Women Entrepreneurs Across America
Empowering Women Entrepreneurs Through Collective Action
Who We Are
Women Entrepreneurs Across America is a nonprofit initiative that empowers women’s entrepreneurship advocates in cities nationwide to join forces with their local mayors to make their entrepreneurial communities more equitable. We provide a library of tools and processes that local civic leaders and their mayors can use to generate city-specific solutions to level their community’s entrepreneurial playing field.
Our Mission is Vital
Entrepreneurship is the most inequitable career path in the United States. In 2023, women business owners received less than 2% of all venture capital funds and just 21% of all Small Business Administration loans. These statistics have been constant for decades despite women owning 42% of all U.S. businesses and starting businesses at twice the rate of men. Performance metrics do not support the disparity: studies show that women-owned businesses generate higher revenues and greater returns than businesses owned by men.
“If investors were looking at the data, they’d be investing in women founders all day long.” PitchBook
City-by-City Change
City-by-City Change
We can no longer accept the status quo. Entrepreneurship is a key driver of economic and social progress, and the United States will never realize its full potential as a thriving and inclusive economy if we continue to leave half our entrepreneurial population on the sidelines.
Cities have unique strengths and resources, so supporting women entrepreneurs must start at the city level, and the solutions must be a call to action for all its citizens—from policymakers and nonprofit directors to investors, educators, and business leaders. American cities must be hubs of opportunity for all entrepreneurs.
Our Story
In July 2023, Austin Mayor Kirk Watson named Carla McDonald, an Austin-based investor and advocate for women entrepreneurs, chair of the Mayor’s Task Force for Austin Women Entrepreneurs. Eight months later, the Task Force sent the mayor a report outlining 12 pragmatic and actionable steps that Austin must take to become the best city in the country for women to start and build businesses. A call to action for all Austin residents, the report highlights the need for community engagement to break down systemic barriers to entrepreneurial inclusion. In April 2024, McDonald founded Women Entrepreneurs Across America to make the tools, processes, and learnings of the Austin Task Force available to women’s entrepreneurship advocates seeking to level the entrepreneurial playing field in other cities.
Resources We Provide
Women’s entrepreneurship advocates who want to lead a city task force for women entrepreneurs and are endorsed by WE Across America will receive the following:
A template for a letter to your mayor requesting a task force be formed and outlining its community benefits
Essential talking points for conversations with your mayor to communicate the vital nature of the initiative
Tips for announcing and publicizing the formation of the task force
A timeline for the work of your task force
A guide to populating the task force with members who reflect the diversity and characteristics of your community and entrepreneurial ecosystem
Templates for communicating regularly with your task force
A guide to surveying women entrepreneurs in your community and holding focus groups, including suggested questions to ask and topics to discuss
A list of crucial stakeholders in your community from whom to seek early counsel, engagement, and support
A list of key advocacy experts from around the country with whom to talk so you can learn about successful initiatives they have launched
A guide to running full-group and small-group brainstorming meetings
A list of top data sources for the most up-to-date statistics relating to women and entrepreneurship
A list of hundreds of potential initiatives to make your entrepreneurial ecosystem more equitable
A template for your final report to your mayor
Suggestions for announcing the task force report to the community and engaging the community to act upon the recommendations
Are you interested in working with your mayor to lead a task force to support women entrepreneurs in your city?
Please complete this form, and we’ll get back to you.