Mission and Goals

One Love Los Angeles was started as a social media platform to help spread information and be a civil, equal, and human rights advocate page. As we grew our following we realized a great disparity in the opportunities and support that black and brown small businesses were facing in L.A. So we made it our goal to help even that playing field by offering not just promotional help on social media, but physical assistance building websites, creating logos and helping small business rebrand themselves and reach that next level of business. At that time we became a 501(c)3 and haven’t looked back since. Our belief is that the racial unjust that so many face is deeply rooted on financial power, and we are here to bring balance to that the best we can. My professional experience is 30 years in upper retail management so it was a natural fit for me. As a white man in American I realize the opportunities and privilege I get in this country on a daily basis. I may see it more than some as my first wife, my sons mother, is black as is my son. Now I have black and brown grandchildren. I refuse to accept a future where they don’t have the same opportunities as I did just because we are a different color. The future and success of the black and brown community is also the future and success of my family. As an only child, at some point I will be the only white person in my immediate family. And I have now dedicated my life to ensure not just my family, but all families have all the same opportunities I did regardless of color or culture. 

We help the community in many ways. Our main focus is the growth and development of black and brown small business. We have built multiple websites and created logos for many small businesses and are currently working on a half a dozen more. We pay for the domain name and hosting for the first year and never charge anything for building the site. We also have an award called the “Mini Marathon Award”. This award is for kids 15 and under that want to start a business and gain entrepreneurship and financial skills. Our first winner was Lip Magic By Sprinkles, www.lipmagicbysprinkels.biz. We are currently working with a young man who is staring a t-shirt business. These are a business in a box model. We have three different models currently (lipgloss, t-shirts, lemonade stand). We provide a website with e-commerce, logo creation, marketing material and also training material for the parents so they can be involved as well. We supply enough product for the business to start and make money. From there we offer everything at cost going forward. If the winner chooses to use others after the initial set up we fully support that too. But we are always here for support and help. We want to build life long relationships with the people we support, and support us, so they know they will always have someone to come to for help. We recently volunteered to sponsor the food panty at the new teen community center opened by project 43, another amazing non profit. We filled it initially with over $800 in food. That money was raised by a raffle that small business donated prizes for. We try to work with as many other organization as we can. Whether that is helping feed the community in Watts with the East Side Riders or bringing water to the community fridge in Leimert Part. We want to make sure we leave the world in a better place that it was when we got here and we will continue to do that as long as we can. 

With the pandemic it has been next to impossible to put on fund raising events. So during the week I drive Instacart and Postmates for extra money to make sure we can pay the bills and keep doing what we do. Our goal for 2021 is to come out with our own apparel line to help support our mission goals. We can also then uses that service to help others promote their businesses as well which is always our objective. We are planning a blip billboard starting Feb 1st, 2021 that will allow us to not only feature our app, One Love Marketplace that is available for Apple and Android. But also promote businesses on the app. The app, built in-house, is what we call a one stop shop for small black and brown business in L.A. Our long term goal is to have a brick and mortar store location where local designers and businesses can sell their product on a consignment basis with little to no out of pocket costs. Our hope with the app is to grow the customer base for these businesses and help reach an audience they may not reach solely on social media. One other project we are very excited about is our Community Book Shelf venture. These will be small, self standing, book rooms. On average they are approximately 4x5 feet and will be stocked with 200-300 books each. These will be placed 

throughout communities, with approval from local businesses, that will allow people to get books to read, return them and so on. The community can also donate books to the book shelf as well. We started in 2018 and I feel we have done some amazing things to this point. But we are just getting started. At 54 years young I have found what I was meant to do. I am proud of the work we have done so far and am excited about the things we can do going forward. Thank you for your consideration and for thinking of us at One Love Los Angeles for this amazing grant opportunity. 

Peace and Love 

Erik Campbell
Executive Director
One Love Los Angeles
EIN# 84-1886522 www.onelovelosangeles.org erik@onelovela.org 323-250-LOVE