Citigroup Foundation’s Women & Co.® Microenterprise Boost Program Aids Women Entrepreneurs with Disabilities

As business owners all over the country feel the crunch of a struggling economy and volatile financial markets, access to growth capital challenges them as they work to stay viable in the marketplace. The Women & Co.® Microenterprise Boost Program has been a financial solution for a number of women entrepreneurs across the country.  Grantees are women who need assistance to continue growing their businesses. They receive a cash award along with technical assistance.

The Women & Co. Microenterprise Boost Program is supported by a grant from the Citigroup Foundation. The Association for Enterprise Opportunity (AEO) administers and supports the program by identifying a small number of organizations across the country that select and distribute grants to women. Among those organizations is The Abilities Fund, a microenterprise program serving the disability community. As a participating organization, The Abilities Fund seeks out low and moderate-income women microentrepreneurs with disabilities to receive the cash grant along with high quality business training and technical assistance. Since program inception in 2005, 362 women entrepreneurs across the country have received equity awards, making significant impact on their businesses. 

The power of Citigroup Foundation’s inclusion of the disability community in its grantmaking is underscored by the 27 women who have received awards over the last four years.  Patti Lind, Executive Director of The Abilities Fund, notes that the Citigroup Foundation has a clear vision of inclusion through their grantmaking.  While they recognize the work of The Abilities Fund to serve women entrepreneurs with disabilities, they have also encouraged other participating organizations to seek out women with disabilities in their respective project areas to increase the number of women to be funded.  Through the Women & Co. Microenterprise Boost Program, Citibank Foundation has positioned itself among leaders in inclusive grantmaking by encouraging mainstream microenterprise programs to work disability into their eligibility guidelines.

One Women & Co. Microenterprise Boost award recipient, Tami Pierce, dreamed of being a truck driver all of her life. Due to a severe back injury, she was forced to give up trucking and search out a new career. With technical assistance from The Abilities Fund, Tami created a business escorting over-dimensional trucks across the nation. “I decided on this line of business,” Tami explains, “because escorting is the next best thing to driving a truck.” Tami received a Women & Co. award and with the funding, Tami purchased the equipment required by law. “The award got me so excited about business- I am steadily thinking of ways to draw in more business. I dream of having ten cars and keeping all ten cars moving at a steady pace.” Tami received a $2,000 Women & Co. award in 2007 as well as an additional $1.000 award in 2008.

In addition to The Abilities Fund providing awards to women business owners in 2008, twelve other microenterprise organizations around the country administered Women & Co.  Microenterprise Boost grants, many who are also making their awards to women entrepreneurs with disabilities.  They include:

• Business Investment Growth Austin, Texas
• Detroit Entrepreneurship Institute, Inc. Detroit, Michigan
• First Step Fund Kansas City, Missouri
• Four Bands Community Loan Fund Eagle Butte, South Dakota
• New York Association for New Americans New York, New York
• Pacific Asian Consortium in Employment Los Angeles, California
• Renaissance Entrepreneurship Center San Francisco, California
• Rural Enterprise Assistance Project Lyons, Nebraska
• South Florida Urban Ministries Miami, Florida
• Women’s Enterprise Development Center White Plains, New York
• Women’s Opportunities Resource Center Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
• Women’s Rural Entrepreneurial Network Bethlehem, New Hampshire

Summing up the program, Lind notes, “Our work with the Association for Enterprise Opportunity and Citi has been a great opportunity to spotlight innovation among women entrepreneurs with disabilities.  Finally, we are able to share the news – women with disabilities rock.”

Citi, the leading global financial services company, has some 200 million customer accounts and does business in more than 100 countries, providing consumers, corporations, governments and institutions with a broad range of financial products and services, including consumer banking and credit, corporate and investment banking, securities brokerage, and wealth management. Citi's major brand names include Citibank, CitiFinancial, Primerica, Smith Barney, Banamex, and Nikko. Additional information may be found at www.citigroup.com.

Women & Co. is a financial resource program from Citi, dedicated to helping women achieve their financial goals. Women & Co. provides members with education on a vast array of financial and investing topics, which members access through www.womenandco.com, by reading our newsletters, listening to audio conferences, and attending Master Class seminars in major metropolitan areas. For more information, visit www.womenandco.com.