STAMFORD — Two grant programs offered by the Women’s Business Development Council (WBDC) will start accepting applications beginning Feb. 3 for two of its grant programs. The WBDC will accept the applications for the Ignite Grant Program and the Child Care Business Opportunity Fund until March 10, the organization announced.
Ignite applications will be accepted from Feb. 3 through March 10. Applications for the grants offered through the Child Care Business Opportunity Fund will be accepted from Feb. 3 through March 3. In anticipation of the opening of the latest round of grant applications, WBDC recently embarked on a road show that visited grant recipients from each program in every part of Connecticut.
“We are thrilled to continue these two remarkable grant programs for another round,” said WBDC founder and CEO Fran Pastore. “These grants have an incredible impact on Connecticut’s small business community. The data shows they are helping hundreds of businesses grow, creating and maintaining jobs while driving significant contributions to our state’s economy. We’re proud to support the success of these dynamic businesses.”
Ignite Grant Program
The program, launched in 2020 as the Equity Match Grant Program, awards grants of between $2,500 and $10,000 for clearly defined projects that will have a measurable impact on the business, its growth, and profitability. Since its launch, the program has given a boost to 364 women-owned businesses in Connecticut, totaling $3.37 million. In the last round alone, 37 Ignite grants were awarded, totaling more than $342,000.
Recent Ignite recipient Beth Iovinelli, owner of Milk Street Lactation, was grateful for the grant’s impact on her lactation and wellness support center in Norwalk.
“This grant allows us to have alternate streams of revenue and increase our revenue,” Iovinelli said. “It will allow me to focus on continuing to grow the business.”
Child Care Business Opportunity Fund
The program is designed to support, sustain, and grow child care businesses in Connecticut. The program’s Child Care Business Opportunity Fund provides grants of up to $25,000 to qualified licensed and aspiring child care businesses in Connecticut. Since the program launched in 2020, more than $7.5 million has been awarded to child care businesses in every corner of Connecticut, including $1.69 million in funding to 155 child care businesses in the latest round.
The WBDC mission is to support economic prosperity for women and strengthen communities through entrepreneurial and financial education services that create and grow sustainable jobs and businesses across Connecticut. Since 1997, WBDC has educated and trained nearly 20,000 clients in all of Connecticut’s 169 towns helping women to launch, sustain, and scale over 14,700 businesses, create and maintain more than 33,800 jobs in Connecticut, and access $63.7 million in capital.
