An email has been sent to your address with instructions for changing your password.
There is no user registered with this email.
Sign Up
To create a free account, please fill out the form below.
Thank you for signing up!
A confirmation email has been sent to your email address. Please check your email and follow the instructions in the message to complete the registration process. If you do not receive the email, please check your spam folder or contact us for assistance.
Welcome to our platform!
Oops!
Something went wrong while trying to create your new account. Please try again and if the problem persist, Email Us to receive support.
Wells Fargo Delivers Mentorship for 1,000 Women-Owned Businesses
Rhea-AI Impact
(Low)
Rhea-AI Sentiment
(Very Positive)
Tags
Rhea-AI Summary
Wells Fargo is significantly enhancing its support for women-owned businesses, pledging to double the resources allocated through its Connect to More program. Following last year's success with 500 mentorship opportunities, the company plans to offer over 1,000 mentorship sessions and 13,000 hours of technical assistance. The initiative includes expanding partnerships with the Nasdaq Entrepreneurial Center and hosting a quarterly speaker series aimed at empowering women entrepreneurs. This commitment aligns with Wells Fargo's long-standing support for diverse small businesses.
Positive
Doubling support for women-owned businesses through the Connect to More program.
Offering over 1,000 mentorship opportunities in 2022, up from 500 last year.
Providing approximately 13,000 hours of technical assistance.
Negative
None.
Company continues focus on helping women entrepreneurs by expanding partnership with the Nasdaq Entrepreneurial Center and launching speaker series
SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
Wells Fargo today announced it is doubling our support for women-owned businesses through its Connect to More℠ program after providing over 500 mentorship opportunities to women last year. This year, Wells Fargo will expand its partnership with the Nasdaq Entrepreneurial Center to provide over 1,000 complimentary mentorship opportunities through its signature 12-week Milestone Circles mentorship program and roughly 13,000 hours of technical assistance.
Wells Fargo announces it is doubling its support of women-owned businesses. (Photo: Wells Fargo)
“We hear from so many women entrepreneurs that owning and operating a business is isolating and can be hard for those who don’t have access to the right resources,” said Derek Ellington, head of Small Business at Wells Fargo. “On top of that, 48% of women entrepreneurs report that a lack of available advisors and mentors limits their professional growth.1 By providing women business owners access to trusted experts who can help them solve business challenges, plan for the future, network, and grow, we are giving them the tools and opportunities to build a strong foundation and thrive.”
Connect to More program impact and next phase
Connect to Morewas a program launched last summer to support the success and sustainability of women-owned businesses through access to expertise and specialized resources. As part of the program, Wells Fargo partnered with the Nasdaq Entrepreneurial Center to offer complimentary support through its signature Milestone Circles. Within the first year, over 500 women participated in the Circles and graduated – working through challenges, celebrating milestones, attending workshops, and connecting with small business experts and mentors to enhance their businesses:
“Through my 12 weeks in the Circles program, I was able to document a lot of processes and standard operating procedures that enabled me to onboard four new team members and step out of being directly involved in every single client deliverable. This has allowed me to scale my business from $9,000 in revenue to $20,000+ in revenue monthly and to a team of 11 amazing humans.” – Rachel Pereya, owner of Mastermind Business Services.
“The Milestone Circles program really blew me away with its approach to bridging ‘vision’ with ‘goals’. The team created an environment for success with exercises that challenged me to really dig deep into our vision, which opened up so many opportunities. I was able to clearly consider our desired funding journey and received expert feedback from mentors. As a result, our company has identified funding partners that support our vision and mission. The future of FeaturesFirst Auto is a lot brighter with more clarity and funding!” – Lisa Bailey, owner of FeaturesFirst Auto
“Thanks to the Milestone Circles, we implemented a new branding strategy and relaunched our brand. We also took the tools we learned and had a more assertive approach to our social media accounts. Our YouTube account increased from 1,500 views to more than 66,000 views in 2 months.” – Selmin Karatas, owner of Kazani Hair
“The Nasdaq Entrepreneurial Center has been inspired by the learnings and outcomes of the incredible women we’ve been fortunate to support in this inaugural year of this program,” said Nicola Corzine, founding executive director of the Nasdaq Entrepreneurial Center. “We are tremendously excited to be connecting with 1,000+ additional women business owners in the next 12 months thanks to the generous contributions of the Wells Fargo Foundation.”
This year, Connect to More will continue to offer Milestone Circles with the goal of helping over 1,000 women-owned businesses and adding more mentorship and individual technical assistance opportunities for participants, including milestone planning workshops, bi-weekly peer support groups, access to industry experts and mentors, and ongoing alumni networking opportunities. Each Circle is open to all women-identifying business owners in the U.S. Those interested in applying must complete an application, and upon acceptance, will be placed in a Circle.
Speaker series for women entrepreneurs
Wells Fargo is also reaching women entrepreneurs through a quarterly speaker series that covers a range of topics and challenges with small business experts and women founders. The next virtual panel discussion will take place on Wednesday, June 22 and will help women learn how to grow and cultivate a strong network that will support confidence building, key decision-making, and new business opportunities. More details are below:
When:
This virtual session will take place via Zoom on Wednesday, June 22, 2022, (12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m. Pacific Time / 2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. Central Time / 3:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. Eastern Time).
Speakers:
Derek Ellington, Wells Fargo head of Small Business
Ann Marie Lynch, Wells Fargo head of Small Business Deposits and president of the Women’s Connection ERN
Kamy Taylor, Program Manager, Nasdaq Entrepreneurial Center
Terriekka Cardenas, Founder, Perceptive Engineering and Construction Services
Theresa Bozhor, Founder, Momentum Tutoring
Registration:
Please click here to register. Please register no later than Wednesday, June 22, 2022.
Wells Fargo’s overarching support of women business owners
These latest initiatives build upon a Wells Fargo legacy of supporting diverse and women-owned small businesses. In 1995, the company first announced a $1 billion, four-year long lending goal to support small businesses owned by women. This goal was met in just one year and served as a catalyst for several additional diverse lending commitments to women, Hispanic/Latinx, Black/African Americans and Asian owned small businesses.
Wells Fargo also recently shared resources designed to help increase the growth of women-owned small businesses, including a $1.5 million grant to How Women Lead aimed at disrupting the unequal venture capital (VC) system for women founders and shared new data and an interactive tool-kit on closing the economic gaps facing women entrepreneurs.
Additionally, in 2020, Wells Fargo created a roughly $420 million national small business recovery effort called the Open for Business Fund. It donated $250 million for capital to Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs), more than $55 million to nonprofits providing technical assistance, and more than $100 million for long-term resiliency programs. As of December 2021, $420 million in grant funding to nonprofits has been deployed, which is estimated to serve more than 152,000 small businesses and preserve or create more than 255,000 jobs. Roughly 85% of small businesses served by Open for Business Fund grantees are projected to be those hardest hit by the pandemic, including Black, African American, Hispanic, Native American, women, and Asian American owned small businesses.
About Wells Fargo
Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE: WFC) is a leading financial services company that has approximately $1.9 trillion in assets, proudly serves one in three U.S. households and more than 10% of small businesses in the U.S., and is a leading middle market banking provider in the U.S. We provide a diversified set of banking, investment and mortgage products and services, as well as consumer and commercial finance, through our four reportable operating segments: Consumer Banking and Lending, Commercial Banking, Corporate and Investment Banking, and Wealth & Investment Management. Wells Fargo ranked No. 37 on Fortune’s 2021 rankings of America’s largest corporations. In the communities we serve, the company focuses its social impact on building a sustainable, inclusive future for all by supporting housing affordability, small business growth, financial health, and a low-carbon economy. News, insights, and perspectives from Wells Fargo are also available at Wells Fargo Stories.
Additional information may be found at www.wellsfargo.com | Twitter: @WellsFargo
1 Challenges Faced by Women Entrepreneurs and Some of the Most Successful Women to Follow, Business News Daily, June 2020
What is Wells Fargo's new initiative for women entrepreneurs in 2022?
Wells Fargo is doubling its support for women-owned businesses, aiming to provide over 1,000 mentorship opportunities and 13,000 hours of technical assistance through its Connect to More program.
How many mentorship opportunities did Wells Fargo provide last year?
Last year, Wells Fargo provided 500 mentorship opportunities for women entrepreneurs.
When will the next speaker series for women entrepreneurs take place?
The next virtual speaker series will occur on Wednesday, June 22, 2022.
What is the focus of Wells Fargo's Connect to More program?
The Connect to More program focuses on supporting women entrepreneurs by providing access to mentorship and technical resources to help them grow their businesses.
What partnership is Wells Fargo expanding for women entrepreneurs?
Wells Fargo is expanding its partnership with the Nasdaq Entrepreneurial Center to enhance support for women-owned businesses.
