This application is now CLOSED. Any entries received after 11:59pm EST on Monday, February 28th are invalid.

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Silver & Riley Women Entrepreneurship Grant

Silver & Riley is pleased to announce our latest round of grant funding for women owned businesses through our Buy 1, Give 5 program - our commitment to helping woman entrepreneurs start, grow and scale their businesses. Read more about the program and view previous grant winners here. 

In this round, we are focusing on black women owned businesses that have been in operation less than three years (i.e. founded no earlier than February 2019).

• Black woman owned (at least 51%) and operated business
• Business must be in operation for less than 3 years (launched after February 1st, 2019). 
• Five grants of $2,000 USD each will be awarded to five women entrepreneurs / women led businesses
• Grants are a completely free cash injection. They are not loans and no equity is taken 
• The application will be open till 11:59pm EST Monday, February 28th, 2022
• Finalist interviews (30 mins by phone) will be conducted from March 1st, 2022 to March 11th, 2022. If you are selected as a finalist, you must be available for a 30-minute zoom session with a panel of judges (no exceptions)
• Grant winners will be selected and notified on Monday, March 14th, 2022.  Grantees will receive a disbursement of their funds no later than Wednesday, March 16th, 2021
• Open to U.S. based businesses only.

SILVER & RILEY START-UP ACADEMY

Silver & Riley is launching a women's start-up academy in April 2022. The academy will be a 3 month-long program focused on providing business mentorship for women entrepreneurs and will include three 1-on-1 mentoring sessions with founder, Lola Banjo, and six group sessions with experts, thought leaders and other guest speakers.

Below are some examples of topics to be covered in group sessions:

• Finding the right target audience
• Communicating your value proposition
• Building a successful team while scaling 
• Making data driven decisions 
• Getting started with fundraising
• Small business taxes and auditing
• Digital marketing / advertising action plan

In addition to the grants, each winner will receive automatic admission to the inaugural cohort of the Start-up academy.

IMPORTANT TIPS:

• One application per person/business. If you apply more than once, ONLY your first application will be considered
• We highly recommend you to take your time in applying to ensure you submit your best application. It's ok to wait till later in the month if you're not quite ready
• Be authentic and speak from the heart - there are no right or wrong answers, but please be thoughtful and answer each question asked. Your application will be nulled if we receive blank responses to required questions
• We are looking for passion, dedication, enthusiasm and general business smarts. No business is too small and industry doesn't matter much as long as we feel the business is ethical and aligns with our values. We have no stipulations on how you use the money as long as you use it for your business. Use it in whatever ways you need.

We are committed to empowering and supporting women, so we have a bias towards women who share similar values.

Due to anticipated volume, please excuse the fact that we will not be able to respond to each application; only finalists will be contacted. If you do not hear from us indicating you are a finalist, please do not be discouraged - there will be other opportunities.

All the best!