DETROIT – The Michigan Women’s Foundation
board of trustees announced its support for the formation of a
Women’s Angel Fund providing access to capital to start or expand
transformative businesses and give the Michigan economy a needed infusion
of jobs and change.
Michigan Women’s Foundation will support the investment in early stage
women-owned businesses owned or run by disadvantaged women who are creating
or expanding businesses in challenged urban areas. The goal of the fund
will also be to create mentor relationships and provide professional
support through collaborations to women business owners who have not
previously had access to economic resources.
“Our board has studied what the Foundation could do that would be the
best game changer for the Michigan economy,” said Terry Merritt, chair of
the board of trustees. “We found a number of gaping holes – access to
money, access to support and mentoring/coaching of women-owned start ups.
The Michigan Women’s Foundation is the perfect organization to fill them.”
In a recent study conducted by MWF, it was found that women started new
business ventures with eight times less funding than men. Over the past
decade, companies headed by women received 7 percent of venture capital dollars
invested – even though women launch nearly half of all new businesses.
“We want to create a whole new way of investing in women-owned
businesses,” said Carolyn Cassin, president and CEO of MWF. “We know from a
study by Ernst & Young that ‘if women entrepreneurs in the U.S. started
with the same capital as men, they would add a whopping 6 million jobs to
the economy in five years – 2 million of those jobs in the first year
alone’. We intend to spend the next few months structuring these funds and
finding women investors. We hope to start soliciting proposals early in
2011. We’ll be releasing details as these funds are developed and making
sure women have the opportunities to invest.”
According to the Wall Street Journal in a May 2010 article on
women-owned firms, “… Women consistently have been launching new
enterprises at twice the rate of men, and their growth rates of employment
and revenue have outpaced the economy.”
“MWF believes that these funds will create a new set of investment
opportunities for women,” said Cassin. “Imagine the possibilities of
jump-starting this group of new business owners while adding a whole new
source of jobs, within a year, for Michigan’s economy. We cannot ignore
such a strong return on our investment.”
Thirty women, with a shared vision from various Michigan communities,
established the Michigan Women’s Foundation in 1986, to support programs
that meet the special needs of women and girls. MWF is a statewide
foundation committed to building the new generation of leaders and
philanthropists by providing support, grants and programs. Over the last 24
years, MWF has raised and awarded more than $3.2 million to over 540
programs impacting the lives of women and girls in areas including
education, health, poverty, violence and discrimination.
MWF’s Power of 100 Women was founded in 2009, a statewide group of
women leaders who support MWF with their financial and intellectual
resources.
For more information, click on MIWF.Org
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