The Institute for Entrepreneurial Leadership recently announced it was awarded a $50,000 grant from the Justworks Foundation to help support IFEL’s Women of Color Connecting Access Accelerator Program, supporting more women of color entrepreneurs to achieve a grow-scale-exit trajectory.
Newark-based IFEL was one of only five organizations chosen from an initial application pool of 183.
“Access to capital remains the primary barrier to success for many women of color entrepreneurs,” CEO and Co-Founder Jill Johnson stated. “We thank the Justworks Foundation for investing in IFEL’s work to help them build wealth through a grow-scale-exit trajectory.”
WOCCON launched in 2019 to focus attention on utilizing relationship capital to build the capacity of women of color entrepreneurs to grow, scale and exit businesses. IFEL’s vision is to create $1 billion in new wealth over the next 10 years through the success of women of color entrepreneurs.
“Like IFEL, Justworks understands that underrepresented entrepreneurs face additional barriers to success. For too long, disparities in opportunity along race, gender, sexual orientation and other socioeconomic lines have been barriers to access for aspiring entrepreneurs,” Yrthya Dinzey-Flores, vice president of DEI, social impact & sustainability at Justworks, stated “We are energized about the partnership with Jill Johnson and the IFEL team to realize the dual missions of both organizations.”
