Rise and Thrive Grants Aid Women Business Owners Affected by Vermont Floods

A supporting organization of the Vermont Community Foundation, The Vermont Women’s Fund has joined hands with and the Center for Women and Enterprise to provide $230,000 in grants from the Rise and Thrive campaign. The grants will be provided to women business owners who were adversely affected by the flooding in July 2023 that caused major disruption and damage in Vermont.

Emily Bush, Director, Vermont Women’s Fund, said, “The Vermont Women’s Fund is grateful for our partnership with the Center for Women and Enterprise to support women-owned businesses across the state who were impacted by the summer 2023 flooding. Thank you to our generous donors for being part of our ongoing movement to advance gender equity in Vermont and support Vermont women and girls so they can rise from the flood disaster and thrive.”

Launched last fall by the Vermont Women’s Fund, the Rise and Thrive campaign along with the VT Flood Response & Recovery Fund 2023 of the Vermont Community Foundation was able to raise over $400,000. The amount was used to by the Center for Women and Enterprise to be given out to women business owners who were in some way impacted by the flooding.

An initial amount of $50,000 was contributed by Carhartt, the workwear and outdoor apparel company. individual donors and companies came forward to contribute the rest of the amount.

Gwen Pokalo Hart, Vice President of policy & director of the Vermont Women’s Business Center at the Center for Women and Enterprise, said, "The forethought of the Vermont Women's Fund and Vermont Community Foundation to stand up a fund like this, a direct-to-business-owners-experience, is pretty extraordinary.” She further added, “Our community nominating partners have been integral in the process–thank you! We are focusing on getting these dollars to the business owners who keep our communities thriving, but many times, for myriad reasons, did not access other funding available. Together, the awardees paint a compelling picture of what entrepreneurship looks like in our beautiful, rural state. This summer we will have a full impact report to share, which will include the powerful stories of the women who are continuing their businesses in the face of many, many challenges. They are doing the difficult resilience work and we celebrate them."

A total of 46 grants were awarded by The Center for Women and Enterprise to businesses in various areas of Vermont.