Female entrepreneurs are underfinanced and under supported, says Vicki Saunders, and she has started a crowdfunding initiative to change that. Founder of Toronto-based SheEO, Saunders is asking for donations of $1,000 from 1,000 women to create a pool of money and support to help businesses run by women with revenues of $50,000.
“It’s been going on not just in Canada, but around the world for decades,” says Saunders. “Women have been chronically underfinanced, under celebrated in the business media and under supported.” In terms of finance, she says, less than four per cent of the world’s venture capital goes to women. Canada has a business development bank, but even there, less than six per cent of the annual investment that goes into businesses goes to women.
Listen‘A tough time for female entrepreneurs’
Less than five per cent of female entrepreneurs actively seek out mentors and you don’t often see stories of successful women in business on the covers of magazines, says Saunders.
“It’s been a tough time for female entrepreneurs, but it feels like the tide is changing.”
Ten businesses will be selected by the women who donate $1,000 or more to receive a five-year interest-free loan. The one-million dollars available will not be evenly divided. The entrepreneurs will have to negotiate for the amount they want.
Women already contributing
About 200 women of all ages have already stepped forward to contribute including senior executives and small business owners. The Bank of Montreal has stepped in to administer the finds so that 100 per cent of the money raised will be loaned out. When the loans are repaid in five years, the model could start again.
A wish to go global
Saunders wants to start the model in cities like Vancouver, Toronto, Chicago, Los Angeles and Mumbai, and reach one million women contributing by 2020 to create a global funding pool of one billion dollars.
“For me, I would love to see the kinds of businesses that women are running to be recognized in the world and supported and financed,” says Saunders. “Because if we financed women to the same degree as men, we would create six million jobs in the next five years in North America alone. I feel like this is the job strategy we’ve all been waiting for.”
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