Tag Archives: nonprofits

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Grants For Women-Owned Small Businesses You Could Get In 2021

 “Women’s small business grants” is a popular search term on the web. But there is relatively little information regarding actual grants in the stories. It’s rare to find a link to a specialized grant for women-led businesses. 

If you’re looking for business grants or other free money to help you start or grow your firm, you’re not alone. Grants are available from both the public and commercial sectors, although most of the money goes to non-profit groups, and most of these programs do not give female candidates priority treatment.

Incentives exist for women who run for-profit businesses, though. This guide includes details on real grants for female entrepreneurs to utilize for running their businesses. If you’re looking for information on the internet, this should save you a lot of time. It was tough to find any awards for women-owned businesses that were both real and valuable. 

For 2021, check out these grants for women-owned small businesses.

Amber Grant

A small amount of money is awarded in the Amber Grant. But even with this point, it is easy to qualify for and apply for this grant. A women-owned business receives $10,000 a month from the Amber Grant, named for a young woman who died before realizing her entrepreneurial dreams. An additional $25,000 is awarded at the end of the year to one of the monthly qualifiers.

Cartier Women’s Initiative

Among the largest and most prestigious scholarships for women-owned enterprises, the Cartier Women’s Initiative Awards entail plenty of competition.

For women-owned businesses, Cartier offers two types of grants. These are the Cartier Women’s Initiative Regional Awards and the Cartier Women’s Initiative Finalists Awards (2nd and 3rd place enterprises from each zone). Each of the two runners-up will receive a grant of $30,000, while the winner will earn a $100,000 prize.

Program of Tory Burch Foundation Fellows

Each spring, up to 50 women-owned companies are selected to receive a $5,000 grant for business education through the Women’s Business Grant Competition. They will also get a Tory Burch Fellowship for one year and a five-day trip to New York City over the summer.

In addition to the workshop and networking opportunities, the trip also includes a Pitch Day event where finalists will pitch their ideas to industry leaders (pending CDC travel and event guidelines during COVID). Notably, the $5,000 prize can only be used for business-related educational pursuits.

Girlboss Foundation

Female entrepreneurs who are pursuing creative companies are supported by the Girlboss Foundation, formed in 2014. Specific to women working in art, fashion, design, and music, these semi-annual scholarships are awarded on a biannual basis. In addition to digital media exposure, the awardee receives $15,000 every six months to be used for a creative project within the next twelve months. Individuals are the only recipients of Girlboss Foundation funding; a business as a whole is not eligible.

Female entrepreneurs have access to a job market through the Girlboss Professional Network, and the Girlboss Rally is an annual event to which grant recipients are given two free seats.

Fast Pitch Competition Network of Women Founders

Non-profit organization Network of Women Founders provides financial assistance and coaching to female entrepreneurs in the United States and abroad. When it comes to funding an innovative business, WFN is a fantastic opportunity. An annual Competition Fast Pitch selects five finalists to get free grant and money services. After two voting rounds, the top five female founders are selected by the judges. Their company plans are then presented to the judges in a “Shark Tank”-style chance competition to win over $30,000 in prize and $50,000 in Career Services.

37 Angels

Since investors who assist you will have a stake in your firm, angel financing isn’t a gift in the classic sense. Entrepreneurs that need mentoring and industry knowledge in order to expand, as well as the funds to do so, may find angel investment to be a great alternative. Founded in New York City, angel investment organization 37 Angels aspires to eliminate the gender gap in angel investing. Women and men can apply for funding (albeit the portfolio of the group prefers female founders).

Apply online, and if you’re selected as a finalist, propose your idea to a group of investors in New York City. Your pitch should be reviewed within four weeks, and most angel investors receive $50,000 to $100,000 in beginning funding as well as expert advice on how to expand their business.

Halstead Grant

An annual prize, the Halstead Grant is given to emerging metal jewelers. If you’re a woman in the jeweler business, you’ll want to check out this grant. Most (but not all) of the prior grantees were female. $1,000 in Halstead merchandise and $7,500 in startup funding are included in the $7,500 award. As part of your application, you must provide a jeweler collection.

Women in Technology

A global network of female entrepreneurs, investors, and allies working to improve diversity and funding in the technology sector, Women Who Tech is the largest network of women-led enterprises, investors, and allies. Women-led tech startups receive equity-free capital throughout the year. Each grant period has a specific focus. There will be a first award period in 2021, and the theme will be Emerging Technologies. This year’s top prize is $15,000, with $5,000 going to the runner-up.

What about the Business Challenge of InnovateHer women?

 As part of the Small Business Administration’s Office of Women’s Business Ownership, the InnovateHer Challenge offered women across the country the opportunity to compete for grants. This program has been running since 2015 and has granted federal grants to three finalists each year.  Among the 2016 winners, the winner of first place won $40,000, second place received $20,000, and third place received $10,000.

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What Are Recurring Donations and Why Are They Good For Nonprofits? [2023 Update]

Nonprofit organizations have never been more popular. The average person donates hundreds of dollars to nonprofits each year. But the way people send money to these groups has changed, as most people donate to them by credit or debit card now.

The good news is that nonprofits can adapt to these changes in the industry by accepting recurring donations. These are donations provided to nonprofits that require regular funds for managing their missions and providing support for their causes.

A donor can sign up for a recurring donation program with a nonprofit. The person’s payments will be automatically removed from one’s credit card at the right times. The money will directly go to the nonprofit without having to use a third-party solution to manage the process.

Recurring Donation

How a Recurring Donation Works

A recurring donation uses a few steps to make it work:

  1. The nonprofit organization will set up a new program. It will provide different donation levels and frequencies for customers to choose online.
  2. The donor will set up an account on the nonprofit’s website. The donor will require the account to facilitate payments and to keep the donations within the website.
  3. The donor will select the specific donation option one wishes to follow.
  4. The person is then billed for the donation at the proper times. The donor is usually billed every month, but it can also be every quarter or year if desired.
  5. The person will continue to be billed until that someone decides to leave the program or that person’s payment method is no longer valid.

The nonprofit will need to provide the proper interface on one’s website to promote its recurring donation program. The system should be easy to review and read as necessary.

Provides Stable Revenue

The best part of recurring donations for nonprofits is that they provide stable revenue that these groups can trust. A nonprofit needs regular revenue to ensure it can stay operational. The funds can also help the nonprofit predict what it will receive each month, providing guidance for whatever operations or fundraising events the nonprofit wishes to run.

Reduce Operational Costs

Nonprofits often spend a while trying to find new donors. It also costs more to bring in new donors than it does to keep existing ones. By offering recurring donations, a nonprofit can get more funds from its existing donors. There’s less of a need for the nonprofit to promote itself or to look for grants or other things for help in keeping the operation running.

The operating costs remain cheap because the recurring donors will stay loyal to the nonprofit group. These donors may contribute additional one-time payments alongside their regular donations, especially if they respect the nonprofit group.

There’s no need to process checks, cash donations, or other things that might get lost. Regular donors will also feel comfortable knowing they’re automatically completing their donations online, as they won’t have to go through the same donation process every year.

No Third Parties Necessary

A recurring donation system also ensures all donations will go through a nonprofit’s website. The nonprofit doesn’t need to utilize a third-party donation site. These third-party websites might charge people for listing their nonprofits there. Some donors may also be turned off from using two different systems when getting through a donation platform. Keeping the data intact will be critical to its success.

Tips For Running a Recurring Donation Program

A recurring donation program can be a lifeline for any nonprofit group, although it works best when run well. There are a few tips a nonprofit can use when getting a program ready:

  • The nonprofit must have a set goal in mind. It can entail any amount of donors or donations, but it must be reflective of whatever projects the nonprofit wishes to run.
  • The nonprofit must plan its program based on the donors it wishes to target. The system can include donation values based on the approximate money amounts people are willing to part with each month.
  • All recurring programs should be marketed well based on the benefits involved with these donations. A nonprofit could promote that a specific monthly donation will provide a unique benefit that the nonprofit can carry out, for example.
  • A payment processor must help collect credit and debit card payments to make the recurring donation program easy to follow. It should offer reporting tools to help the nonprofit review how effective its program is, plus it should provide ACH support for automatic recurring payments.
  • Proper incentives are necessary for keeping donors intact. A nonprofit can offer rewards or benefits to people to donate enough funds or stick with a campaign long enough. The nonprofit can put some of its funds aside for this case, but it shouldn’t spend more on this than necessary.

The best way to run a recurring donation program is to ensure the donors see the difference a nonprofit makes. Donors will be more invested in a program when they see where their money is going and how it benefits society. People will be more passionate when they notice they are making a difference with their donations.

How Will Donors Cancel Their Recurring Donations?

Some donors might need to cancel their recurring donations for various reasons. A donor might not have enough money to give, or the donor might not feel comfortable with offering. A nonprofit can offer the choice to cancel one’s recurring donations. The user can go to one’s profile on a website and then click the proper button on one’s payment method to stop one’s donations.

It will likely be easy for nonprofits to keep their donors through a recurring platform. The recurring system provides a simple design for work that helps a nonprofit collect its regular payments. A nonprofit can predict what it will earn, and donors will feel confident in the process, knowing that their funds are going directly to the organization.

New Methods for Nonprofits to Accept Donations

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The only means of sustenance for nonprofit organizations is the money they receive from a variety of sources. Because many NGOs want to maintain neutrality and independence in operations, they do not accept corporate funding. They therefore depend solely on funding sources such as road side stands, races and fairs to raise funds for operations. These traditional methods of raising funds posed a limitation to cash as the only acceptable method of receiving payments. With the growing demand for more digital modes of payment instead of paper cash, many nonprofit organizations are seeking new ways they can receive cash digitally.

Beyond the tradition

There are several digital tools through which nonprofits receive charity donations. These fundraising tools raise millions for the nonprofit industry every year. Even though it may be difficult for some NGOs to accept digital payments due to governmental regulations or lack of online banking infrastructure, the digital modes of receiving charity donations remain an emerging trend. This is because these tools are easy to use and are affordable at every level of fundraising to the NGOs. The digital tools for raising charity funds allow nonprofit organizations to reach a large number of donors simultaneously. It also allows flexibility and ease for both the donors and the NGOs. With these systems, one can donate with just a simple click of a button. These methods of fundraising are the best for a century which is characterized by convenience.

DipJar technology

One of the key technologies that seek to provide nonprofit organizations with more convenient ways of accepting charity donations is DipJar. DipJar is a platform which has been designed in a way that facilitates at-the-spot payments and enables a person to donate even when he or she is not holding cash at that moment.

FirstGiving

FirstGiving was specifically designed to aid nonprofit organizations. This digital tool for receiving charity donations can be used together with other donation tools such as CRM, CMS, donor management, and social media. FirstGiving enables the nonprofit organization to receive online donations. It also provides an option for managing direct donations and the opportunity to interact with the donors.

PayPal donations

PayPal is another means of receiving donor funds from around the world. It also helps nonprofits to gather information about donors who donate through PayPal so that they can contact them subsequently for further discussions.

The way forward

Moving from the traditional ways of fundraising to the new, modern ways of fundraising or to adopt a combination of both will provide the nonprofit organization with more sources for funding. Other networks such as the Good DonateNow Lite, google wallet, and others provide suitable and convenient platforms on which nonprofit organizations can receive charitable donations. Online fundraising is becoming the order of the day. This is due to the fact that it provides more convenience and ease in raising funds. It also projects the nonprofit organization to the view of several donors.

Err on the Side of Caution: Nonprofits and Virtual Credit Cards

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A jarring amount of 17.6 million people (7% of Americans) had at least one incident of identity theft in 2014, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics. Unfortunately some of that identity theft can come from third parties, including criminals accessing business accounts to get information about consumers. Nonprofits, small businesses and large corporate companies can all be at risk without a proper protection plan.

In the case of nonprofits, fundraising for charities may also be affected without a secure nonprofit processing system. One questionable online merchant can lead to access of a nonprofit’s bank or credit union account information, credit or debit card numbers, Social Security numbers (linked to employees of the nonprofit services). In a tech world where “password” continues to be a common password for both individuals and companies, a lucky guess can expose an entire company’s important documents.

Virtual credit cards are one continuously effective way to protect company financial information. Some of the biggest perks of virtual credit cards include:

• Flexibility to not release vital credit card information from lesser known companies
• Ability to set a maximum spending amount
• Specifying an expiration date for the virtual card
• Shopping safely online with what looks like a regular merchant card number
• Potential cash rebates

The owner(s) and accountant(s) of any company may already be aware of the amount of record-keeping involved in making sure that all involved parties receive their paychecks, reimbursements, supplies and any other applicable expenses. However, nonprofit processing has the added requirement of being able to explain all purchases and payments made for a humanitarian or environmental cause. Unlike for-profit companies, which benefit the founder and however many employees work for the organization, funds for charities ideologically make a full circle into supplies for education, first aid, food, shelter, water and other things associated with the organization’s focus.

So even one questionable purchase, or suspicious merchant, can hurt the reputation of a nonprofit. This is the exact reason why nonprofit processing should incorporate virtual credit cards into its billing options for charities. While some companies have already tried to make online purchases easier by using trusted sites like PayPal, a company may still be at risk of password break-ins.

An email site that isn’t secure, unattended mailboxes (where bank statements may be found), dumpster diving, malware and fake clone sites (spoof) could put a nonprofit at risk of releasing private financial account information. By using a virtual credit card, if an identity theft occurs, it gives the hacker less information to work with.