Rosalind G. Brewer was the first woman and the first African-American to become CEO of Sam’s Club, and during her tenure with the company, she established several programs for women entrepreneurs. In fact, because of her, Sam’s Club invested more than $28 million in grants to help women, veteran and minority-owned businesses succeed through non-profits dedicated to helping small business owners succeed.
The grants are still available
In 2015, Rosalind launched a 5-year program and pledged to give another $8.8 million in grants to women-owned businesss. Although she is not CEO any more, what Rosalind established for women entrepreneurs is still in place… and the grants are still available!
Even more, the company is still on a mission to reach one million small business owners with training and borrower education, enable 5,000 micro and small business owners with the tools they need to obtain smart loan, unlock $100 million in new capital and ultimately support 28,000 small business jobs across the U.S. by the end of 2019.
More than just funding
In addition to funding women-owned businesses, Walmart, which owns Sam’s Club has also established an initiative that features a “Woman-Owned” logo on products within their stores that have been produced by a woman-owned enterprise. This is part of their ongoing commitment to empower women and help women-owned businesses succeed and grow!
As a part of another program called the Global Women’s Economic Empowerment initiative, they have committed to source $20 billion from women for its U.S. business and to double sourcing from women internationally.
Why help women business owners?
The answer is simple. Millions of women-owned businesses do not have access to capital, and starting a business without funding is very difficult. Even more difficult is expanding in existing business or keeping it afloat with no financial assistance.
Sam’s Club, via their Sam Club Giving Awards program, says that they are committed to making more funding available to women entrepreneurs and other disadvantaged groups.
For more details about what Sam’s Club is doing for women entrepreneurs, visit http://corporate.samsclub.com/giving
For more details about what Walmat is doing, visit www.walmart.com/cp/women-owned-businesses/1102793