Join Us! WWBIC Virtual Luncheon on December 1, 2020

Join Us! WWBIC Virtual Luncheon on December 1, 2020

by | Oct 9, 2020 | Events, WWBIC

Join Us! WWBIC Virtual Luncheon on December 1, 2020

 
Through the ups and downs and twists and turns of 2020 WWBIC’s work at the frontline of economic development has a greater sense of urgency.
 
 
 
Our mission to support entrepreneurs and business owners throughout Wisconsin who are serving our community, supporting themselves, their families and employees via their own business remains constant. We do hope this year you will join us at the frontline with support for our 2020 WWBIC Luncheon as we work in different ways to foster hope and opportunity and reduce inequity in our business community.
 
 
 
 
Luncheon Program | 12:00 – 1:00 pm
Open House Small Biz Market | 1:00 – 3:00 pm
 
 
 
 
In going virtual this year we are able to support more clients than ever before, registration will include an event mailing with luncheon giftcards to WWBIC supported restaurant clients and a custom curated event box. Please register by November 13, 2020 to be included in the event mailing.
 
 
 
 
 
Sponsorship begins at $500 | Individual Tickets $75
 
 
To register, please click here.
 
For information on Sponsorship Levels and Benefits, please click here.

SBA Awards Three Wisconsin Organizations $528,000 in PRIME Grants to Help Emerging Micro-Entrepreneurs Gain Access to Capital

SBA Awards Three Wisconsin Organizations $528,000 in PRIME Grants to Help Emerging Micro-Entrepreneurs Gain Access to Capital

by | Sep 30, 2020 | Partners, Press Releases, Uncategorized, WWBIC

SBA Awards Three Wisconsin Organizations $528,000 in PRIME Grants to Help Emerging Micro-Entrepreneurs Gain Access to Capital

The Wisconsin Women’s Business Initiative Corp., ADVOCAP, and Northwest Side Community Development Corp. are set to receive grants from the U.S. Small Business Administration to help low-income entrepreneurs gain access to capital through the Program for Investment in Micro-Entrepreneurs, more commonly known as PRIME. This is a first-time award for Milwaukee-based NWSCDC. 

  • NWSCDC’s award of $140,000 will support entrepreneurs in its northwest Milwaukee service area that includes 19 Opportunity Zone census tracts. Willie Smith, executive director of NWSCDC responded to the award saying, “We’re thrilled to partner with SBA and serve more small businesses on Milwaukee’s northwest side. We have an energetic team that wants to help our neighbors start a business and grow their operation.”

 

  • ADVOCAP’s award of $188,000 will target rural low-income entrepreneurs with training and technical assistance services in Fond du Lac, Winnebago, and Green Lake counties. Kathy Doyle, ADVOCAP’s director for business development noted,
    “With this grant many of our entrepreneurs will have access to training, technical assistance and SBA micro-loan funds which will help them start, expand and grow their businesses.  Not only will this help entrepreneurs succeed but it will add jobs and revenue to our service area.”

 

  • WWBIC’s award of $200,000 will support technical assistance to disadvantaged entrepreneurs throughout the state. Chief Visionary Officer Wendy Baumann noted, “These funds specifically allow us to continue to work with very, very low- income communities and individuals.  WWBIC is proud to provide our quality business and financial programs and resources in Opportunity Zones, rural areas and HUBZones across Wisconsin – reaching deeper in our communities at promise.”

 

“These funds from the SBA will help these three Wisconsin small business champions make an impact on entrepreneurs trying to take their business to the next level and make it sustainable during this challenging time,” SBA Great Lakes Regional Administrator Rob Scott said. “This business development also will make an impact on local economies and help spur economic development and job creation in distressed areas, which is a key element of SBA’s strategy.”

Wisconsin’s SBA District Director Eric Ness added, “Partners like these three organizations are crucial to SBA’s work of helping small businesses start, grow, expand, and recover. We look forward to seeing the impact of these funds on the small businesses they serve and working with them to leverage their impact.”

For 2020, the SBA placed special emphasis on projects designed to offer training and technical assistance to strengthen economically disadvantaged businesses, particularly those projects serving entrepreneurs in Opportunity Zones, rural areas and Historically Underutilized Business Zones. The 30 PRIME grant recipients represent 19 states and 23 are in Opportunity Zones created by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 and designed to spur new capital investment in America’s economically distressed communities. Nearly 9,000 communities in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and five territories are designated as Opportunity Zones.

This year more than 120 organizations applied for PRIME grants, which range from $75,000 to $250,000, and typically require at least 50% in matching funds or in-kind contributions. PRIME was created by Congress as part of the Program for Investment in Microentrepreneurs Act of 1999. Grant funds will be made available on September 30, 2020, and the project period for each grant is one year.

About the U.S. Small Business Administration

The U.S. Small Business Administration makes the American dream of business ownership a reality. As the only go-to resource and voice for small businesses backed by the strength of the federal government, the SBA empowers entrepreneurs and small business owners with the resources and support they need to start, grow or expand their businesses, or recover from a declared disaster. It delivers services through an extensive network of SBA field offices and partnerships with public and private organizations. To learn more visit www.sba.gov.

About WWBIC

Wisconsin Women’s Business Initiative Corp. (WWBIC) is a leading, innovative economic development corporation “Putting Dreams to Work.” WWBIC’s primary focus is on women, people of color, veterans and low income individuals, providing direct lending and access to fair and responsible capital, quality business education, one-on-one technical business assistance and education to increase financial capability. Since 1987, WWBIC has lent over $77 million in micro and small business loans with a current loan portfolio of $24 million and over 570 active borrowers. To learn more about WWBIC visit: www.wwbic.com

We Stand in Solidarity & Support

We Stand in Solidarity & Support

by | Sep 1, 2020 | News, WWBIC

We Stand in Solidarity & Support

WWBIC was birthed out of the women’s economic empowerment and the microlending movement with a targeted focus on women, people of color, lower income individuals and Veterans. From day one, our work center around removing inequalities and disparities across the community by serving and living our mission daily, one client at a time! The pervasive injustices across our country is intolerable and WWBIC vows to never quit, never give in, never give up on our collective work of dismantling racism – we will not lose hope. We recommit to our 33-year history of advocacy ensuring resiliency to our most vulnerable businesses – the underserved, persons of color, women-owned, and Veterans.

To our clients, partners, supporters, volunteers, funders, policy makers, and elected officials that are asking what WWBIC has done, is doing and will do in the future to advance equity for all:

1. WWBIC is providing and working on behalf of micro businesses to seek funding – philanthropic (private and public), regional, local, and national dollars addressing the inequalities in access to capital – for women, minorities, Veterans. NEW funds with new impact for this time we are living in now!

2. WWBIC is leading in advancing new resources with federal, state, and local government – crafting meaningful support specifically for those whom WWBIC has been dedicated to and who are in such desperate need now – Black and Hispanic/Latinx businesses (businesses owned by people of color are disproportionally affected), lower wealth clients, women and Veteran owned businesses.

3. Created and staffed a statewide rapid response team – Project Optimize – whose efforts will augment our current team’s support and work with small business owners affected by the multi-layered crises facing businesses today.

4. Partnerships with Opportunity Finance Network (OFN) and working to narrow the gap to access to capital further for all.

5. Partnership with SBDC to advance educational, technical assistance, and coaching specifically targeting our Hispanic bilingual and bicultural clients

6. Invited and active participating member of the MKE Civic Response Team/Economic Recovery Team to work through long-term outcomes of: Ensure that African American and Latino/a households and businesses are not left behind following COVID-19 and that economic recovery addresses the disparities present long before the pandemic; Increase the wealth of Milwaukee’s African American and Latino/a households.

Strategies –

o Employment and Workforce Support.

o Small Business and Economic Corridor Stability.

o Stability of African American and Latino/a Homeowners.

o Financial Stability and Wealth Building.

7. Leadership in the Hispanic Collaborative to advance Hispanic entrepreneurship, voter turnout, and increasing household income – to bring Milwaukee from the 44th spot in the nation to the top 10 spot for the Hispanic Wellness Index.

8. Further dedicated work with HACM through their Choice Neighborhood Initiative – advancing financial capability to our most vulnerable population – teaching and talking about home ownership, entrepreneurship, self sufficiency, self promotion, self-empowerment. Serve as a leading advisory committee member to the Governor’s Financial Literacy Council.

9. Deploying our Cultural Competency framework model to ensure staff/WWBIC culturally competent. Here we build on training and support of the past and are upping our game in understanding and respecting differences amongst each other in addition to the demographics we serve.

10. Sharing and educating on our learnings from books, videos, and articles about inequalities and injustices across the globe and how we can continue to advance the very important work we do each and every day.

11. Providing support and resources to Kenosha area small businesses that have been impacted via forgivable loans, planning and deploying a WWBIC Gives Back Campaign to provide support to the community, and working on behalf of the community to seek additional funding to support small businesses.

WWBIC is not alone in this work – as we look to the future, the call to action to our clients, partners, supporters, volunteers, funders, policy makers, and elected officials is clear – join us in our work in dismantling racism, rejecting those who propel hate, injustices, violence and fear.

#kenoshastrong #blacklivesmatter #strongertogether 

WWBIC COVID-19 Update

WWBIC COVID-19 Update

by | Mar 16, 2020 | News, Press Releases, Resources, Uncategorized, WWBIC

WWBIC COVID-19 Update

UPDATE: As of March 23, all WWBIC offices have been closed.

Greetings,

WWBIC is closely monitoring developments of the ongoing spread of coronavirus (COVID-19). Because we are a statewide organization, we have a responsibility to consider health crises that may affect areas of our reach in differing levels of emergency. We wanted to share an update on WWBIC programming and services in light of this situation.
 
 
WWBIC Offices
 
At this time, all WWBIC offices are open for business. However, as this situation is ongoing, we ask that you please reach out directly to our offices for information on potential closures or changes to regular business hours. Calling ahead is highly recommended. We will continue to share information on any changes and on how best to reach us during this time at the numbers
at the bottom of the page.
 
 
WWBIC Programming
 
At this time, WWBIC classes will all be changed from in-person to web based through April. Below is an initial list of our upcoming classes that had already been planned as webinars.
 
 
Over the next couple of days, we will be changing our in person classes to webinars. Please continue and check our website for the most current information in regards to our programming at www.wwbic.com/classes.
 
 
Disaster Relief Lending
 
The U.S. Small Business Administration has announced small business lending opportunities in the wake of COVID-19. The SBA’s Economic Injury Disaster Loans offer up to $2 million in assistance for a small business. These loans can provide vital economic support to small businesses to help overcome the temporary loss of revenue they are experiencing.
 
For more information, please visit the SBA’s website here.
 
 
We appreciate your patience during this time. Our priority is and has always been maintaining the health and safety of our staff and our clients. While we remain open at this time, we advise that all individuals follow the precautions set by the CDC, making sure to wash your hands regularly and avoid larger crowds when possible.
 
 
Thank you and be well,
 
The WWBIC Team

 

WWBIC Greater Milwaukee/Waukesha: 414-263-5450

WWBIC Madison: 608-257-5450

WWBIC Racine: 262-898-5000

WWBIC Kenosha: 262-925-2850

WWBIC Appleton: 920-944-2700

WWBIC Green Bay Hub: 920-496-2110

WWBIC La Crosse: 608-632-8041

WWBIC Earns Diverse Community Capital Grant from Wells Fargo to Spark Small Business Growth

WWBIC Earns Diverse Community Capital Grant from Wells Fargo to Spark Small Business Growth

by | Aug 26, 2019 | News, Partners, WWBIC

WWBIC Earns Diverse Community Capital Grant from Wells Fargo to Spark Small Business Growth

Funding will help Milwaukee create new jobs and grow across Wisconsin
 
Wells Fargo announced a new boost to diverse small businesses today in Milwaukee with a $500,000 grant to Wisconsin Women’s Business Initiative Corp. (WWBIC). The funding is a part of the Wells Fargo Works For Small Business®: Diverse Community Capital program, which offers capital and technical assistance to minority-owned small businesses as a way to create local jobs and strengthen neighborhoods.
 
The grant will focus on advancing infrastructure for WWBIC’s loan and lending operations and enhancing customer service, directly impacting Hispanic and Veteran entrepreneurs and business owners.
 
“This significant investment is extremely helpful,” said WWBIC’s President and CVO Wendy Baumann. “The funds will allow us to build our infrastructure – further and faster is ideal as we continue to serve the many diverse business owners in need of financial support.
 
“Last year alone, WWBIC served more than 5,000 clients and lent to more than 130 businesses, so we are in growth mode,” continued Baumann.” In 2018, 87 percent of Greater Milwaukee Area clients served were minority individuals. We are making an impact, and Wells Fargo’s support allows us to excel.”
 
“WWBIC is deeply embedded in Wisconsin communities and has the skill to deliver personalized coaching and services to underserved small business owners,” said WellsFargo Region Bank President Tony Nguyen. “Together we can help more diverse entrepreneurs reach their full potential and stimulate job creation in the process. We’ve learned that working with CDFIs is an effective way to try new things, help remove barriers and put more small businesses on a path to financial success.”
 
As part of its new philanthropic strategy announced in June, Wells Fargo is focusing on three societal challenges: housing affordability, small business growth and financial health. The Diverse Community Capital program is a critical component to the small business strategy and supports business owners who are African-American, Hispanic, American Indian/Pacific Islander, Asian-American, women, Veterans, LGBTQ+, people with disabilities, and other underrepresented groups.
 
Launched in 2015, the Wells Fargo Works For Small Business®: Diverse Community Capital program is a collaboration with Opportunity Finance Network (OFN). According to OFN’s latest report, DCC awardees have already made loans to more than 16,000 diverse small businesses across 37 states, Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico. In addition, grant funding has provided for more than 322,000 hours of development services for over 49,000 diverse small business owners. Wells Fargo is on track to invest more than $175 million in diverse small businesses growth through 2020.
 
About WWBIC
 
Wisconsin Women’s Business Initiative Corp. (WWBIC) is a leading, innovative economic development corporation “Putting Dreams to Work.” WWBIC’s primary focus is on women, people of color and low income individuals, providing direct lending and access to fair and responsible capital, quality business education, one-on-one technical business assistance and education to increase financial capability. Since 1987, WWBIC has lent more than $67 million in micro and small business loans with a current loan portfolio of $20 million and more than 500 active borrowers. To learn more about WWBIC visit: www.wwbic.com
 
About Wells Fargo
 
Founded in 1852 and headquartered in San Francisco, Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) provides banking, investment and mortgage products and services, as well as consumer and commercial finance, through 7,600 locations, more than 13,000 ATMs, and the internet (wellsfargo.com). With approximately 263,000 team members, Wells Fargo serves one in three households in the United States. With its corporate philanthropy, WellsFargo aims to pave a path to stability and financial success for underserved communities by focusing on housing affordability, small business growth, and financial health, among other local community needs. In 2018, Wells Fargodonated $444 million to nearly 11,000 nonprofits. For 10 consecutive years, Wells Fargo has held the honor of No. 1 in workplace giving by United Way Worldwide. Wells Fargoteam members also actively support communities by donating more than 2 million hours of volunteer time in the last year. News, insights and more information on the company’s overall corporate responsibility are available at Wells Fargo Stories and www.wellsfargo.com/impact.

WWBIC Announces Newly Elected Board Officers

WWBIC Announces Newly Elected Board Officers

by | Dec 19, 2018 | Press Releases, Uncategorized, WWBIC

WWBIC Announces Newly Elected Board Officers

WWBIC (The Wisconsin Women’s Business Initiative Corporation) welcomes a slate of new Board Officers for 2019. Karin Gale (Schenck SC) will now serve as WWBIC’s Chairperson, taking the role from Past Chair Michael McDonagh (Mallery & Zimmerman). Johnny L. Moutry Jr. (New Covenant Housing Corporation, Inc.) will serve as Vice Chair/Secretary. Kathryn Andrea (Andrea & Orendorff) will remain WWBIC’s Treasurer and Chair of WWBIC’s Audit and Finance Committee.

Karin Gale was a member of WWBIC’s Finance & Audit Committee before joining the Board. She is a shareholder at Schenck, a Wisconsin accounting and business consulting firm. Her board and committee service includes the Wisconsin Institute of CPAs (Past President), the Independent Business Association of Wisconsin (Past President), the Association for Corporate Growth Wisconsin (Past President), and the City of West Allis Community Development Authority.

Johnny Moutry is Executive Director of New Covenant Housing Corporation, a faith‐based community and housing developer for low‐to‐moderate‐income individuals and families, in Milwaukee. A retired executive of Aldrich Chemical, a leading Milwaukee manufacturing now part of Sigma‐Aldrich, Mr. Moutry has received the Urban Economic Development of Milwaukee Leadership Award and the Wilbur Halyard Award for Community Service.

Kathy Andrea has been a partner at Andrea & Orendorff LLP in Kenosha, WI, since 1989. She served on WWBIC’s Finance & Audit Committee before joining the Board. Kathy specializes in providing auditing and management advisory services to nonprofit and governmental clients. She serves as Treasurer on the boards of the Kemper Center and the Kenosha Library Foundation.

WWBIC’s 2018-2021 strategic plan is underway. Through aligned growth, exemplary customer service, and measurable impact, WWBIC will advance its social goal of improving the economic well-being of individuals through inclusive entrepreneurship and facilitating self-sufficiency strategies.