'Lift as we rise' supports new entrepreneurs: innovative program for Alaska women goes national.

• Author: Lavrakas, Dimitra

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In a business when a project has promise it's said to "have legs." If that's so, then the recently launched YWCA Anchorage campaign to help women start small businesses has "wings." It's called "Lift as We Rise" and was created to support the clients of the agency's Women$Finances program.

"I heard the term 'Lift As We Rise' in reference to African-American women who, as they move up the ranks, they lift up their sisters," said YWCA Director of Women$Finances Laura White-Ritchie in the Y's downtown offices that house the program that offers a wide array of support services for the economic empowerment of women.

As part of the YWCA's initiative to eliminate racism and empower women, it is an innovative approach to raising funds for the program to become self-supporting, to move away from the short-term grants that send the staff into a tizzy every few years, and scrambling to meet deadlines to just maintain their ability to provide services.

Former director and current board member Linda Gallagher agrees with the fundraising approach.

"I think she's on the right track with this program," Gallagher said. "They relied on Small Business Administration funding, but every year it goes away. You're supposed to become self-sufficient."

SIMPLE YET SMART

It is a perfectly simple formula: 1,000 women donate $100 on a yearly basis. The $100,000 will cover salaries, classes and facility expenses.

"It is a drop in the bucket," said Joyce Allegra Clare, Women$Finances microenterprise business counselor of the yearly $100 donation. After all, it just about equals a dinner out with wine at a good restaurant, she points out.

Alaska has one of the highest rates of women-owned businesses-a whopping 73.2 percent. This campaign is aimed at them. Clare also is hoping that women, like herself, who have gone through the Y's BrassTacks Business Basics course or one-on-one business counseling will want to give something back.

"We need people to realize they're being called to help someone rise," said Clare. "It is building a community."

CHALLENGES 'RISE'

One of the challenges though, both women agree, is that there are no "legacy records" of program clients beyond the last three years. So they're hoping that past Women$Finances clients will read this article and contact the program so they too can participate in this groundbreaking campaign. Some of these clients will remember the program as the "Women$FUND," which was what it was called from...