Category: Funding

SBA Launches Largest Expansion of Women’s Business Centers in 30 Years

Small Business Administration logo

According to this recent post, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) recently announced grant funding along with the launch of 20 new Women’s Business Centers (WBC) that will be opened across America. These new centers will serve rural, urban, and underserved communities. The move to open 20 new WBCs is the largest single expansion of the program since it began 30 years ago. Check out the post to read more about where the centers will be located as well as to access other resources from the SBA.

Link to Webinar – Black Entrepreneurship: Overcoming Adversity and Staying Focused

Screenshot from Black Entrepreneurship panel on Zoom.

Click this link to access “Black Entrepreneurship: Overcoming Adversity and Staying Focused”. In this webinar, a panel of Black entrepreneurs in various stages of their startup journeys will share their experiences, the adversities they’ve overcome, and the resources and organizations that have provided them the support, connections, and opportunities they needed.

The panel was moderated by Marquita M. Qualls, Ph.D., Executive Director of Entrepreneurship Programs, The National GEM Consortium and the panelists included Shila Nieves Burney (Founder and Managing Partner, Zane Venture Fund), Hakim Weatherspoon (Associate Professor, Cornell University; and Co-founder and CEO, Exotanium) and Titus Calloway (Founder and CEO, BlackLaunch LLC and ReLo)

This webinar was coordinated by Black Entrepreneurs in Training (BET). BET is a Cornell program dedicated to inspiring, informing, and initiating the next wave of black student entrepreneurs and is supported by the Center for Regional Economic Advancement at Cornell University (CREA).

New Grant and Fellowship Opportunities

IFundWomen Idea Grant

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In honor of National Women’s Small Business Month, IFundWomen will be awarding six (6) $2,500 grants to idea stage entrepreneurs. Applications will be accepted through Saturday, October 31, 2020. For more information, click here

Tory Burch Foundation Fellows Program

The Tory Burch Foundation Fellows Program is accepting applications from now until November 12th, 2020. The Fellows Program is a one-year fellowship that offers mentorship in addition to a $5000 grant to use for additional business education.  To learn more and access the application, click here.

Culture, Honesty and Three Tips for The Best Pitch

three hands holding cartoon puzzle pieces

In this September 22,2020 interview, Inc. magazine senior editor Christine Lagorio interviews Cindy Eckert who is the CEO of Sprout Pharmaceuticals as well as the founder of Pink Ceiling, a business incubator for women.

During the interview, Eckert shares her own dissatisfaction with traditional big-business which led her to become an entrepreneur. Related to that, she discusses the importance of creating a strong company culture – whether your organization is just getting off the ground or an established business. Finally, she shares her thoughts on the three things that every founder should be able to express when heading into a potential investor meeting. Click the link above to access the write-up and interview.

Link to webinar: “Raising Capital During a Crisis”

Picture of Olivia Owens from webinar zoom session

Click this link to access the August 18, 2020 webinar entitled “Raising Capital During A Crisis: Launch and Grow Your Business With Crowdfunding”

Olivia Owens, Head of Partnerships at IFundWomen, discusses how to leverage crowdfunding for your business. You’ll come away from this workshop with a honed pitch, a network map, a winning rewards strategy, and a marketing plan for your crowdfunding campaign.

Exploring Funding Opportunities For A Variety of Business Models

In this 15 minute video segment, Liz Ngonzi looks at the spectrum of business models from not-for-profits to social enterprises to traditional for-profits and then explores a variety of sources of funding that apply to each model. She also discusses organizations such as incubators and accelerators that can provide both monetary and consulting support to start-up businesses.

Elizabeth (Liz) Ngonzi is the Founder and CEO of Liz Ngonzi Transforms who as an international educator, speaker, executive coach, and consultant, helps impact-driven leaders, entrepreneurs and organizations to more effectively define and tell their stories, enabling them to improve engagement with their stakeholders.  In helping clients she aims to INSPIRE, CONNECT with and ACTIVATE them to create the TRANSFORMATION they seek in their lives and/or organizations.  Additionally, Liz proudly supports women leaders and entrepreneurs as a facilitator in the Bank of America Institute for Women’s Entrepreneurship at Cornell.  Previously as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the Cornell Pillsbury Institute for Hospitality Entrepreneurship, she helped aspiring entrepreneurs develop and present their unique value proposition to funders.

Amplify Speaker Series

"Amplify" speaker series logo

“Amplify” is a free speaker series designed to support and empower underrepresented communities in entrepreneurship and venture capital. In 2018, only 1% of venture capital funding went to Black startup founders. Black female entrepreneurs were only allocated 0.02% of VC funding. 

Entrepreneurship organizations at Yale, Harvard, Fordham, Cornell, Brown, Columbia, UC Berkeley, Stanford, UPenn, and Vanderbilt have come together to schedule weekly speakers. Amplify’s mission is to educate, inspire, and pave new paths forward for underrepresented voices in the world of startups.

The Cornell Entrepreneurship Club and the Sullivan Foundation at Rust College present AMPLIFY Week 4 – on Tuesday, August 4th at 5pm ET – which will feature a conversation with Jean-Pierre Adéchi, the CEO/Co-Founder of Wheeli. He will share thoughts on raising capital as a black founder and include specific lessons for women, minority, and other outside-the-box founders. To sign up for this event, click here.

To add your name to the Amplify mailing list to be alerted to future speakers, click here.

Can Government Programs Counter the COVID-19 Impact on Women Entrepreneurs?

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In this July 15, 2020 piece in Forbes, author Geri Stengel explores the explosion of women-owned businesses from 2008 to present as well as inequities that still exist (and were made more apparent with the impact of COVID-19) for women and more specifically, women of color. She also discusses how federal, state, and local governments can do more to support women entrepreneurs.

Count Me In Revival Grant Application Is Open

Count Me In Revival Logo

Count Me In is the first national not for profit founded to help women grow their micro-businesses to million-dollar enterprises. They are currently accepting grant applications.

There are 15 grants available at $10K and 4 grants available at $25K each. Contestants have two weeks to complete the application starting on Wed June 24th when the link to the official application will be live. All applications are due no later than Thursday July 8, 2020 COB 5pm PST. More information can be found here.