Honoring Women on a Mission – WBENC

WOMEN’S PHILANTHROPY INSTITUE: Charitable Giving & Life Satisfaction – Does Gender Really Matter?

Twenty years ago, the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council began after a group of Dallas-based businesswomen who were certifying women-owned businesses in North Texas reached out to Susan Phillips Bari with a request to expand certification nationally.

Certification was becoming a major asset for businesses that were at least 51% owned by women. Such enterprises could benefit from government or private grants and loan programs. Just a couple of years earlier, President Bill Clinton had set a goal of awarding 5% of federal government contracts to women owned businesses, and private industry was increasingly looking to incorporate more women-owned and operated businesses into their supply chains.

The timing for the call was precipitous. Bari had, in fact, been looking into starting a similar certification program when she ran a women’s business training center under a grant from the U.S. Small Business Association. It was an SBA official who recommended Susan to the Dallas trio as a good fit to grow their program.

Within three weeks, Susan had developed a plan for what would become the WBENC and less than three months after that, she launched the organization as its executive director. She already had some heavy hitters on her side - Frito-Lay, PepsiCo and JCPenney were among the first corporate partners supporting the group.

Over the past two decades, WBENC has grown and seen its mission expand.

“We foster diversity in the world of commerce,” according to the group’s website.  “Diversity promotes innovation, opens new channels of revenue and creates partnerships which provide opportunities that fuel the economy.”

And while certification is still the core service the nonprofit provides to women business enterprises (WBEs), it is just the start of a relationship that WBENC hopes will last the life of that particular business. The organization refers to this as its CORE program (short for Certification, Opportunity, Resources and Engagement).

After certification, WBENC works to connect WBEs to the numerous WBENC corporate and government members to provide them opportunities. It hosts events to bring together WBEs with the procurement officers and decision makers of Fortune 500 companies.  It also fosters business-to-business relationships between WBEs, offers programs to enhances business development and growth, and gives access to a wealth of experts within the WBENC community.

A sample of the nonprofits programs include:

• WBENC Insights, which include industry research, webinars, toolkits, and a skills-based reference library
  
  
• The Tuck-WBENC Executive Program, an intensive week-long program focused primarily on increasing the competitive advantage and robustness of each participant’s business.
  
  
• Dorothy B. Brother Executive Scholarship Program, which provides WBEs access to high caliber management education at the executive level.

Ten years into the nonprofit’s story, Linda Denny took over leadership of the organization. As its president & CEO, she grew WBENC’s advocacy efforts, including working closely with the Obama transition team to provide information on the needs of women-owned businesses.

She also took WBENC international, helping to establish a WBE program in the United Kingdom in 2007. By 2009, a sister organization, WEConnect International, was established and now certifies women owned companies in more than 100 countries.

Now being led by Pamela Prince-Eason, WBENC is tackling the continuing challenges for WBEs, primarily the barrier to capital to start or grow a business.

In the time that WBENC has been in existence, the landscape in business has changed dramatically. According to a study commissioned by American Express, The 2016 State of Women-Owned Businesses Report. As of 2016, it was estimated that there are now 11.3 million women-owned businesses in the United States, employing nearly 9 million people and generating over $1.6 trillion in revenues.

Between 2007 and 2016, the number of women-owned firms increased by 45%, compared to just a 9% increase among all businesses, meaning that the number of women-owned firms grew at a rate five times faster than the national average.

“The business case for diversity and inclusion is better understood in the corporate marketplace each year,” Prince-Eason told Women’s Enterprise magazine earlier this year. “WBENC corporate members are very interested in providing opportunities to expand the skill set of WBE owners to develop more WBE leaders. We are proud of our great network that delivers all aspects of what we promise to corporate members and WBEs. WBENC is a village, and it takes all of us to create the success that we experience.”

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