impact investing

27 Inspirational Female Entrepreneurs Who Are Positively Impacting The World

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Entrepreneurship can be the ultimate investment and adventure, and there is always inspiration to be gained from the ups and downs of entrepreneurs' stories. Perhaps even more inspiring, however, is the impact businesses—and the women who lead them—can have. From authors and inspirational speakers to philanthropists and tech trailblazers, women entrepreneurs are using their businesses for good and making a difference. Read on for more from Everyday Power, learn from the impact women are having on the world, and keep investing in women—and in yourself!

everydaypowerblog.com - Female entrepreneurs are certainly a force to be reckoned with – and 2016 is their year. Today, about 37 percent of global enterprises are owned by inspiring, dedicated women. From supporting their own communities to contributing to global wealth, they prove that there’s no barrier when it comes to success.

Want to know their stories? Here are 27 of today’s amazing female entrepreneurs.

1) Julie Steines  

Inspirational Female Entrepreneurs Who Use Their Business for Good

Author, publisher, philanthropist, Mom to Norbert the Dog. 

 Julie (Freyermuth) Steines is a multiple award-winning children’s book author. She co-owns the publishing and education company, Polly Parker Press, with her mother, Dr. Virginia Freyermuth. Her beloved Norbert book series is inspired by her real-life 3 lb. registered therapy dog whose message is, “You don’t need to be big to make a BIG difference in the world.

As a registered therapy animal team for the past six years, Julie and Norbert have spent many hours volunteering at hospitals, nursing homes, schools, fundraisers, and homeless shelters to bring comfort and smiles to people of all ages. Julie’s work with Norbert has been featured on Time, People, Wired, HLN, Huffington Post, AOL, InStyle, Oprah.com, Paper Magazine, and Brides.com, among others.

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New fund for women is the next step in Kiva’s evolution

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Kiva.org, known for making microfinance accessible to citizen lenders looking to help low-income entrepreneurs, is looking to expanding to larger loans for small and medium enterprises. In a partnership with the United States Department of State and the Inter-American Development Bank, the company established the Women’s Entrepreneurship Fund--opening up loans to up to 1 million women entrepreneurs, matching amplifying the donations of citizen lenders through Kiva.org, and helping underserved women-owned businesses in the organizations foray into impact investing. It's a move that could set a model for socially responsible investing for many other companies. devex.com - Truphena Anyango, a 29-year-old married mother of one in Mikindani, Mombasa, Kenya where she runs a pharmacy and also sells cosmetics. A loan of $650 administered by VisionFund Kenya helped her to purchase more cosmetics and sanitary products for her business. Photo by: John Briggs / Kiva

Kiva partnered with the United States Department of State and the Inter-American Development Bank to launch the Women’s Entrepreneurship Fund on Friday, signaling the next step in the crowdfunding platform’s ongoing expansion into impact investing.

Seventy percent of small and medium enterprises owned by women in emerging markets are underserved or unserved, leading to a $260 billion to $320 billion credit gap for women, according to the International Finance Cooperation. Despite the odds, women reinvest 90 percent of their incomes in their families and communities.

“We see time and again with Kiva that the most impactful, high leverage, accelerated way to change the world more positively is by getting money directly into the hands of women, and particularly women entrepreneurs,” said Julie Hanna, Kiva’s board chair.

Read more here.