Chatham’s Center for Women’s Entrepreneurship Celebrates 15 Years of Regional Impact
Since 2005, The Center for Women’s Entrepreneurship at Chatham University (CWE) has helped thousands of female entrepreneurs launch, sustain, and grow their businesses, directly leading to millions of dollars in business investments and economic growth throughout Western Pennsylvania. To celebrate CWE’s 15-year anniversary, CWE has produced a report highlighting the program’s impact on some of the women who have participated.
As a snapshot of CWE’s impact over the most recent four-year period (2016-2020), CWE has offered 214 training programs and served over 5,630 women entrepreneurs with programs, totaling 578 training hours. During this same time, CWE provided 2,649 hours of business counseling to 1,399 clients, which directly contributed to 164 new businesses and $12.5M in raised capital through a combination of equity infusions, U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) loans, and private loans.
To help women business owners navigate the challenges of the coronavirus pandemic, CWE has also provided COVID-19-specific resource recovery and loan counseling sessions to nearly 185 unique clients since April 1, 2020, resulting in over $4.6M in capital infusion to the regional economy.
The Center is funded in part through a cooperative agreement with the SBA and was recognized in 2018 as the Women’s Business Center of the Year nationally for its outstanding work. The Center also receives funding from local foundations, including the Elsie H. Hillman Foundation, the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation, and the BNY Mellon Foundation of Southwestern Pennsylvania, and offers a robust sponsorship program with more than 15 corporate partners like UPMC Health Plan, PNC Bank, Bridgeway Capital, Dollar Bank, and the URA.
“Our mission is to help female business owners obtain the funding and the guidance they need to create sustainable businesses and make a positive impact on our region,” says Anne Flynn Schlicht, Director of the CWE. “Our business counseling and training is designed to help each woman turn her idea into a functional, thriving, and scalable business by reducing her exposure to financial risk and providing her with a roadmap to revenue that doesn’t just depend on amassing debt. Unlike similar programs that focus on helping entrepreneurs who already hold specific degrees or specialize in certain fields, CWE doesn’t have any pre-existing requirements for the women we serve. Instead, we look for the value in every new idea, and we help our members find opportunities for that idea to become a reality.”
“The Center for Women’s Entrepreneurship is one of our flagship programs that underscore Chatham’s original founding as a women’s college, and our continued commitment to the advancement of women throughout Western Pennsylvania,” says Chatham University President David L. Finegold. “I am extremely proud of the accomplishments that CWE has helped so many women achieve in the past 15 years, and I am excited to see the program’s positive impact continue to expand and evolve.”
CWE’s ongoing evolution includes further diversification of both its services and its professional network. “Minority entrepreneurs have represented a growing percentage of our network each year, both as recipients of our services and also as counselors, speakers, and mentors,” says Schlicht. “It is crucially important that aspiring business owners be able to seek help and guidance from people they can identify with, and who can provide them with a path to success that they will feel confident in following.”
ABOUT THE CENTER FOR WOMEN’S ENTREPRENEURSHIP
The Center for Women's Entrepreneurship at Chatham University (CWE) has offered free or low-cost business counseling and technical assistance to aspiring and established women entrepreneurs in Western Pennsylvania since 2005. CWE is funded in part by a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Small Business Administration to provide business counseling, training programs, technical support, networking opportunities, and professional mentoring that focus on business planning and leadership, marketing, financing, access to capital, federal contracting, and business expansion through international markets and exporting. CWE's signature programs include: Concept to Launch, Women Business Leaders Breakfast Series, IncubateHER, Roadmap to $1MM+ and Beyond, and Membership. CWE offers services from its Chatham Eastside location, as well as from multiple additional locations in Allegheny, Butler, Beaver, and Westmoreland counties. CWE business counseling and technical assistance is available in person, online, and by phone.
Website: https://www.chatham.edu/cwe/