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Wave x Shorty Awards Elevate Creatives Fund: Introducing the inaugural recipients
This past May, Wave (one-stop money management for creators and small business owners) and the Shorty Awards (an awards competition honoring digital and social talent) teamed up to launch the Elevate Creatives Fund, aimed at helping creatives break the Internet—not the bank.
The creator economy is a segment of small business in which creators create, distribute, and monetize their content. It’s growing quickly, and not stopping any time soon. In spite of this, the needs of creators are still overlooked.
Unfortunately, creators may not always have traditional cash flow and need to rely on multiple revenue streams to earn a living, making it challenging to translate all that talent and passion into a sustainable business.
That’s why we want to do our part to help change that.
The Elevate Creatives Fund, which is aimed at providing a financial boost to creators looking to grow sustainable creative businesses, received over 500 applications. We read entries from a range of deserving creators—from podcasters to poets to mental health activists and artists. We were blown away by the quality of entries… so much so that we expanded the grant from $100,000 to $120,000 USD to allow for a sixth worthy recipient.
Today, we are honored to announce the six recipients who will each receive a $20,000 USD grant, along with complementary accounting coaching from Wave’s in-house advisors. Read on to learn more about the winners!
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Jamie Feldman
Journalist, essayist, and content creator developing a podcast tackling debt and financial literacy.
Joseph Arujo
Latinx LGBTQ+ mental health activist and content creator working on a debut children’s book.
Alyson Stoner
Actor, author, digital creator, and the founder of Movement Genius, a platform making mental wellbeing affordable, accessible, and culturally relevant.
Tiffany Yu
Content creator, speaker, and CEO and Founder of Diversability, an award-winning and entirely disabled-run and -led social enterprise to elevate disability pride.
Rollie Williams
Creator and host of Climate Town, a docu-comedy video series focused on demystifying the climate crisis.
Kirby Porter
Former Harvard women's basketball player and founder of New Game Labs, a media and marketing firm helping athletes unlock their potential through emerging technology.
Shortlisted applicants include:
- Golda Arthur
- Bithia Dantoumda
- Damona Hoffman
- Kaena Alice Hood
- Felicia Hsu
- Amanda Morell
- Eno Oduok
- Blake Pfeil
- Nicole Rechtszaid
- Hamnah Shahid
- Carolyn Silveira
- Dane Stewart
- Keith Terrell
- Ariel Viera
- Kacie Willis
(and create unique links with checkouts)
*While subscribed to Wave’s Pro Plan, get 2.9% + $0 (Visa, Mastercard, Discover) and 3.4% + $0 (Amex) per transaction for the first 10 transactions of each month of your subscription, then 2.9% + $0.60 (Visa, Mastercard, Discover) and 3.4% + $0.60 (Amex) per transaction. Discover processing is only available to US customers. See full terms and conditions for the US and Canada. See Wave’s Terms of Service for more information.
The information and tips shared on this blog are meant to be used as learning and personal development tools as you launch, run and grow your business. While a good place to start, these articles should not take the place of personalized advice from professionals. As our lawyers would say: “All content on Wave’s blog is intended for informational purposes only. It should not be considered legal or financial advice.” Additionally, Wave is the legal copyright holder of all materials on the blog, and others cannot re-use or publish it without our written consent.
