Black-owned agency Elite Media has launched a competition called the “Keep It !00 Pitch” that will award $50,000 to the winning proposal. 

A winner will be announced from a group of finalists at the One Club For Creativity conference in New York next month called Where Are All The Black People. Entry details can be found here. 

The competition invites entrepreneurs, creators, and innovators who are ready to “flip the script, shake the table, and bring their vision to life to pitch their idea,” according to the agency. 

The prize money will be awarded for an original idea or product that pushes culture forward, or for the “next big media platform,” or a startup creative agency that is ready to launch or some other concept “ready for the spotlight.” 

The Keep It 100 Pitch is the first initiative in a new program Elite calls, "A Crash Course in OutGooding," which it defines as a “series of bold actions designed to call out, shake up, and level up the industry.” 

“The time for disruption is now,” stated Elite Media founder and CEO Chris Crawford. “Our communities deserve action. We are putting our money where our mouth is, already investing upwards of $2 million of our own agency dollars back into the Harlem community that nurtures us.” 

Added Crawford, “We see the opportunity to broaden that impact within the ad industry, intentionally in non-traditional spaces. We are now challenging the industry and convening spaces to move past the vanity metrics and create real-time domino effects of change that will transform communities.”