Wellesley, MA, March 8, 2004 -- The Ewing-Marion Kauffman Foundation has funded a project led by the Association of Women’s Business Centers (AWBC) to study the economic impact and effectiveness of Women’s Business Centers nationwide. The Center for Women’s Leadership (CWL) at BabsonCollege will conduct this study for the AWBC, which awarded Babson $50,000 to design and conduct a survey among the leaders of women’s business centers.

Says AWBC President & CEO, Ann Marie Almeida, “This unprecedented, grassroots and comprehensive research will help us to better understand who our Centers serve, how we are serving them now, and what new tools and resources these Centers will need to better fulfill their missions. Further, it will help us understand the economic impact women business centers and their clients, women entrepreneurs, have on our national economic landscape”

Nearly 200 Women’s Business Centers nationwide provide support and services to women business owners, including under-served and under-privileged women entrepreneurs, and to women securing rounds of venture capital in their businesses.  The Centers are community-based and deliver education, training, technical assistance, and access to capital directly to over 100,000 women and tens of thousands of businesses each year.

A BabsonCenter for Women’s Leadership team will have primary responsibility for conducting the research, including professors Nan Langowitz,  Norean Sharpe and Mary Godwyn.   Dr. Nan Langowitz, Director of CWL, says “We want to come away with a very clear description and understanding of the effectiveness of Women’s Business Centers,” says Langowitz, “Another important measurement is the economic impact of these Centers in terms of value creation in the local economy and potentially aggregated across the national landscape.”

The National Women’s Business Council (NWBC), and the Level Playing Field Institute (LPFI) are also collaborating on the project. The NWBC will assist the AWBC in developing outreach, educational, advocacy materials, and activities which may flow from the research results.  LPFI will provide the survey software technology and support.

Research, now in the early implementation phase, is scheduled for release in the fall of 2004.

 The Partnerships:

The Ewing-Marion Kauffman Foundation works with partners to encourage entrepreneurship across America and improve the education of children and youth.

The Foundation focuses its operations and grant making on two areas: entrepreneurship and education.

The Center for Women’s Leadership at Babson College is the first comprehensive center dedicated to women in business and entrepreneurship at a leading school of management. Through educational programs, CWL develops women’s leadership skills and promotes the advancement of women as entrepreneurial leaders within corporations, entrepreneurial business ventures, and not-for-profit organizations. CWL research focuses on the economic value that women, as business leaders, create. Studies also focus on the context and influence of women as organizational leaders and the ways in which organizations are transforming themselves to respond to a diverse world. Visit www.babson.edu/cwl.

The Association of Women’s Business Centers (AWBC) is a national 501c3 organization representing women business owners and women’s business centers.  The AWBC was founded in 1998 to support entrepreneurial development among women as a way to achieve self-sufficiency, create wealth and to expand participation in economic development through educational, training, technical assistance, mentoring, development and financing opportunities. The vision of AWBC is a world where economic justice, wealth and well-being are realized through the collective leadership and power of successful entrepreneurial women. Visit www.awbc.biz.

National Women’s Business Council is a bi-partisan Federal advisory council created to serve as an independent source of advice and policy recommendations to the President, Congress, and the U.S. Small Business Administration on economic issues of importance to women business owners. The Council's mission is to promote bold initiatives, policies and programs designed to support women's business enterprises at all stages of development in the public and private sector marketplaces, from start-up to success to significance. Members of the Council are prominent women business owners and leaders of women's business organizations.  Visit www.nwbc.gov.

The Level Playing Field Institute (LPFI). promotes innovative approaches to fairness in higher education and workplaces by removing barriers to full participation. LPFI works towards this mission by conducting activist research, developing programs and providing grants in these issue areas. Based in San Francisco, LPFI was founded in 2001 by Freada Kapor Klein, an expert consultant on sexual harassment and bias in the workplace. For more information, visit the website at www.lpfi.org.