Launching the First Women’s Bank Collective (FWB Collective)
Summary
In 2024, First Women’s Bank committed to launch the First Women’s Bank Collective (FWB Collective) , a first-of-its-kind online and training resource hub, aggregating and offering best-in-class resources to help women create, build, and scale their businesses. It will feature free, curated tools including online training, a variety of information resources, and access to grant programs for more than 450,000 women entrepreneurs across the United States over five years. Through these resources, First Women’s Bank aspires to help close the financing gap for women entrepreneurs, providing a last-mile connection to grow the women’s economy.
Approach
Connecting women to capital is precisely why First Women’s Bank exists – it is the nation’s sole bank strategically focused on empowering the women’s economy and closing the gender lending gap.
First Women’s Bank’s commitment is to create The FWB Collective, an online and training resource hub, aggregating and offering best-in-class resources to help women create, build, and scale their businesses. It will feature online training, a variety of information resources, and access to grant programs, positioning The FWB Collective as the ideal connector and tri-sector resource hub. Over the next five years, this commitment will reach over 475,000 women entrepreneurs across the United States.
The FWB Collective will be free to access and will include FWB-created and curated resources, essential tools and connections to other women’s inspiring stories. It will foster collaboration through networking opportunities and provide invaluable guidance by connecting women to mentorship, training, and grant programs. Ultimately, The FWB Collective will create a connection point for FWB programming and vetted resources from corporate, government and entrepreneurial resource partners.
By replicating successful brand-building strategies executed for First Women’s Bank, they intend to tap into their network within the women’s economy to amplify the impact of existing resources and effectively reach their intended audience.
Beyond being an unmatched repository, they will raise awareness of FWB Collective resources and announce new programs through a monthly newsletter, “The Bridge” along with PR and social media campaigns. The FWB marketing team has successfully built, created and launched First Women’s Bank on a national level, their intention is to deploy this team to do the same with The FWB Collective.
These campaigns will be further amplified by their strategic advisors Billie Jean King, Sophia Bush, Nia Batts, Allyson Felix, and Wes Felix. By consolidating and amplifying these resources, they aim to provide a last-mile connection to grow the women’s economy.
Action Plan
The FWB Collective will provide access to top tier hard-to-find training resources, mentorship and grant programs offered by corporations, non-profit organizations, and government entrepreneurial success entities. The team at First Women’s Bank is uniquely positioned to curate free training and resources from non-profit, government, and global corporate mission partners.
They have curriculum and training resources from corporate, nonprofit, and government partners and will work to find other partners with resources for the FWB Collective. The FWB communications team will curate and author inspiring women’s business success stories. With the FWB Collective, First Women’s Bank will bring together a community dedicated to closing the gender lending gap and elevating women in the economy.
FWB Collective will launch in Q1 of 2025 and build a strong platform for entrepreneurs that grows over time, anticipating impact and reach growing year after year through a consistent focus on storytelling, marketing and advertising.
First Women’s Bank foresees a 30% increase in site traffic and reach year over year, ultimately reaching over 475,000 women throughout the five-year timeline.
Year one: 30,000
Year two: 46,500
Year three: 69,750
Year four: 125,550
Year five: 205,065
Total: 476,865
The FWB Collective will include the following actionable items:
User Friendly/Accessible Website: A user-friendly website for The FWB Collective and optimize it for search engines to increase organic traffic. This site will be the hub of all the aggregated information and access to the needed resources for women entrepreneurs.
Consistent Social Media Campaigns: A targeted organic and paid social media program on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram.
Ongoing Content Marketing: High-quality content such as blog posts, videos, and webinars that provide valuable insights and tips for women entrepreneurs.
Monthly Email Marketing: “The Bridge” newsletter to keep our growing audience informed about new resources, success stories, and upcoming events.
Advertising and Partnerships: Identify and execute key campaigns to reach the right audiences to drive awareness and engagement in the platform
Background
For over two decades, the number of women-owned businesses has increased at twice the national average. Women now lead an estimated 42% of all small businesses, with women of color leading half of these ventures in the U.S. Despite this progress, women are not scaling their businesses to their full potential due to significant barriers in accessing capital. Women receive only 16% of commercial bank loans, capturing a mere 4-6% of the total lending dollars. (“Want to Boost the Global Economy by $5 Trillion Support Women as Entrepreneurs,” Boston Consulting Group, 2019) Closing this gap presents a tremendous opportunity to boost the U.S. economy. Along with access to capital, women-owned businesses need connections and counseling to scale.
Small business economic development professionals know that there are more than enough resources to help bridge development gaps and meet the needs of small businesses, but these resources need to be woven together and connected to small businesses, which is missing and desperately needed. The FWB Collective will create the connective tissue for these small business resources and pair with a targeted communications effort to shine a bright light on these resources to help connect small businesses to them.
The gender lending gap is a complex and layered issue, and while providing loans is crucial, it’s just one piece of the puzzle. To truly bridge the financing gap, there’s a need to equip women entrepreneurs with the financial knowledge, networks, and encouragement to connect with the best forms of capital to start and scale their businesses. It is critical to provide women entrepreneurs and business owners ongoing support throughout their journey, from starting a business to growing a business, there are resources available – it’s just not that easy to find them in one central place.
Progress Update
Partnership Opportunities
The FWB Collective is looking to CGI to help broaden access to corporate, nonprofit and government partners to derive more resources to connect to the women’s economy. We’re seeking support from media platforms/outlets and industry influencers to help tell our story and reach the entrepreneurs who need this type of support., The FWB Collective offers corporations, associations and organizations, who have existing programs that support women-owned businesses, the chance to broaden reach and impact on a national level through marketing and networking. This also provides an opportunity to be aligned with First Women’s Bank and the larger mission of closing the gender lending gap.