Emergence Baltimore

A Force for Local

Businesses

Entrepreneurs

Artists

Musicians

Empowerment

Emergence Baltimore is a nonprofit dedicated to supporting localism in Baltimore.

Our mission is to increase the competitiveness of small businesses by advocating for their needs, promoting their offerings, and matching them up with local talent.

Our Programs

3 Ways You Can Support Local

Supporting local businesses is a necessity, but we understand that it's not always clear how you can help. Our three programs make it easy to support Baltimore's local businesses - check them out below!

Buy Local Business Navigator

It can be hard to shop local if you don't know all the wonderful businesses that Baltimore has to offer. Use the Buy Local Baltimore platform to explore hundreds of local businesses, sorting by business type, products, and more

Launch the Business Navigator

A Force for Local

Are you passionate about supporting local businesses? Sign up for a Force for Local, a volunteer program that allows individuals help small businesses with marketing, content creation, website development, and other capacity-building tasks. In partnership with Equalyze.

Learn About the Force

Quick Local Gifts: BMore Baskets

Do you want to simplify your holiday shopping and ensure your dollars stay local? Order your Holiday Gifts via BMore Baskets, which creates gift baskets full of Baltimore small business products. Give awesome gifts while shunning Amazon: that's the holiday spirit.

Shop BMore Baskets

A Force for local

Sign Up to Support Small Businesses

Are you a small business in need of help, or an individual who wants to help Small Businesses? Sign up to the Force for Local, which connects small businesses in need of assistance with free talent

Join the Force

About Emergence

Supporting Local Businesses isn't Charity - it's a Necessity

Local businesses make up the fabric of our community, economy, and society. However, during COVID, local businesses have struggled to compete as foot traffic has plummeted, people have shifted their purchasing online, and large stores have leveraged economies of scale to out-compete local shops.

40%

of the US workforce is employed by Small Businesses

70%

of local businesses may close due to COVID

28%

of all jobs will disappear if this happens

Over 100,000 small businesses have already shut down due to COVID, and even more stand to be permanently shuttered. Emergence Baltimore is doing our small part to help prevent this from happening so that we all can continue to enjoy the magic that local businesses bring to our community.

Explore Baltimore Businesses

Our Keystone Program

The Emergence Fellowship

COVID has forced many small businesses to compete digitally, even though many small business owners do not have the time, resources, or technological capacity to drive the same volume of digital sales. In the Emergence Fellowship, six Fellows form a Force for Local Businesses, executing on initiatives that help local businesses promote and sell their products.

Small Businesses

If you are a Baltimore-based businesses in need of assistance on your website/e-commerce setup, product photography, social media management, or digital marketing, apply to be one of six businesses selected for the Spring 2021 Emergence Fellowship cohort

Learn More

Fellows

If you are an individual with digital skills who is passionate about supporting small businesses, apply to be an Emergence Fellow, where you will live on-site for 6 weeks at Emergence as you work alongside five other passionate fellows to help execute on projects submit by local businesses

Learn More

A Force for Local

A Force for Local is a grassroots campaign that enables anyone to help local businesses

Everyone can support small businesses, but it's not always easy to know the best way to help (other than shopping local!)We've partnered with Equalyze to launch the Force for Local program, where anyone can help a small business with social media marketing, delivery, content creation, outreach, and other capacity-building tasks.

It doesn't take a village - it takes a Force. Join it today.

Join The Force

Our Mission

We know that local businesses are what make our city amazing, and we are laser-focused on helping them succeed. Through our Buy Local Baltimore Navigator, Force for Local Campaign, and BMore Baskets program, we're helping raise awareness of local businesses, build their internal capacity, and encourage local purchasing.

Only together can we shift the trend away from corporatism and bring about a resurgence of the local businesses that make our communities great places to live, learn, and work.

Kevin Carter

—

President of Emergence Baltimore

Help us Help Local

Donate to Emergence

Emergence Baltimore, Inc. is a Baltimore-based nonprofit (501(c)3 pending).
Your 100% tax deductible donations allow us to keep our our platforms and programs free of charge to small businesses and participants

Support Our Efforts

Latest News from Emergence Baltimore

Want to catch up on all the news & happenings in the world of Emergence Baltimore? Take a look through our blog posts that highlight our local initiatives as well as the small businesses that we serve.

All Posts

How to Become a Force For Local in Baltimore

Supporting Baltimore's Local Businesses Isn't Charity; It's a Necessity

Emergence's No Trick, All Treat Giveaway: Supporting Baltimore's Local Businesses

Who We Are

Meet Our Team

The Emergence Baltimore team is a group of entrepreneurs and creatives who believe that the success of small businesses means the success of our city. We volunteer our time to run these programs in order to give back to the community we call home

President