Venture Café Foundation Receives $10,000 Targeted Grant To Advance Women
CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Aug. 10, 2018 /PRNewswire-iReach/ -- Venture Café Foundation, a nonprofit organization focused on connecting innovators to create businesses and jobs, today announced it has received a $10,000 Targeted Grant from Eastern Bank, America's oldest and largest mutual bank. The grant will support expansion of the Venture Café's programs at its Venture Café Kendall, District Hall and Roxbury Innovation Center sites to help women found and grow businesses.
Each year, the Eastern Bank Charitable Foundation's Targeted Grant program supports hundreds of community-based organizations working for progress on a specific issue in Eastern's New England footprint. In 2018, in celebration of the Bank's 200th anniversary and to honor its first depositor, Rebecca Sutton, Targeted Grants have been designated to support organizations addressing a range of issues that disproportionately impact women, such as sexual assault, domestic violence, human trafficking, health care, pay equity, and senior management and board representation. Venture Café Foundation is among 170 nonprofits each receiving a $10,000 grant. In total, Eastern is granting $1.7 million in Targeted Grants this year to nonprofits in communities from New Hampshire to Cape Cod and throughout the South Shore, North Shore, Metro West, Merrimack Valley and Greater Boston.
"Venture Café has been helping women start and grow businesses for over seven years. We have run dozens of workshops, seminars, office hours, pitch session and networking events. It has been very gratifying to see the progress that women founders are making, but there is still much more that can be done to help. We look forward to expanding our programming for women with the Eastern Bank Grant. We congratulate Eastern Bank on focusing this Targeted Grant on Advancing Women." Kevin Wiant, Executive Director, Venture Café Foundation.
Eastern's Targeted Grant program this year creates new opportunities and resources for women in areas where assistance is needed the most. The facts are staggering:
- A woman is assaulted every nine seconds in the U.S. and one in three women has been a victim of physical brutality by an intimate partner, making intimate partner violence the single greatest cause of injury to women.
- In Massachusetts, women earn 83 cents for every dollar paid to men. In New Hampshire, they earn 76 cents. African-American women nationwide earn 64 cents for every dollar earned by white men, and Latinas—only 56 cents.
- In the sciences, women represent less than 25% of those employed in computer and mathematical occupations and only 15% in architecture and engineering. For women of color, this gap is even wider. Asian women, African-American women, and Latinas make up less than 10% of working scientists and engineers in the U.S.
- Women receive more graduate degrees and they hold more faculty positions in colleges and universities, and yet, men hold the highest number of tenured university positions.
- Only 32 women run Fortune 500 companies and only two are women of color. Less than 20% of all board seats in Fortune 1,000 companies are held by women.
"We believe in breaking down the barriers that stand between people and prosperity. That's why Eastern is a strong advocate for the advancement of women," said Bob Rivers, Chair and CEO of Eastern Bank. "With each Targeted Grant, we aim to enhance the lives of our neighbors and contribute to real progress around the advancement of women in our local communities. On behalf of everyone at Eastern, we congratulate this year's Targeted Grant recipients and thank them for working to level the playing field."
For a complete list of the 2018 Targeted Grant recipients, click [here.
About Eastern Bank
Founded in 1818 and celebrating its 200thanniversary in 2018, Boston-based Eastern Bank is America's oldest and largest mutual bank, with $11 billion in assets and over 120 locations serving communities in eastern Massachusetts, southern and coastal New Hampshire and Rhode Island. Eastern provides exceptional access to fairly priced banking, investment and insurance products and services for consumers and businesses of all sizes, and for the eighth consecutive year is the #1 U.S. Small Business Administration lender in New England. Eastern Bank, which includes Eastern Wealth Management and Eastern Insurance, is known for its outspoken advocacy and community support that has exceeded more than $110 million in charitable giving since 1999. The Eastern Bank Charitable Foundation is a leader in corporate philanthropy and serves as the charitable arm of Eastern Bank. An inclusive company, Eastern employs 1,900+ deeply committed professionals who value relationships with their customers, colleagues and communities. Join us for good at http://www.easternbank.com and follow Eastern on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram.
About
Venture Café Foundation
The Venture Café Foundation connects innovators to make things happen. We believe anyone with an idea is an innovator, and that innovation is present everywhere. Our vision is to create a network of empowered individuals and communities who feel confident in their ideas and have the resources to achieve them. By providing spaces, programs, and connections, we can strengthen our local and global communities to tackle problems with creative solutions.
The Venture Cafe Foundation broadens, connects, and supports the innovation community through a public network of spaces and programs to help anyone with an idea succeed.
The Venture Café Foundation is a 501c3 nonprofit operating spaces & programs in Greater Bostonout of District Hall, Venture Café Kendall, and the Roxbury Innovation Center.
Media Contact
Kevin Wiant
617-899-3303
Media Contact: Kevin Wiant, Venture Cafe Foundation, 617-899-3303, [email protected]
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