Now, you can contribute to Women's Initiative online!
Women's Initiative relies heavily on private contributions. Most programs receive little or no public support.
You can donate by clicking on the above icon, or you can call the Development Department: (510) 287-3113. We can take Visa and MasterCard information over the phone, by email and by fax: (510) 451-3428.
We're very excited about our new Contra Costa County office in Concord. We just had our opening/ribbon-cutting ceremony last week and The Contra Costa Times wrote an article about it.
For those of you keeping count, that's our sixth official office! (The others are San Francisco, Oakland Downtown, Oakland Fruitvale, San Rafael, and San Jose.)
We had an exciting week last week. California's First Lady Maria Shriver visited our Oakland office and three client sites, including Svea Vezzone's Swarm Gallery, where we held a reception in her honor.
The visit was organized to announce Shriver's statewide initiative or invest in women entrepreneurs, called "We Invest." Shriver committed $100,000 to Women's Initiative to support 100 women's training.
The Oakland Tribune had a great article about it:
"When you give a man a loan, you help him. When you give a woman a loan, you help her children, her family and her community," said Shriver, explaining that it was in the women's nature to pass the good along.
... The event was held at SWARM Gallery on Second Street, the business of Svea Lin Vezzone, a graduate of the Women's Initiative. Before she made her appearance at the gallery, Shriver visited the businesses oftwo other graduates, Sheron Campbell, the owner of World of Braids, and Allison Barakat, the proprietor of Bakesale Betty who employs 75 workers.
Shriver, dismissing the many praises being showered upon her when she took the stage, reminded her audience that she had never started a business as they had.
"I'm completely in awe of you," she said.
The Women's Conference is an annual event launched by the governor that unites 60 world leaders with 14,000 women in one arena to share stories of success and life lessons.
... The launch of WE Invest was announced at the Women's Conference in October. Shriver said she picked Oakland for the launch venue "because I've wanted to do something in Oakland. I wanted to start in a place that really needed it."
We're not sure what to be more excited about: the money (which will help us help 100 more women with trainings and loans), the publicity (which will help bring in both support and new clients), or getting to meet the first lady!
Okay, we're ready for our close-up.
We're feeling very rock-star-ish this week with our second major newspaper article in as many weeks! The Contra Costa Times posted their article on us today on the internet. You can read it here.
The Women's Initiative, a Northern California nonprofit training organization that's 20 years old this year, has helped low-income women start or expand more than 1,600 businesses in Northern California. Until the Concord center opened in December 2007, however, Contra Costa clients had to travel to Oakland or San Francisco to take classes, or gather in makeshift classrooms.
Now, they can take advantage of the new, immaculate center near Willow Pass Road close to downtown, where flowering plum trees are visible through the wide windows and the orange motif of the organization is reflected on the walls. Most of the center's funding came from a Small Business Administration grant of $150,000 a year for the next five years, said Maria LoValvo, Contra Costa regional team leader.
The program that jump-started Nelson's new career costs low-income women $100 or less for a 20-session program that
teaches how to create a business plan, find target markets, handle the books and "everything else about how to start and operate your own business," LoValvo said.
Women are a powerful entrepreneurial force in American business. Two in five of all the businesses in the United States are privately held, and 50 percent or more are women-owned firms, according to the Center for Women's Research. These generate $1.9 trillion in annual sales and employ 12.8 million people nationwide.
If it looks like Julie (to the right) is throwing up her hands in delight, well, that's how we all feel at Women's Initiative this week!
The San Francisco Chronicle dedicated a wonderful, front-page, Sunday edition article to Women's Initiative last Sunday.
Sometimes it takes someone from the outside to make you see yourself anew:
Julie Castro Abrams, the organization's chief executive officer, said 68 percent of graduates are in business within 12 months of completing the 10-week program, which costs $100, although a sliding scale means the applicants most in need pay less.
"A couple years later, they're too busy to return our phone calls," Abrams joked. "But they send checks and volunteer, or they come to be guest speakers and tell other women how to do it."
The agency has served more than 16,000 women in two decades. The average client is 41 years old, and 78 percent are women of color. Twenty-nine percent are single mothers, 15 percent have a disability, and 46 percent speak Spanish as their first or only language - which is why Women's Initiative offers programs in Spanish. All of the women are struggling, with an average household income of only $13,000 a year, and some are illiterate.
"Low-income women in particular have a whole set of issues about their self-perception and some of those demons that have become roadblocks for them in the past," Abrams said. "We help them visualize and get rid of them - like not pricing themselves appropriately because they don't think they're worth it, or giving themselves all the million reasons in the world not to go out and shake a hand or make sales because they're terrified."
The organization, which has a $4.9 million budget this year, relies on donations from foundations, corporations, government and individuals. In 2007, Women's Initiative made 160 loans to clients to help with their businesses, totaling $311,363 and ranging from $1,000 to $25,000.
In San Francisco last year, eight graduates received first-time leaseholder grants of $9,000 apiece, with the assistance of the Mayor's Office of Community Development, to help overcome a frequent problem: prohibitively high commercial rents.
The article also contained some praise from a peer:
Bob Graham, founder of NamasteDirect, a microcredit organization in San Francisco, said people often ask him if microcredit is being done anywhere in the United States as successfully as it is in much of the developing world.
"I always reply that it is, in a few cases," he said. "And the best example is Women's Initiative. It has a track record second to none."
Can you see us blushing?
You can read the whole thing for yourself here. And please talk back to us in the comments below! What did you think of the article? What would you add if you were writing it?
Gavin Newsom visited Women's Initiative's San Francisco headquarters to hold a focus group on the Mayor's Office of Economic and Workforce Development's program: Enterprise Zone Tax Credits for SF Businesses.
San Francisco businesses are eligible for substantial tax benefits through two enterprise zone programs.
The state Enterprise Zone program enables businesses in targeted locations to reduce their state income tax liability. These areas include; Hunters Point, Bayview, Chinatown, Financial District, SOMA, North Beach, Embarcadero, Mission, Potrero Hill, Tenderloin, Civic Center etc. The size of the business doesn’t matter, it can be a large company or a small restaurant.
Tax benefits include:
The Mayor said that this is a great program, but few business are taking advantage of it. He came to the community for feedback. Forty stakeholders, among them Organizations like MEDA, La Cocina, Women’s Initiative, and the SF Chamber of Commerce gave him input on how to promote it and reach especially small business owners. They said that the information needs to be simple, accessible and translated into every language.
For more info about the program you can check the Mayor's Office of Economic and Workforce Development website.
(Photo of Gavin Newsom with Alma Elizondo, Women's Initiative's SuccessLink/Avance Associate.)
Oakland Magazine features Women's Initiative's October Business Conference, "Taking It to the Streets," in their "snapshots" section. The webpage has ten slideshows of photos from the conference, so check in to see if you were captured!
(The photo here, of Women's Initiative Advisor Dana Whitaker, was taken by Kali Kraum.)
Ladies and Gents, don't forget!
Women's Initiative's annual October Business Conference happens tomorrow, i.e Tuesday!
There will be a trade show where you can buy products from graduates of Women's Initiative's training program. There will seminars and speed-mentoring for women small business owners. There will be a fashion show and a raffle and lunch! Women's Initiative graduate Susan Grant (photo above) and Carol H. Williams of Carol H. Williams Advertising will be honored at lunch.
You don't need to register to check out the trade show from 11 am - 3 pm.
Businesswomen can register for the conference starting at 7:30 am. It costs $75 including breakfast and lunch.
The event takes place at the Oakland Marriott, 1001 Broadway at 10th Street in downtown Oakland, just two blocks from the 12th Street/Downtown Oakland BART station.
Don't forget, folks, former Irish president and former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson will be visiting us in San Francisco on Monday, September 17 at the Palace Hotel, at 2 New Montgomery St, San Francisco, CA 94105. This is a FREE EVENT! Invitation below.
*****
Women's Initiative for Self Employment warmly invites you to a public speaking forum with the Honorable Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland and former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. She will speak about her current work with the Women Leaders Intercultural Forum, a program of realizing rights: The Ethical Globalization Initiative.
Monday, September 17, 2007 7:00-8:00 pm Public speaking engagement The Palace Hotel
The Honorable Mary Robinson is an advocate for women’s equality and leadership. Please join us for the public forum where she will speak about women’s leadership in the world and ways to link local women leaders with policymakers and global movers-and-shakers. We hope by participating in the evening, you will be inspired to support the work of the Women Leaders Intercultural Forum.
At Women’s Initiative, we know that poverty reduction is tied to women’s empowerment. Women who graduate from the Women’s Initiative program experience improved self-esteem and many become leaders in the Bay Area community. Join us to envision a world where women are major economic actors and can be found in leadership roles at the local, regional and global level. Imagine a world where poverty is nowhere to be found.
Please rsvp to events@womensinitiative.org.
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