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In a business when a project has promise it's said to "have legs." If that's so, then the recently launched YWCA Anchorage campaign to help women start small businesses has "wings." It's called "Lift as We Rise" and was created to support the clients of the agency's Women$Finances program.
"I heard the term 'Lift As We Rise' in reference to African-American women who, as they move up the ranks, they lift up their sisters," said YWCA Director of Women$Finances Laura White-Ritchie in the Y's downtown offices that house the program that offers a wide array of support services for the economic empowerment of women.
As part of the YWCA's initiative to eliminate racism and empower women, it is an innovative approach to raising funds for the program to become self-supporting, to move away from the short-term grants that send the staff into a tizzy every few years, and scrambling to meet deadlines to just maintain their ability to provide services.
Former director and current board member Linda Gallagher agrees with the fundraising approach.
"I think she's on the right track with this program," Gallagher said. "They relied on Small Business Administration funding, but every year it goes away. You're supposed to become self-sufficient."
SIMPLE YET SMART
It is a perfectly simple formula: 1,000 women donate $100 on a yearly basis. The $100,000 will cover salaries, classes and facility expenses.
"It is a drop in the bucket," said Joyce Allegra Clare, Women$Finances microenterprise business counselor of the yearly $100 donation. After all, it just about equals a dinner out with wine at a good restaurant, she points out.
Alaska has one of the highest rates of women-owned businesses-a whopping 73.2 percent. This campaign is aimed at them. Clare also is hoping that women, like herself, who have gone through the Y's BrassTacks Business Basics course or one-on-one business counseling will want to give something back.
"We need people to realize they're being called to help someone rise," said Clare. "It is building a community."
CHALLENGES 'RISE'
One of the challenges though, both women agree, is that there are no "legacy records" of program clients beyond the last three years. So they're hoping that past Women$Finances clients will read this article and contact the program so they too can participate in this groundbreaking campaign. Some of these clients will remember the program as the "Women$FUND," which was what it was called from 1997 to 2003. However, everyone in the community is encouraged to give to support of this program, not just program alumnae.
The donation is of course, tax-deductible and can even be paid through weekly, monthly or yearly installments--whatever is most convenient, said White-Ritchie. The program's e-mail newsletter will include an updated list recognizing all donors.
Each donor receives a little gold lapel pin of a bee to honor her contribution. The bee symbolizes the possibility of overcoming all obstacles to reach a goal. As the campaign brochure reads: "A few decades ago, an engineer announced that by the laws of aerodynamics it should be impossible for the bumblebee to fly. Good thing no one told the bee."
ON THE ROAD
White-Ritchie, who thought up the novel fundraising idea, will be busy this winter traveling Outside with the program.
The national headquarters of the YWCA USA has adopted the Women$Finances' program as a model for the nationwide network of YWCA agencies. She will travel to the Lower 48 training other YWCAs on how to replicate the Alaska programs and services in their own communities.
The small staff of three dedicated women--White-Ritchie, Clare and Director Heather Arnett--will squeeze the training of other Ys from the time needed to manage the BrassTacks Business Basics class and provide all of the services of the Alaska Microenterprise Incubation Center.
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VIRTUAL HELP
The center, launched in April 2007, is unique in Alaska. It offers shared-use office space, meeting space, one-on-one business counseling, low-cost copies and color printing, entrepreneurship training, Internet, computer access, graphic design services at below-market rates, micro loans and access to capital consulting, personal financial awareness seminars and networking opportunities.
It is a turnkey, virtual office for those who are ready to start a business but either don't have the money or don't yet have the need to move into a full-sized, dedicated office.
A hodge-podge of donated, but serviceable equipment fills the rooms.
"You can't start a business today without a computer," said White-Ritchie. "Sometimes that's the first barrier we have to get through with the clients."
Although Alaska is one of the most technological in the nation--telemedicine, telecommuting from remote sites and Internet usage, White-Ritchie said that there's a huge divide, with many in the state having never touched a computer.
So the program's clients are referred to basic computer classes and then return.
"They come back and you can see it-the confidence," she said.
Each year, the center helps more than 250 women by providing 750 hours of one-on-one counseling and answer 3,250 calls from women wanting help with business support. The program is also offered to men.
"We review business plans and we're very stringent," White-Ritchie said. "We cover it with red ink and make it better."
She notes that women are different in their approach to business.
"Women bring in their whole lives into their business--they don't separate at all," she said. "It's a more balanced place than men. They ask 'What about my family?'
"Their businesses are an extension of what they're most proud about themselves."
There are more services offered at the Y headquarters on Fifth Avenue.
"It's a one-stop shop for women," said Clare, as she and White-Ritchie showed off the maze of offices that also house administrative offices and women's health services.
"We want to get this place buzzing all the time," White Ritchie said.
How appropriate-just like a beehive.
The YWCA Anchorage is located at 324 East Fifth Ave., and the phone number is 644-9610.
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