Chelsea Brown is the Founder and Principal Strategist at The Black Mill, a Black woman-owned firm that supports grassroots organizations and minority-led nonprofits, businesses, and individuals in need of strategic nonprofit management.
“This is the brainchild of being a little frustrated with philanthropy and the ways that minority-led organizations and grassroots organizations were or were not being supported prior to 2020,” Chelsea explains. “We help nonprofits to determine and hone in on the funding that they need and support them through grant writing, board governance, and nonprofit management across the board.”
Before launching The Black Mill, Chelsea worked in fundraising and corporate social responsibility. In her work, she reviewed grant applications and realized that many minority-owned nonprofits and grassroots organizations did not have the tools to create successful grant applications.
Chelsea was laid off from her job in January. Around the same time, she and her partner separated and she became ill with COVID.
“I felt very discouraged at the top of the year,” she said. “It was just a lot of transition, even as a military brat who’s used to moving all the time and having transitions and shifts, just a lot of those things were very unexpected.”
However, this transition period allowed her to jump headfirst into entrepreneurship. Out of the blue, two of her mentors reached out and asked if she did consulting work. She decided to try consulting for a few weeks until she found another job. However, she quickly realized this was her passion and took her new consulting firm, The Black Mill, full-time.
“That challenge pushed me to do some things that I don’t think I would have done had that not happened. It was a lot, but I’m grateful for the time I spent, for the past decade, making a network of people that consider me first when there’s an opportunity to connect and support,” she said.
Working to Diversify Philanthropy and Staying Open to Change
Chelsea developed The Black Mill to help address the challenges that minority-owned nonprofits and grassroots organizations face when writing grant proposals. As her business grew, she worked with mentors to determine how to scale the business in a way that fit her goals.
“I’m constantly saying yes, but also making sure that the organizations that I work with align with what I value and what this company values too,” she shares.
Her mentors reminded her that, to be successful and dynamic, she must stay open to change. While career transitions can be uncomfortable, the clients she works with keep her motivated.
“I have always had a passion for working with diverse nonprofits,” she said. “My goal in philanthropy has always been, ‘How do we diversify more?’ Had I known that this was a career when I was an undergrad, I would have jumped on it.”
Her Advice: Utilize Your Network and Take Risks
Chelsea knows that entrepreneurship is not for the weak.
“If you’re not someone who likes to learn every day or is terrified of making mistakes, this may not be for you,” she adds.
She embraces these challenges because she wants to scale The Black Mill to help connect smaller, regional nonprofits with public figures and sports teams.
“I always loved entertainers, sports figures, and sports teams. They have influence, power, and money to change things and really affect the community. I’d always told people that my goal was to manage a public figure’s nonprofit,” she adds.
To reach this scale, she will continue to delegate, learn from her mentors, and make professional connections. She hopes up-and-coming Black women entrepreneurs and consultants know that they already have everything they need inside of them to take the leap and follow their own career ambitions.
“The same advice I have, my mentor gave me: you don’t know what you can do until you do it fully, and sometimes you do have to take a risk,” she shares.