Blaze Group

08/20/2026

📣 Pitch Competition for HBCU students, faculty, and staff! See below.

Applications for START HBCU Alabama are open now.

If you're an Alabama HBCU student, recent grad, or faculty/staff member with a business idea (not generating revenue yet), and you've done a Alabama Collective program before, you're eligible.

With support from Pivotal, JPMorganChase, and , this Program includes mentorship, workshops, and a live pitch competition at the Magic City Classic, with cash prizes for the top 3 finishers.

📅 Deadline: September 6
🔗 Apply here: https://hubs.li/Q04tbNJd0

| Alabama Collective


For informational/educational purposes only. Digitalundivided is not affiliated with JPMorganChase

08/12/2026

If this speaks to your heart — we invite you to apply!

👉🏾 blazegroup.io/apprenticeship

Today, we teach the nation.
Tomorrow, the world.

08/10/2026

The Blaze Apprenticeship was built for students who want to pair their financial degrees with the knowledge and experience to:
▪️ monetize their own brilliance in the market
▪️ drive financial education that feels safe + inviting
▪️ transform systems to better serve their communities

Across the academic year, Apprentices move through two core experiences:

1️⃣ Market Development
Building relationships, generating opportunities, activating campuses, and learning how ideas move from interest to commitment.

2️⃣ Market Application
Teaching, facilitating, consulting, and applying modern finance concepts in real-world settings.

The goal is to help students translate what they are learning in the classroom into practical experience that strengthens businesses, institutions, and communities.

Applications for the 2026–2027 Blaze Apprenticeship close this Saturday, August 15 at 5:00 PM CT.

Swipe through for:
• why the program exists
• what Apprentices experience
• how to prepare your application

Learn more and apply at blazegroup.io/apprenticeship

08/09/2026

We are building financial architects.

The 2026–2027 Blaze Apprenticeship is designed to develop the next generation of consultants, facilitators, and financial practitioners who can help strengthen businesses, institutions, and communities.

Apprentices will learn how to build markets, generate opportunities, facilitate programs, teach modern finance, and contribute to financial systems that are more accessible, regenerative, and built to last.

Beyond preparation for jobs in the financial sector, we are preparing college students to build what should come next in modern financial technology and systems.

Applications close August 15, 2026 at 5:00 PM CT.

Learn more and apply at blazegroup.io/apprenticeship

Today, we teach the nation.
Tomorrow, the world.

05/16/2026

2.5 days of uninterrupted communal space.
Five organizations united by a shared commitment to financial equity. One city rich with culture, hospitality, and imagination to hold it all.

The Future of CDFIs Unleashed Summit (FOCUS Atlanta) was truly special.

Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) and fintech leaders came together to actively imagine what more accessible, interoperable, and community-centered financial systems could look like in practice.

The Atlanta University Center Consortium Data Science Initiative opened its doors to help facilitate this think tank. Students from Morehouse College and Spelman College challenged participants to build for the future they actually want to inherit. The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta encouraged organizations to think deeply about emerging payment infrastructure and evolving legislation. Interledger Foundation helped catalyze research and development through its grant cycle. And Blaze Group had the privilege of helping shape a tactical vision for ex*****on and partnership.

It was meaningful, necessary, and deeply energizing work.

Time well spent.

05/16/2026

The 2026 Data Challenge Finale, powered by + Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth ( ), was phenomenal!

28 HBCU teams competed for over $50k! We met new friends + partners, made plans for business collaborations, and celebrated brilliant students.

We were grateful be in community. Thank you, .summit — you curated a phenomenal fintech panel discussion that we were honored to be part of.

05/16/2026

“Blessed are those who plant trees under whose shade they will never sit.” — African Proverb

We are planting seeds with 100-year horizons in mind — grateful for the opportunity to help shape minds, cultivate dreams, and expand what students believe is possible for their future. ✨

The students of worked tirelessly throughout the semester, developing market-viable fintech concepts that inspired and impressed the broader community. Their creativity, discipline, and vision were extraordinary to witness.

We’re deeply grateful to every educator, partner, mentor, and supporter who poured into this program in service of entrepreneurship, financial inclusion, and scholarship.

Congratulations to the students of the Dollarcraft Challenge — Spring 2026. The future is bright. 🌱

.bff

05/16/2026

Picture this:

Your organization helps college students design + prototype fintech apps to pitch to statewide stakeholders at the end of the semester.

To prepare for the big stage, those same students lead a 2-hour Fintech Hackathon Sprint for 20 ninth graders — teaching them how to turn ideas into real app prototypes.

In just two hours, high school students move from concept to pitch deck, confidently presenting their ideas and answering questions from a panel of college student judges.

In real-time, you witness your students being struck with the realization that they are capable of building solutions for the world around them.

And in moments like these, you quietly look down at your feet, grateful that God planted you exactly where you’re supposed to be. ✨

04/24/2026

Today’s the big day!

Our students have worked hard over the past several weeks — conducting market research, identifying problems they are most passionate about, and building what’s next in the financial industry.

Today, we’re hosting a dynamic experience designed to demonstrate what’s possible for all of us when we solve our own problems in finance!

Innovators from Huntsville, Atlanta, Montgomery, Birmingham and as far as Sweden are tapping in at The Hill. In great anticipation, they seek to be inspired by the unveiling of fintech apps built by students who are graduating from our 13-week accelerator program.

BLAZE means Building Leaders and Accepting Zero Excuses.

We’re happy to see that mission come to life, once again.

03/27/2026

What a phenomenal kickoff to the Cultivate Summit 2026 this morning. We opened with a real, grounded conversation on The State of the Ecosystem for small businesses. It set the tone in the best way.

A few gems we’re holding close:
▪️ Relationships are everything.
“I am not the sharpest knife in the drawer, but I do have a drawer full of knives.” 🔥

▪️ Behaviors have shifted.
Post-pandemic, convenience winsover experience. Yet, we MUST intentionally show up for small businesses if we want them to survive.

▪️ Credit trauma is REAL.
Many founders have been conditioned to avoid debt at all costs. That history matters. How we introduce financial tools and opportunities must be handled with care.

▪️ The capital gap is nuanced.
Traditional banks may price risk high. Predatory lenders step in quickly when they say no. But there are solutions in the middle—founders just need better visibility into the full capital stack.

▪️ Money isn’t always the answer.
Sometimes the real unlock is partnerships and customers. Expand the ask.

We’re grateful to be in community. And we’re even more excited about the partners we’re building with in real time. So much is coming.