We do not lend money. We put a brother across the table for five years.
G.R.O.V.E. by Gamma Phi Theta, the entrepreneurship program of The Gamma Phi Theta Fraternity, Inc., is a five-year structured mentorship for Black founders in the places where the work is hardest and the cameras are not. Sixty percent brothers, forty percent community. No fees. No equity. No lending. One measurable outcome, year-five business survival above the regional baseline.
A brother across the table, for five years.
Black-owned business survival in the rural Black Belt of Alabama and the Mississippi Capitol corridor sits well below the national baseline. The hardest thing for a young Black founder in Selma or Jackson to find is not capital, although capital is hard. It is a forty-five-year-old founder who answers the phone at month thirty-four when the second contract falls through. G.R.O.V.E. is built around that single insight.
G.R.O.V.E. founders meet weekly with their mentor for the first ninety days, biweekly through Year One and Year Two, monthly through Years Three and Four, and quarterly in Year Five. The arc closes with an independent year-five survival audit. The audit is the only metric that matters, and we measure it against the regional baseline, not in isolation.
G. R. O. V. E.
Each letter is a year of the arc. Each year has a curriculum, a contact rhythm, and a quarterly community workshop that runs alongside it, open to anyone, brother or not.
Growth
Entity, EIN, banking, books. Weekly mentor contact for the first ninety days. The foundation is built before anything else.
Relationships
Customer pipeline, supplier pipeline, four warm partner introductions. Biweekly contact. The network becomes a working asset.
Ownership
Operating agreement, first significant contract, capital readiness packet, first Tier 1 lender introduction. Monthly contact.
Values
First hire or formalized contractor relationship, written business values that govern hiring and vendor selection. Monthly contact.
Equity
Independent survival audit, written long-term equity path, mentor a Year One founder in the next cohort. Quarterly contact.
We route. We do not replicate.
There are excellent peer institutions in our launch geographies. We do not duplicate their work. We organize what the fraternity already has, point it at a five-year arc, and route founders to the partners who are already funded to do the rest.
The promise to the community.
Once a quarter in each Providence, on a Saturday morning at a Tier 0 anchor venue, G.R.O.V.E. runs a free community workshop that is open to anyone. Brother or not. Cohort member or not. Founder or not.
The workshop runs three hours. Ninety minutes of content aligned to the year of the arc. Sixty minutes of structured working time. Thirty minutes of partner introductions and questions. The workshop is taught by cohort founders, mentors, and partner staff. There is no fee. There is no membership requirement. The cohort is the deep work; the workshop is the wide work. Both happen.
Phase 1, where the work is hardest.
G.R.O.V.E. launches in Beta and Gamma Providences. Phase 2 follows when Cohort One reaches Year Three with the supporting outcomes on track. Phase 3 follows Phase 2. We do not expand on top of an unproven foundation.
Partner posture, in writing.
We route, we do not replicate. We attribute, we do not absorb. We vet, we do not assume. We close the loop, we do not abandon the handoff. Every partner whose work is named on this page does work that would have been done with or without GROVE. The fact that they allow us to work alongside them is the gift, and we do not take it for granted.
Five ways the work moves forward.
G.R.O.V.E. funds itself from five distinct sources, no single source above forty percent of the annual budget. The Cohort Lead stipend is the floor; we fund that role first. Founders pay zero. Mentors are unpaid volunteers.
Apply as a Founder
Brothers and community founders in Beta or Gamma Providence may apply for Cohort One. There is no fee. The five-year arc is real.
Request the applicationVolunteer as a Mentor
Operators with at least seven years of business ownership can shape a five-year arc with one founder. The Mentor Covenant is the only ethical document of the program.
Request the volunteer formPartner With Us
Tier 0, Tier 1, Tier 2, Tier 3. We route to you. We attribute your work in writing. We do not duplicate what you already do well.
Open the conversationGive to G.R.O.V.E.
Unrestricted gifts fund Cohort Lead stipends, the quarterly community workshop, the year-five audit, and operating overhead. No contribution is passed through to a specific founder.
Make a contributionPlan a Legacy Gift
Bequest, beneficiary designation, charitable trust. The Gamma Phi Theta Fraternity, Inc., is a 501(c)(3) public charity, EIN 81-2819681. Use independent counsel.
Request the bequest form