Strengthening the M in STEM

According to ed.gov, approximately 93% of American adults experience math anxiety, which is defined as negative emotions around doing and solving math problems. In a 2020 representative survey of U.S. teachers, 67% told the EdWeek Research Center that math anxiety was a challenge for their students, and 1 in 4 said they often feel anxious doing math themselves.

Unhealed math anxiety has far-reaching consequences, including limited career options, reduced earning potential, and negative health outcomes. A study by Ohio State University found that having high confidence in one’s math ability, compared to low confidence, was equivalent to having $94,000 more in annual income. The study also found that lupus patients with high math confidence and high math skills had only a 7% chance of having bad disease activity – compared to 44% who had high math confidence, but low math skills. It’s clear that math confidence and math skills must both be high for our kids to maximize their fullest potential.

Due to factors such as stereotype threat, lack of representation in mathematics, societal bias, racism, adult influences, and media and pop culture messaging, math anxiety disproportionately impacts females and people of color, contributing to our underrepresentation and underestimation in STEM fields and other math-heavy majors and careers.

Since math is the foundation of all STEM subjects, lacking a strong math foundation can close countless doors of opportunity for our girls.

The pandemic has further exacerbated the issue, leading to the lowest math scores in decades and worsening racial disparities in student performance. Black students experienced more significant declines in math scores compared to their white counterparts. Addressing this crisis requires a collective effort involving various stakeholders. The urgency of the matter cannot be overstated, as the future prospects of our children are at stake.

Sitting at the intersection of these persistent gender and racial gaps in STEM are Black girls, who face particularly negative impacts as both females and Black people. According to a 2021 Pew research study, Black girls aged 5 to 14 make up around 7.5% of the U.S. Black population, which equates to approximately 3.5 million people.

While our solution serves children of all genders, racial, and ethnic backgrounds, we have chosen to intentionally create a solution that elevates Black girls because of the factors detailed above. Inspired by the Curb Cut Effect, which posits that solving for the most marginalized benefits society as a whole, our approach seeks to address the specific challenges faced by Black girls in overcoming math anxiety and pursuing STEM education and careers. By creating a solution where a Black girl can very clearly see herself as a learner and doer of math, we are creating a positive ripple effect that uplifts all members of society.

Black Girl MATHgic (BGM) is an empowering movement focused on boosting math confidence, agency, enthusiasm, and fluency in children, with a particular emphasis on girls and Black children. Our solution, the Black Girl MATHgic Box, is a monthly subscription box designed to increase math confidence and decrease math anxiety for girls on a 3rd-8th grade math level.

Each BGM Box is carefully curated to address the factors contributing to low math confidence and high math anxiety. Each box is based on a real-world theme, anchored by the inspiring story of a woman mathematician. This approach helps girls see themselves as capable math learners, fostering a strong math identity and illustrating the relevance and applicability of math in their lives.

Inside the BGM Box, subscribers discover a diverse range of engaging and educational items, including:

• A feature of a woman mathematician to provide representation that shows girls what they can be.
• A 12-page math activity workbook created by our team of math experts, based on the box's theme. The workbook demonstrates the practicality and importance of math and provides opportunities for real-world math application and problem-solving.
• 3-5 screen-free items carefully selected to illustrate the tangibility of math and bring the theme to life; at least one item is a manipulative or educational tool that reinforces a basic math concept and ignites curiosity and creativity.
• A math affirmation card that serves as a powerful reminder of the girls' capabilities and potential in mathematics while harnessing the power of positive self-talk.
• A comprehensive Caring Adult/Teacher Guide, offering valuable tips and tools to maximize the box experience and facilitate meaningful interactions and discussions around the introduced math concepts.
• A custom sticker sheet created in partnership with a local artist because we know how much girls love stickers!
• A digital answer key to the math activity workbook, ensuring girls and their Caring Adult have the necessary resources to support the girls’ learning journey.
• Each box is also personalized with the child's first name, promoting a sense of ownership and belonging, crucial factors in building math confidence and identity.
• Product demo

While customers use technology to purchase the box through our website, we purposefully designed the Black Girl MATHgic Box to be entirely screen-free. We wanted to ensure equal engagement for all children, recognizing that not all have consistent and regular internet access. We also understand the negative effects of excessive screen time on children and wanted to create an experience where they can take a break from screens while still learning and having fun. Apart from the answer key, all the materials and activities within the box are thoughtfully curated to provide an interactive and offline learning experience.

In addition to the box, we offer in-person and virtual math confidence workshops, speaking engagements, and supplementary math confidence products in our online shop. These opportunities provide interactive learning, discussions, and activities that further enhance girls' math learning and self-assurance beyond the subscription box.

Our solution serves girls on a 3rd-8th grade level who are learning mathematics. Our solution addresses their needs by strengthening their math confidence, which plays a vital role in their ability to fully engage and persist in STEM and design their ideal lives. With this understanding in mind, we developed the BGM box as a transformative tool to help them build their math confidence in a low-pressure, high-impact environment.  

Since 2019, we have witnessed our solution's profound impact on girls' lives across 35+ states in the US and Canada. To ensure that we were creating a product that truly addresses their needs, we engaged them from the very beginning through interviews, surveys, and product testing and continued to involve them at every step of our journey. Before our official launch, we conducted beta testing with a diverse group of 25 girls representing various racial and ethnic backgrounds, along with their Caring Adults (e.g. parent, Godparent, grandparent, etc.). This collaborative approach allowed us to create a product that strengthened their math skills and confidence and resonated with their unique experiences.  

Our dedication to understanding the needs of our target population is an ongoing process. We continuously iterate our box, striving to make it increasingly valuable for the girls we serve. To achieve this, we actively engage them through regular surveys completed by their Caring Adults or educators. Additionally, we host Zoom webinars with our subscribers and supporters, allowing them to share their thoughts, suggestions, and experiences directly with us. Empowering our girls to shape the solution actively leads to its continuous improvement and relevance.

Our interactions, surveys, and workshops have taught us that the BGM box has significantly strengthened their understanding of math concepts. This has translated into increased confidence, enabling them to ask questions in class without hesitation.  

We have received testimonials from our subscribers that demonstrate the real-world application of their increased math confidence. One heartwarming testimonial came from a parent who shared that her 12-year-old daughter had a Chiari malformation, autism, and a number processing disorder resulting from brain surgery. Her daughter read on an 11th-grade level but was at a 2nd-3rd-grade level in math; not much had helped her daughter engage with math. However, with our boxes, the parent said, "What you do is brilliant. You had my number-fearing kiddo sitting with me [engaging with math] for 40 minutes! Thank you!" Such testimonials highlight the tangible and practical impact our solution has on the lives of our girls and their families.

Our commitment to empowering girls through mathematics includes continued engagement, listening to their voices, seeking feedback, and refining our approach to meet their evolving needs.

We envision a future where every girl recognizes her potential as a math person and confidently embraces opportunities ahead.

Our team is uniquely well-positioned to deliver this solution because we understand the needs of the communities we serve and share their lived experiences.

Brittany Rhodes, our Team Lead, is an exceptional example of this. As a Black woman from Detroit, a majority-Black city, Brittany brings firsthand knowledge of the challenges faced by Black girls in accessing quality math education. With a math degree and over 20 years of experience tutoring children, she has developed a deep understanding of how to make math engaging, fun, and accessible. Brittany's talent in being a role model and mentor to her students is clearly demonstrated through the deep connections she forges with them. She goes above and beyond, even braiding purple hair into her own, as she knows how much girls adore the color purple! Her students often refer to her as their "bonus teacher" and look up to her as an inspiration. By incorporating her students' interests and personalizing their math learning experiences, Brittany creates a supportive environment where they feel comfortable asking questions and overcoming their math anxieties.

Brittany's close connection to her students and their families has been instrumental in designing and implementing Black Girl MATHgic and the Black Girl MATHgic Box. She continuously engages with her community by conducting surveys and interviews and hosting Instagram Lives and monthly Zoom webinars. By actively listening to their input, ideas, and agendas, Brittany ensures that the evolution of Black Girl MATHgic aligns with the community's needs and aspirations. Moreover, she stays informed about the latest research on girls and math and collaborates with mathematicians who are authors of such research to incorporate their expertise into BGM.

In addition to Brittany, our team includes an Outreach and Fulfillment Coordinator who brings a wealth of experience and proximity to the community we serve. As an award-winning, retired Detroit charter school Principal and lifelong Detroit resident, she understands the educational landscape and the unique challenges faced by students in the city. With a background in Special Education and Educational Psychology, she brings valuable insights into the specific needs of diverse learners. Her school administration expertise and her deep community roots make her an invaluable asset in establishing meaningful connections and partnerships.

Through the collective efforts of our team, we continuously strive to understand the needs and aspirations of the community we serve. We believe that true empowerment comes from actively involving the community in the design and implementation of our solution. By leveraging our team's proximity to the target population, we ensure that Black Girl MATHgic remains relevant, responsive, and impactful.

BGM has served approximately 2,000 individuals in the lifetime of our business. This number includes a diverse range of customers, including subscription box customers, one-time box customers, students who have attended our math confidence workshops, and customers who have purchased complementary items such as notebooks, our one-time K-2 bundle, and lapel pins.  

It is important to note that this figure primarily represents the direct purchasers of our products and attendees of our workshops. However, it does not account for the indirect reach and impact we have had through educators who have purchased our boxes and used them with their students. Unfortunately, we do not have consistent access to data regarding the number of students who have benefited from our educational materials through these educators.  

While the number of direct purchasers indicates our reach, we recognize that our true impact extends beyond this figure. We are actively exploring ways to collect more comprehensive data to accurately assess the number of students who have engaged with our solution through educators.  

Additionally, through our box donation program, we have donated over 250 boxes to various nonprofits in the Detroit area, including the Boys and Girls Club of Southeastern Michigan, the Detroit Food Academy, Engaged Detroit, Racquet Up, the Rhonda Walker Foundation, Progressionista, and Alternatives for Girls. It's our small way of giving back to the community and supporting young girls in their educational journey. 

We are applying to the Challenge because BGM is at a critical juncture in our journey, and we recognize the immense value that MIT and TGIV can bring in overcoming the barriers we face and accelerating our impact.

Firstly, we aspire to intentionally serve homeschooling families and B2B customers such as schools, districts, and youth-serving organizations. While we already have a handful of B2B and homeschooling customers, our core marketing efforts have predominantly focused on our B2C customers. Unfortunately, the pandemic hindered our initial expansion plans into the B2B market. By securing the resources and support MIT and TGIV offers, we can reignite our efforts and launch targeted campaigns to engage with educational institutions and homeschooling families. This strategic expansion will allow us to reach a larger audience and have a more substantial impact on girls' math education nationwide.

Another challenge we face is building our team and increasing our capacity as a small business. Having the right talent and resources is essential as we aim to scale our operations and expand our reach. The comprehensive needs assessment provided by the Support Program will enable us to identify the areas in which we require the most support and resources. With access to a network of resource partners across industries and sectors, we can tap into a wealth of expertise and guidance to strengthen our team and enhance our organizational capabilities.

Additionally, we face cultural barriers that impede progress in addressing disparities related to race and gender in STEM education. The very name of our business, Black Girl MATHgic, can be triggering for some people, particularly adults in decision-making roles who may not be comfortable discussing the impact of race and gender on educational inequities. We have made efforts to counter these barriers, but the support from MIT and TGIV would be invaluable in helping us navigate this dynamic while staying true to our ethos and core values. The coaching and learning and development modules offered through the Support Program would enable us to refine our messaging, approach, and strategies, empowering us to have more constructive conversations and broaden our impact.

The peer-to-peer network would allow us to leverage the collective expertise and experiences of our peers to refine our business model, theory of change, and plans for scaling while also allowing us to provide support, insight, and inspiration to help our peers achieve their goals and outcomes. We are applying to the Challenge because we recognize the immense potential for growth, learning, and refinement that comes with partnering with MIT and TGIV. We are always seeking opportunities to continuously improve and expand our business model and accelerate our impact in eradicating math anxiety in girls. We are eager to leverage this opportunity to propel our mission forward and make a lasting impact on the lives of girls in STEM.

Brittany is deeply connected to the community in which our project is based. Born and raised in Detroit, she possesses a profound understanding of the unique challenges and needs of the local population and other communities like it. For over 20 years, Brittany has been actively involved in tutoring math to Black children, both in Detroit and nationally, demonstrating her commitment to educational equity and empowerment. As a former GED Math Instructor through a local nonprofit, she has firsthand experience in supporting individuals from underestimated communities in their educational journeys.

Prior to starting BGM, Brittany worked for six years in the Detroit nonprofit sector, specifically in community engagement roles. During this time, she directly served and worked alongside underserved and under-resourced communities. Her experience as the Director of Community Engagement for the Belle Isle Conservancy holds particular significance. Belle Isle, the largest city-owned island urban park in the United States, has a deep-rooted connection with the residents of Detroit. After the park was leased to the State following Detroit's bankruptcy, there was significant controversy and public outcry, as many residents felt unwelcome and unwelcome at the park. Recognizing this, Brittany was instrumental in bridging the gap between the community and the park, actively listening to residents' concerns, and developing programming, experiences, and solutions to address their needs.

In addition to her professional experiences, Brittany's personal connections further anchor her within the community. She is the daughter of a retired Detroit charter school principal, giving her firsthand insight into the challenges faced by students, families, and educators. Furthermore, she is a long-time volunteer at a variety of education-related community organizations. As a five-year board member of Detroit Food Academy, a youth entrepreneurship nonprofit, she has actively contributed to empowering youth. Additionally, her six years as a resident math tutor at the Downtown Boxing Gym Youth program allowed her to directly impact over 100 students, assisting them in strengthening their math skills and fostering their aptitude. She served as Co-Chair of the Detroit Public Schools District Alumni Advisory Council for two years, actively advocating for the needs and concerns of alumni and current students. Moreover, she spent two years as a Winning Futures mentor, a nationally recognized program focused on empowering high school students to succeed. Through this program, she helped students develop essential life skills, set goals, and prepare for the workforce, fostering self-reliance, employability, and defined academic and career pathways.

With her extensive background and deep-rooted connections, Brittany brings a profound understanding of the community Black Girl MATHgic serves. Her personal experiences, combined with her professional involvement and leadership roles, enable her to empathize with the community's challenges, needs, and aspirations. This authentic connection ensures that our project remains community-centered and responsive, addressing the systemic barriers to gender equity in STEM within the specific context of our local community.

What makes our solution innovative is that we are the first and only monthly subscription box exclusively focused on increasing math confidence and decreasing math anxiety in girls. While there are many STEM subscription boxes on the market, they focus more on exploring science, technology, and engineering than on strengthening math skills. There is no STEM without M, so creating a solution focused on building math confidence and skills is non-negotiable.

We also offer more than just math enrichment. While many STEM efforts solely focus on building STEM skills, our approach recognizes the importance of developing a well-rounded child. That's why our subscription boxes go beyond math and include:

• Black History and Representation: We promote representation and inclusion by featuring a Black woman mathematician in each box. This includes pioneers like Dr. Gladys West, who played a significant role in inventing GPS, and Dr. Gloria Gilmer, a trailblazer in ethnomathematics and the study of geometric patterns in Black hairstyles.
• Social-Emotional Learning: Girls engage in self-reflection and build self-awareness through our writing prompts in their math activity workbook. We also promote a growth mindset and positive self-talk with math affirmations and confidence messages.
• English Language Arts: In addition to the writing prompts, girls improve their ELA skills by solving word problems and reading the featured mathematician’s story and interview. Select boxes also include books.
• Career Pathways: Through the mathematician feature, we broaden our girls’ knowledge and worldview by exposing them to lucrative and rewarding career options in STEM and beyond.

BGM breaks the traditional barriers of classroom learning, ensuring that girls have continuous exposure to math outside of school. Delivering an personalized, culturally relevant, and engaging math experience directly to the girls’ doorsteps or classrooms makes learning math exciting and accessible like never before.  

By helping girls develop strong math skills and confidence through our offerings, we equip them with the essential tools to seize countless opportunities and succeed in various fields. By nurturing their math abilities, we open doors to a world of possibilities for their future.  

BGM catalyzes broader positive impacts from others in this space by fostering increased math confidence and engagement in girls. We are effectively rewriting the way girls interact with, perceive, and engage with mathematics. This, in turn, leads to increased STEM engagement and persistence, paving the way for a future generation of diverse and skilled STEM professionals who can tackle complex global challenges.  

In terms of market impact, our solution has the potential to reshape the educational landscape. By introducing a new paradigm of math education through our subscription box, we disrupt traditional learning models and provide a scalable solution for math enrichment. As more children, families, and educators experience the benefits of our approach, we anticipate a shift in the market toward greater recognition of the importance of math education, a heightened enthusiasm for math, and the need for more accessible and engaging resources.  

Essentially, we aim to erase the term “I am not a math person” from the nation’s vocabulary!

When the doors of math confidence open, a vast world of options is unlocked. As such, our impact goals for the next year and the next five years revolve around empowering girls to feel more confident in their math abilities through our boxes, workshops, speaking engagements, and expanded product offerings. Our overarching goal is to transform girls' lives through increased math confidence and reduced math anxiety.  

For the next year, we aim to impact a minimum of 500 girls. To achieve this, we will focus on growing our subscriptions and reaching a broader audience, mainly by serving more homeschooling families and schools, districts, and youth-serving organizations.  

With the youth-serving organizations, not only will we provide boxes to them, but we will also continue to establish strategic partnerships with them to host math confidence workshops. Our successful collaborations with the Girl Scouts of Southeast Michigan and the Michigan Science Center STEMinista Program have already demonstrated the effectiveness of this approach. By scaling up these partnerships and building relationships with other organizations, we can facilitate even more impactful engagements that provide girls with hands-on experiences, mentorship, and a supportive community.  

Recognizing the importance of diversifying our offerings, our product roadmap includes developing children's books, educational manipulatives, and math confidence summer camps. These additional resources will give girls multiple avenues to engage with math, building their skills and confidence differently. By expanding our product range, we can reach more girls and cater to various learning preferences and interests.  

Our impact goals align with extensive research highlighting the benefits of increased math confidence and decreased math anxiety. Studies conducted by Beilock et al. (2010) and Cury et al. (2016) have shown that when individuals feel more confident in their math abilities, they are more likely to engage with and succeed in math-related tasks. Furthermore, reducing math anxiety has been linked to improved learning outcomes and a more positive attitude toward mathematics (Ramirez et al., 2013).  

In conclusion, our impact goals for the next year and five years revolve around empowering girls to feel more confident in their math abilities and reducing math anxiety. By fostering increased math confidence and providing supportive learning experiences, we aim to transform girls' lives, equipping them with the skills and mindset necessary for success in math and related fields. Through our subscription service, strategic partnerships, and expanded product offerings, we are confident in reaching at least 500 girls in the next year and impacting at least 3,000 girls in the next five years.  

In measuring our progress toward our impact goals, we employ a variety of key performance indicators (KPIs) and pull inspiration from indicators associated with the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

To gauge our business growth, we closely monitor traditional KPIs for subscription businesses: number of subscriptions per month, revenue, retention rate, churn rate, customer lifetime value, monthly recurring revenue (MRR), and annual recurring revenue (ARR). In addition to these specific indicators, we also evaluate website conversion rates, ads CPC and CPA, and lead generation downloads; these help us assess our outreach efforts and the effectiveness of our marketing and communication strategies. We also use the Net Promoter Score (NPS) to measure customer satisfaction and loyalty. We primarily rely on qualitative feedback from the girls and Caring Adults we serve to assess our box's efficacy in boosting math confidence and reducing math anxiety. While quantifying this particular outcome can be challenging, we place significant value on the insights and experiences shared by our subscribers to gauge the impact of our solution. These metrics provide insights into our overall market performance and the value we bring to our customers.  

As we pivot our marketing focus, we will also monitor the number of B2B institutions (schools, districts, and youth-serving organizations) we reach and the rate at which they convert to paid customers; their involvement signifies the impact and relevance of our solution within the education sector. Moreover, repeat purchases from our B2B customers, despite their traditional limitation to single purchases, are a valuable indicator of progress in establishing long-term partnerships and expanding our reach.  

Our progress towards our impact goals directly aligns with the following UN Sustainable Development Goals indicators associated with Goal 4: Quality Education. Specifically:  

4.5: By 2030, eliminate gender disparities in education and ensure equal access to all levels of education and vocational training for the vulnerable, including persons with disabilities, indigenous peoples, and children in vulnerable situations.

4.6: By 2030, ensure that all youth and a substantial proportion of adults, both men and women, achieve literacy and numeracy.  

By using this comprehensive set of indicators, we aim to measure our progress holistically and ensure that our solution achieves business success and positively impacts math education, inclusion, and literacy.

Over almost four years, our solution has consistently demonstrated positive outcomes for our target population. Through customer surveys and social listening, we know that girls who receive our boxes experience increased math confidence and have developed a more positive perception of their ability to learn and excel in math. This aligns with research findings that emphasize the importance of targeted interventions in building confidence and reducing math anxiety. A study by Ramirez, Gunderson, Levine, and Beilock (2013) found that providing girls with a growth mindset intervention significantly improved their math performance and reduced their math anxiety.

One powerful testament to the effectiveness of our solution comes from a customer who shared that her previously math-anxious daughter used learnings from our boxes to save hundreds of dollars on a family vacation flight. This real-life application demonstrates how our solution boosts math confidence and equips girls with practical skills they can use beyond the classroom.

A key factor contributing to our solution's effectiveness is representation. Research by Cheryan et al. (2011) supports the positive impact of representation on girls' interest in math. When girls see themselves reflected in their learning materials and activities, it fosters a sense of belonging and inspires them to engage with math.

Our theory of change is supported by research and evidenced through our activities. Girls are exposed to women mathematicians, real-world math activities, manipulatives, and positive math affirmations. This exposure to relatable role models and math-related content creates a powerful connection for girls, enabling them to develop a positive math identity.

Immediate outputs include additional math practice and strengthened math confidence in a low-pressure setting. Research by Gunderson et al. (2012) indicates that reducing math anxiety and enhancing math skills lead to increased engagement and improved performance in mathematics.

Exposure to various career pathways further expands girls' possibilities and encourages exploration of STEM or math-heavy fields (Nagy et al., 2006). In the short term, girls benefit from improved math knowledge, skills, attitudes, and motivations, aligning with the research of Hidi and Renninger (2006) on fostering intrinsic motivation and engagement.

Long-term outcomes aim to cultivate confident women with high self-esteem in math who actively engage in math-related careers. Research by Wang et al. (2013) highlights the connection between self-confidence and academic and career choices. By addressing representation and math anxiety, we empower girls to envision themselves succeeding in math-related fields and becoming role models for future generations.

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Our team consists of 1 full-time team member and 7 contractors.

I have been working on my solution for the past four years and ten months.

BGM is steadfastly committed to incorporating diversity, equity, and inclusivity (DEI) into our work. DEI is not just an add-on for us but an integral part of our organization's DNA. Our mission is centered around bringing DEI into the field of mathematics, which has historically been dominated by white men.  

While I am the only full-time BGM teammate, we have a team of dedicated contractors who bring a wealth of educational, professional, and demographic diversity to our organization. Our team includes a Black woman project manager, a Black woman content writer, a senior citizen Black woman outreach and fulfillment coordinator, a South Asian-Canadian woman who serves as our math content writer, a Black male artist, and a white woman virtual assistant. Each team member brings a unique perspective and set of experiences to our work, contributing to the overall diversity of our team.  

In addition to demographic diversity, we value knowledge diversity within our team. Our web developer, for instance, has experience running and selling a successful subscription box, bringing valuable insights and expertise to our operations. Furthermore, our content writer and math content writer are certified teachers, enabling them to bring their pedagogical expertise to our educational materials. This diverse range of knowledge and skills enriches our work and ensures a comprehensive approach to promoting DEI in math/STEM.

Our business model revolves around recurring revenue through a monthly subscription service. We charge $44.95 for the monthly subscription plus $6 flat-rate shipping; we aim to spend $20 or less on each box. In addition to our month-to-month subscription option, we also offer a three-month, six-month, or twelve-month prepaid subscription; our six-month and twelve-month prepaid subscriptions provide cost savings to the customer. Additionally, we bring in revenue through bulk orders, workshops, and speaking engagements. The prices for these vary based on the customers’ needs and preferences. Historically, our key subscription customers have been mothers and other Caring Adults in the United States. Our key bulk orders, workshops, and speaking engagement customers have been schools and organizations. Our key beneficiaries are girls on a 3rd to 8th-grade math level who attend traditional school and experience math anxiety. We are currently undergoing a pivot to focus our subscription box marketing efforts on homeschooling families and B2B customers (schools, districts, and youth-serving organizations).  

Our flagship offering is our monthly subscription box that delivers curated educational materials and resources directly to our customer's doorsteps. These boxes contain engaging activities, inspiring stories, and empowering messages designed to enhance math skills and boost confidence. We sell our boxes and other math confidence-building products on our website, Blackgirlmathgic.com, and on the subscription marketplace website cratejoy.com. We also sell at in-person events, such as local small business markets and girl- or STEM-focused expos. Additionally, our website offers a range of math confidence items for individual purchase. To cater to the unique needs of our customers, we also accept purchase orders via e-mail from schools and homeschool co-ops and organizations. We ship (or deliver if local) all physical products ordered online directly to our customers.  

We also conduct in-person or virtual workshops on-site at the customer’s desired location or on an online platform like Zoom. These workshops provide girls with interactive learning experiences and guidance, helping them overcome math anxiety and build essential skills.  

The need for our solution stems from the crucial role math plays in everyone's personal and professional success. STEM and math education has a confidence gap; we are bridging that gap daily. We strive to empower our beneficiaries to develop lifelong math skills, unlocking exponential opportunities for personal and professional growth and stability.

Looking toward the future, our plan for becoming financially sustainable involves a combination of different strategies. BGM will continue to deepen its sales and expand our line of math confidence products, services, and experiences. We will soon launch a targeted campaign to grow B2B and homeschool sales to scale the business, increase our customer lifetime value and provide a more stable customer base. This strategy will involve investing in adjusted marketing and advertising tactics to reach these audiences and develop long-term customer relationships. Another important part of our plan involves positioning our Team Lead as a thought leader and conducting more speaking engagements. Securing opportunities to speak at conferences, community programs, and youth events will increase revenue and profit, while driving awareness of our products and services. Offering online and in-person workshops is another expansion area for the company that will support long-term financial sustainability, particularly as educational institutions are looking to employ various solutions to increase students’ math scores in the wake of COVID. By combining multiple revenue streams and focusing on building long-term relationships with our customers, we are confident that we can achieve this goal and create a successful and financially sustainable business.

Our subscription-based revenue model has provided us with a more predictable path to financial sustainability by generating reliable recurring revenue. This offers stability and allows us to plan effectively, better forecast future growth, and manage inventory more efficiently. Furthermore, as our subscriber base continues to grow, we are poised to negotiate better deals with vendors, resulting in cost savings on box items. This cost advantage directly improves our profit margins, allowing us to reinvest in our core mission and expand our impact.  

Since launching, we have earned $200,000+ in revenue and won over $205,000 in equity-free funding secured through grants and pitch competitions. We are grateful to the following organizations for their belief in our vision and their contributions to our financial sustainability: Michigan Women Forward, American Express/iFundWomen, HBCUvc, Facebook/Meta, Dove Chocolate, Famous Amos, Citi Trends, Comcast, Detroit Demo Day, and more.  

Our ability to generate revenue and the grants and funding we have secured demonstrate our progress in achieving long-term financial viability. We are eager to leverage these successes to continue making a lasting impact on gender equity in STEM.