Mar 18, 2008 : Yahoo Offers Grants for Women

📅 March 18, 2008 - Yahoo! Small Business (smallbusiness.yahoo.com 👉 Total Reviews: 55
🙌 Average Rating: 1 / 10
👍 Good Reviews: 6
👎 Bad Reviews: 49
👈 Official Responses: 0) announced on Tuesday that along with entrepreneur Carolyn Kepcher and her multimedia company Carolyn and Co Media LLC (carolynandco.com), it has launched a new grant program to promote women's entrepreneurship enabled by the Internet.


The new program called "Seeds for Success: Empowering Women Entrepreneurs," (seedsforsuccess.smallbusiness.yahoo.com) will award three women with business grants including cash, mentorship and technical services for a total value of more than $25,000 each.

Kepcher, perhaps best known for her work as an executive vice president with the Trump Organization and her role on NBC's The Apprentice, will help select grant winners and connect them with mentors from a team of business leaders while Yahoo! will provide recipients with Web and online marketing services.

"Women and men have similar entrepreneurial aspirations, but the motivation for women often is different," says Kepcher. "As an entrepreneur myself, I am personally familiar with why today, many women launch businesses as a way of maneuvering around challenges found in a traditional work environment. Women want success and financial security, but also balance. So, our team at Carolyn and Co Media is thrilled to join with Yahoo! in highlighting these important drivers of women's entrepreneurship, while helping women become more aware of just how easy and affordable it is to start or expand a business online."

In the press release Yahoo! also takes an opportunity to mention its recent unlimited hosting offering by tying it into the idea that the grant can provide unlimited business opportunities for women. But the parallels outlined like "no limit to women's opportunities to create business success online" and "the unlimited reach of the Internet provided by Yahoo! Small Business" seem to be more of a witty play on words than provide any further details to Yahoo!s actual Web services being offered in this grant.

Yahoo! says the program is open to any women who plan to launch new businesses or who wish to grow an existing business, with an emphasis on using the Internet to help them achieve their goals. Entrepreneurs can apply for the grant by submitting applications online at the "Seeds for Success" website by April 6.

The three grant recipients also will be eligible to win an additional bonus grant of $10,000 in October, to the one business that achieves the most growth resulting from the use of the initial grant and mentorship package.This grant seems to be a natural extension of Yahoo!s focus on helping out small businesses and entrepreneurs. The company currently offers a consortium of articles and videos on its website, designed to provide small businesses with tips on marketing, legal matters and human resources.