Our mission
Built for Black communities, not for profit.
Black Stacks makes Black-owned businesses in the UK easy to find. It is also built so that the money it makes keeps working for Black communities, rather than ending up in anyone's pocket. This page explains how.
Our purpose
What we're here to do
Our purpose is written into our articles of association, the rulebook every UK company files on the public record. In plain English, Black Stacks exists to:
- promote the economic, social and cultural wellbeing of Black communities in the UK; and
- tackle racism towards Black communities, and advance racial equality for them.
We do that by:
- running the Black Stacks directory, so anyone can find, use and support Black-owned and Black-led businesses and organisations;
- helping those businesses, organisations and community spaces to last and grow, including by helping to stop them being pushed out of the places where they trade or gather; and
- making grants and donations to people, groups and causes whose work does the same.
When our articles say Black communities, they mean people in the UK of Black African, Black Caribbean or other Black heritage, and the communities they form.
Our structure
Nobody profits from Black Stacks
Black Stacks Directory Ltd is a not-for-profit company limited by guarantee. It has no shareholders and it cannot pay dividends.
Everything we earn and own has to be used for the purpose above, including the cost of running Black Stacks. None of it can be paid out as profit to the people who run it, directly or indirectly. This is called an asset lock.
We can't get round it by selling Black Stacks cheaply, either. If the directory, its data or its brand were ever sold to anyone connected to the people who run it, the price would have to be full market value, backed by an independent valuation.
If Black Stacks ever closes, whatever is left after paying our debts can't go to us. It has to go to one or more asset-locked organisations that work to tackle racism towards Black communities or advance racial equality for them, or whose purpose is otherwise similar to ours.
Black Stacks isn't a charity or a community interest company, so donations to us don't qualify for Gift Aid. We wrote our own asset lock into our articles instead, and made it hard to undo.
Pay
How the people who run it are paid
Running Black Stacks is real work, and the people doing it can be paid for it. Our articles set firm limits on that.
- Capped at the UK median. No director or member can be paid more in a year than the median salary for a full-time employee in the UK, using the latest figure the Office for National Statistics had published before that financial year began. Part-time pay is reduced in proportion. For our first financial year, which ends on 31 August 2027, the limit is £39,039. On top of that, we can pay employer's National Insurance and up to 4% of salary into a pension.
- Agreed by someone else. A director's pay has to be agreed in writing, in advance, by the other directors. The person being paid takes no part in the decision.
- No bonuses. Nobody who runs Black Stacks can be paid a bonus or commission linked to our income, profit or surplus.
- Published. We publish what each director and member was paid within nine months of the end of each financial year.
What we've paid
No figures yet. Our first financial year ends on 31 August 2027, and we'll publish what each director and member was paid by 31 May 2028.
Giving
Where any surplus goes
When Black Stacks brings in more than it costs to run, after tax and a sensible reserve to keep it going, we'll give the surplus away to people, groups and causes whose work fits our purpose. They don't have to be registered charities.
Our listed businesses will decide where it goes. This is how we plan to run the vote. We'll publish the full policy here before the first one.
- One business, one vote. Every business with a live listing gets one vote. No business gets more.
- A published shortlist. We'll publish the causes, groups and organisations on the ballot, and why each one is there.
- No voting for yourself. A business can't vote on anything it stands to gain from, other than as one of a much wider group of people who benefit.
- Directors can't benefit. Businesses owned by our directors, or by their family or household, can be listed on Black Stacks on the same terms as anyone else, but they can never receive money from us. That still applies for 12 months after a director steps down.
- We'll follow the result. The directors will act on the outcome unless doing so would break the law or leave Black Stacks unable to pay its debts. If that ever happens, we'll say so here and explain why.
- Everything in the open. Afterwards, we'll publish how much was given, to whom, how many businesses voted and the result.
Where things stand today
There's no surplus yet. Businesses that join by 31 December 2026 get their first year free, and listings cost £20 a year after that, so there won't be anything to share until listing fees are covering our costs. We'd rather tell you that than promise money that doesn't exist.
What we've given
Nothing to report yet. When we give, we'll publish what was given, to whom, and how the vote went.
Governance
Who runs Black Stacks
Black Stacks is run by its directors, who are also its only members. Our articles require at least two directors who aren't related to each other, and any director with a personal interest in a decision has to declare it and step out of it.
Right now Black Stacks has one director, its founder, Alex Donovan-Lowe. We're appointing two more directors, neither of them related to Alex, and we'll name them here once they're appointed.
You can also find our directors on the Companies House register (opens in a new tab).
Our rules
How our rules can change
Every part of our articles is protected. Changing any of it needs two things:
- every member of Black Stacks has to agree; and
- at least 28 days beforehand, we have to publish the proposed change and our reasons on this page, send it to every listed business, and consider what they tell us.
Proposed changes
There are no proposed changes to our articles.
Read our articles of association and our full filing history (opens in a new tab) on the Companies House register. Company number 17404226.