Our Opportunity Launches #InvestorChallenge

Though his tragic loss is still felt each day, the remarkable legacy of the late Nipsey Hussle continues with Our Opportunity, a grass roots movement focused on creating economic opportunity in low-income neighborhoods throughout the United States through direct investment, community engagement and education. Co-founded by Hussle and his longtime real estate investment and business partner, Dave Gross, Our Opportunity identifies and implements grassroots initiatives in America's inner cities, working with hometown heroes to develop successful local projects and then scale them on a national level.

"Nipsey Hussle manifested leadership by doing, not by saying," notes Gross in his recent in-depth interview with Complex, where the co-founder explains how Hussle's vision is being executed by the Our Opportunity investment initiative.

October 2019 saw the launch of Our Opportunity's Investor Challenge (#investorchallenge), an incentive-driven call to action using private investment to facilitate the creation of new investors in inner city communities across the United States. Gross, a private equity investor and CEO of real estate investment firm The Confluent Group, invited new investors to open their first-ever investment account, seeding the first 100 verified new accounts with $100 to fund their first trade. The #investorchallenge quickly caught fire on social media, resulting in more than 350 new investors in less than a month and the participation of such notable donors as Emmy winner Lena Waithe., 2x NBA All-Star Luol Deng, 3x NFL PRO BOWL wide receiver DeSean Jackson, and Houston, TX rap icon Trae Tha Truth. Once its target goal of 1,000 new accounts is reached, Our Opportunity will deliver an open, online investors curriculum designed to encourage and create lifelong investors in communities long overlooked and disinvested.

"Our Opportunity is about finding direct impact strategies that can help change our community and culture for the better. We never do things for our community, whatever we do is shoulder to shoulder with our community, and we're willing to be radical, and try things that haven't been done before. The Investor Challenge is a perfect reflection of this; we're meeting people where they are and growing together" Dave Gross

Our Opportunity is now asking donors everywhere to get involved in the #investorchallenge, targeting individual sponsorship of 100 new accounts, a financial commitment of $11,200 inclusive of wire fees. Donations are tax deductable via Our Opportunity's 501c(3) fiscal sponsor, Impact Philanthropy Group. Donors will receive the names of THE 100 investors funded by their contribution; investors will be notified of their contributing donor, unless anonymity is requested.

Our Opportunity officially launched earlier this year with the acquisition of 3420 W. Slauson Ave. (at Crenshaw Boulevard) in Los Angeles, CA - home to The Marathon Store, Hussle's hugely successful Marathon Clothing smartstore. The initiative was announced via an exclusive FORBES interview with both Hussle and Gross, whose many philanthropic accomplishments include Vector90, the Crenshaw-based co-working space, incubator, and cultural HUB built in partnership with Hussle and Los Angeles City Council District 8.

Hussle - who of course grew up in the Crenshaw neighborhood, famously selling his mixtapes from the trunk of his car in the parking lot at 3420 W. Slauson - was long known for his innovative and courageous efforts towards community-based activism and economic development. Vector90 and Our Opportunity are related concepts, both directly reflect Hussle's radical thinking and expansive vision for shifting the mindset, and ultimately the culture of inner city communities.

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