Our commitment to wealth building.

You may remember the cover of the January 2000 issue of BLACK ENTERPRISE. On it, we featured a baby cradled in the arms of a proud father. Our cover lines read: "The Future is in Your Hands! Black Wealth: How to Build It, Keep It and Pass It On." That issue and image were so powerful because they signaled to readers the launch of our Black Wealth Initiative. With the inclusion of our 10-point Declaration of Financial Empowerment, better known as DOFE, our coverage has focused primarily on financial literacy and increasing the net worth of legions of African Americans.

As part of our initiative, we felt strongly that we had to ante up and play an active role in the lives of our readers. In January 2000, we kicked off our Financial Fitness Contest. Since then, we have connected nearly 70 individuals and families with some of the best financial planners around and invested more than $130,000 to get them on the road to financial independence. Some have used the monthly $2,000 award to eliminate debt, start college funds, fund nest eggs, or save for a house.

In this issue, we have taken our activism a step further. BE unveils the winners of our"Own Your First Home" Contest. After an arduous process, Kimberly and James Papillion of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, were named the winners of the inaugural contest. Their prize: $10,000 to help them with their down payment.

The Papillions were selected from close to 1,000 applicants who filled out our entry form on blackenterprise.com or sent the form in via mail or fax. Applicants had to demonstrate that they were financially prepared to close on a home between Sept. 1 and Dec. 31, 2005, and each contestant had to write a compelling essay about how and why they were pursuing homeownership. After our editorial staff discussed the merits of eight finalists, the Papillions emerged as the winners. The $10,000 down payment assistance made their home more affordable, saving them thousands of dollars in interest over the life of their 30-year mortgage. To underscore the importance of this contest, the check was hand-delivered by none other than our publisher Earl G. Graves, who has been a proponent of homeownership and wealth building for more than 36 years.

Although it's our latest effort to get our message of financial empowerment across, the contest is really an extension of BWI and our DOFE principles. We revised DOFE in January 2004 and made the No. 1 principle to use homeownership to build wealth. And since that issue, we have covered homeownership every month. In fact, in this issue, we launch a five-part series on the homeownership process with the feature "Preparing to Buy a Home." Over the next few months, we will share with readers how to develop a homeownership team, how to get the best mortgage, and how to handle the closing process.

The contest and the related editorial packages are at the heart of our mission. "In honor of our 35th anniversary, and to underscore the importance of homeownership for black Americans, we developed the Own Your First Home Contest to provide a vehicle to help our readers obtain homes," says Personal Finance Editor Matthew S. Scott, who was present when the Papillions closed on their home. "This contest is similar to the way our Financial Fitness Contest helps our readers map out a realistic plan for their financial futures."

At BE, we consider ourselves as more than a source of critical information. We're also dedicated to providing the tools required in order to create wealth. And with homeownership being the foundation upon which most of the nation's personal wealth is built, it made perfect sense for us to demonstrate our commitment financially, as well. "The homeownership contest is just the latest way BE is actively trying to eliminate the wealth gap between whites and blacks in America," says Editor-in-Chief Alfred A. Edmond Jr. "We hope that the Papillion's story will inspire others to pursue homeownership."