The David Prize is accepting submissions for its 2024–2025 Open Call.
Finalist
Victoria Lee
Helping Chinatown institutions succession plan and live on for generations to come
- Year
- 2024
- Organization
- Welcome to Chinatown
- Sector
- Placemaking & Neighborhoods
- Borough
- Manhattan
Vic started Welcome to Chinatown as a love letter to the neighborhood and NYC. What started as a project to celebrate the neighborhood evolved into an essential hub and support model for small businesses across Chinatown. Recently, Vic quit her corporate job to pursue Welcome to Chinatown full-time.
Vic’s vision is about expanding and improving support for small businesses that are largely run by aging owners, lack access to technology, and are at-risk of losing their foothold after decades of operation. She already has started to support business owners by thinking through what the next chapter could look like by gaining the deep trust of their teams. She helps digitize and archive inventory, market offerings on social and other channels, streamline accounting, and plan succession. From her work with businesses, Vic now wants to build a fund that can provide flexible capital to help businesses successfully pass their legacy down to new owners that aspire to maintain and grow the institutions.