Red Letter Grant and First Nations Community Financial Announce Grant to Support Indigenous Women in Business

Wednesday, February 28th, 2024 -- 9:01 AM

The Red Letter Grant and First Nations Community Financial (FNCN) are pleased to announce the launch of a statewide grant to support Indigenous women in business.

The Indigenous Women’s Start-Up Grant will award $2,000 this spring and another $2,000 grant awarded this fall. Applicants must reside and do business in the state of Wisconsin, as well as be part of one of the state’s 11 federally recognized Tribes.

The Red Letter Grant makes semi-annual investments in women-led small businesses ranging from $2,000 to $5,000 grants. Applicants submit business plans to a rotating panel of judges, go through an interview process and the top ideas are then awarded start-up funding.

The program has served ten counties until recently expanding to serve eight new counties in Northwest Wisconsin (18 in total), and now expands further to support Indigenous women statewide.

“We’re pleased to grow the breadth of our program and more directly serve Indigenous women throughout Wisconsin. Providing more dollars for women-led start-ups in Tribal communities widens our state’s entrepreneurial ecosystem and allows for more creativity and innovation,” said Rebecca Cooke, Red Letter Grant Founder and Executive Director.

“We are excited to present this opportunity for our Indigenous Women business owners bringing their dreams to reality. We can’t think of a better partnership than joining Red Letter Grant to support women in business and believe this entrepreneurial cornerstone is essential to our Native communities!” said Becky Albert-Breed, Executive Director of First Nations Community Financial and enrolled Tribal Member of the Ho-Chunk Nation.

Feel free to contact us with questions and/or comments.