S. economy annually, access to capital remains a greater challenge for LGBTQ+ founders than the general population. That’s where alternative funding initiatives come in to help fill the gap.
In 2022, LISC partnered with comedian and entrepreneur Kevin Hart and tequila maker Juan Domingo Beckmann on the Coramino Fund, a nationwide small business grant program to help entrepreneurs serving Black and Latino communities expand their businesses. Since then, LISC and the Coramino Fund have deployed more than $1 million in grants to more than 100 entrepreneurs in the U.S. across industries to fuel the growth of their small businesses. In the latest funding round, the fund awarded $10,000 grants to 50 businesses, including Thrive Cakery and Officiant NYC, two businesses supporting the LGBTQ+ community through their work.
Jasmine Mendez, the owner and operator of Thrive Cakery, in Warwick, Rhode Island, blends ‘90s nostalgia and the traditional flavors of her Puerto Rican upbringing at her shop. Since gaining popularity from her inventive cookies like Guava Cheesecake and Coquito, she’s used her platform to give back in more ways than one. For National Pride Month, proceeds from Thrive Cakery’s M&M cookie will benefit Haus of Codec, a local organization helping address homelessness for transgender youth.
Mendez also invites students from the Metropolitan Regional Career and Technical Center (MET), a group of nearby high schools, into the bakery a couple of times a week to explore their interests in entrepreneurship and the food industry through hands-on experience.
“It's just nice to be able to pay it forward. It's inspiring to see the students, how they grow, their confidence as it develops,” she said.
Mentorship helped Mendez go from studying pastry at Johnson & Wales University to eventually turning her passion project into a full-time gig after a period of holding administration jobs. “I did have mentors along the way that helped me get to where I am now,” she said. “As a teen mom, without that guidance and mentorship, I may not be where I am today.”
Sales from Mendez’s popular baked goods help fund extra supplies and staffing at the bakery to assist the MET students she works with. With the Coramino Fund grant, Mendez said now she’ll have more financial cushion for the bakery she opened with a small withdrawal from her 401K. Since receiving the grant award, she’s already purchased more materials, hired additional staff, increased production, and created a credit line.
“I think the grant really empowered me to be able to do more and find a way to get ahead,” Mendez said.
In New York City, Alex Perez, owner of the personalized wedding service company Officiant NYC, is hoping the Coramino Fund grant expands his business’s reach. Officiant NYC was a pioneer in officiating same-sex marriages in New York City and the surrounding area ahead of the passage of the Marriage Equality Act in 2011, but now he wants to stay competitive as the market has grown.
“We were one of the first companies in New York City to actually say yes to love,” said Perez. “It really helped boost our visibility.”
Perez, who started out as an employee of the company, began officiating full-time during the pandemic when his career in theater as a director and choreographer slowed down. He eventually took over Officiant NYC, which performs heterosexual marriages as well, when the prior owner relocated. As more couples needed to get married outside to follow social distancing guidelines, business picked up.
While Officiant NYC continues to marry anywhere from 400 to 500 couples a year, and often sees an uptick in requests during Pride Month when LGBTQ+ couples flock to New York City for its celebrations, they're no longer the only business in the area marrying same-sex couples, Perez explained. To remain competitive, the owner wants to invest part of the Coramino Fund grant to conduct more in-depth training with staff, half of whom identify as LGBTQ+, and to support more robust marketing, including a billboard campaign to help Officiant NYC stand out.
Amidst fears within the LGBTQ+ community that marriage protections may be under threat, Perez hopes to drive home the fact that Officiant NYC is in their corner.
“The idea is to create and safeguard a safe haven for couples, fight the good fight and be on the forefront of marriage equality, championing it and supporting it no matter what happens,” said Perez. “[We want to] be supportive and create a safe space for our employees as well as our clients, and to continue striving forward to make sure that they can love who they love.”