Long-Term Impact: WomenVenture
St. Paul-based WomenVenture has succeeded for nearly 50 years by helping women succeed in business—and by evolving as their needs change, from joining companies to starting them.
“Our mission is to build profitable and sustainable businesses,” WomenVenture CEO LeeAnn Rasachak says. “And our brand promise is that you’ll never be alone in your business journey.”
Founded in 1978 to help metro-area women establish and maintain business careers by providing services such as résumé writing and teaching interview skills, WomenVenture has become much more focused on helping clients launch or scale their own business.
“Clients have all the resources they need at WomenVenture to be able to start a business,” Rasachak says. These include cohort classes that bring clients together to develop business management skills and strategies, such as crafting business plans. WomenVenture also provides business loans and microgrants to startups and mature small businesses.
WomenVenture offers business coaching, where clients can work with a consultant to review financials, operations, business plans, and other guidance. During the pandemic, the organization began providing services virtually, and it continues to offer online options to its clients. “We serve anyone, but 95% identify as women,” Rasachak says. Clients are located across Minnesota and western Wisconsin.
What particularly distinguishes WomenVenture from other nonprofit business consultancies is its status as a community development financial institution (CDFI). Established and certified by the U.S. Treasury Department, CDFIs provide financial products, services, and training to economically distressed and underserved communities. For WomenVenture, becoming a CDFI became crucial because many of its clients have significant difficulties accessing capital.
Most of the companies WomenVenture serves have annual revenue of less than $1 million. Especially if they’re operating newer businesses, these owners “are typically turned away from banks and other financial institutions because their business isn’t quite big enough,” Rasachak says.
As a CDFI, WomenVenture works with bank partners, government agencies, and outside funders to provide capital through grant dollars and loan funds. “We offer our services at low to no cost,” Rasachak says. One of WomenVenture’s roles is as “an economic first responder,” she notes. Through its CDFI operations, it can quickly move dollars to business owners. For instance, it can provide microgrants to help day care centers repair fences and meet other maintenance requirements so they can remain licensed.
In recent years, more women have started businesses to provide more flexibility in their lives. WomenVenture also has been increasingly serving women exiting their corporate roles or looking to start businesses after retirement.
WomenVenture measures its success by the success of its clients. “We want to serve 10,000 unique individuals between 2020 and 2030,” Rasachak says. “We are more than halfway to that milestone.” The organization’s active loan portfolio sits at $5 million, with a goal of reaching $15 million by 2030.
“For the next decade, we’re going to see this tremendous shift of more women entrepreneurs launching, particularly women of color, women moving into second and third careers, and from people seeking to shape their own destiny,” Rasachak says. “We’re going to be there for them.”
