Greenwood

This new effort will also build a network for leaders and organizations working to create economic progress for Black families and communities. The BWDC is ...

BWDC will create additional partnerships with a specific focus on increasing the amount of local data in its database, incorporating data from private sources, and collaborating with existing data providers to strengthen data quality. The third investment was the [Vivien Thomas Scholars Initiative, a $150 million effort at Johns Hopkins devoted to addressing historic underrepresentation in the science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields](https://www.bloomberg.org/press/johns-hopkins-university-and-bloomberg-philanthropies-announce-the-vivien-thomas-scholars-initiative-a-150-million-effort-to-fuel-diversity-in-stem-fields/) by providing permanent funding for a sustained cohort of approximately 100 new slots for diverse PhD students in JHU’s more than 30 STEM programs. Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Greenwood Initiative is a national program focused on accelerating the pace of wealth accumulation for Black individuals and families and addressing systemic underinvestment in Black communities across the U.S. “Leaders and organizations across the country have been challenged by the lack of accessible and high-quality data disaggregated by race – making it difficult to assess what’s working and not working in efforts to make America more equitable, what assets exist in Black communities, and what we need to do to effect change,” said Garnesha Ezediaro, who leads Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Greenwood Initiative. Most recently, Natalie co-founded and served as the head of strategic initiatives of BrightHive, a data sharing platform for users to easily and securely connect data. “Prosperity Now is excited to incubate the Black Wealth Data Center. Bloomberg Philanthropies invests in 941 cities and 173 countries around the world to ensure better, longer lives for the greatest number of people. [Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Greenwood Initiative](https://www.bloomberg.org/founders-projects/the-greenwood-initiative/) announced the launch of the [Black Wealth Data Center](http://blackwealthdata.org/) (BWDC) which will host the new Racial Wealth Equity Database. Over the coming months, the BWDC will continuously add datasets and functionality to the database, looking for opportunities to offer new tools for the field to better interpret racial equity data. The need for the BWDC was explained by Michael R. The BWDC is incubated by [Prosperity Now](https://prosperitynow.org/), a leading nonprofit based in Washington, D.C. It will also convene leaders and host events about the power of data to help drive solutions for racial wealth equity.