Lauren Grattan spoke at Native Women Lead & The Future is Indigenous Women’s Inaugural Growth Capital Summit, where over 120 Native women entrepreneurs, investors, and mentors gathered for three days of connection.
We need more individuals thinking and acting in ways that take into account the dynamics of intersectionality—a framework that civil rights activist and lawyer Kimberlé Crenshaw coined—to provide a lens through which you can see where power comes and collides, where it interlocks and intersects.
In our quest to increase economic opportunity for underestimated groups, we knew we’d want to emphasize supporting women and girls. With a diverse and largely female team, empowering more women has always felt natural to us. We’ve long wanted to connect the resources and needs of our community in new intentional ways that make a real impact on gender inequality.
Our flexible, personalized financing approach allowed us to provide Friends of Willow Tree a $100,000 bridge loan that they used for expenses at the start of the school year, keeping the program affordable and accessible for their majority low-income students.
“I have managed to invest…but one of the proudest things I have been able to do is pay for all of the school fees for my 7 children.”
—Seraphine, artisan
All Across Africa’s unique supply chain model includes training and employing over 3,000 artisans in five countries in Africa, primarily women.
