Why We Exist

As New England's leading organization for women entrepreneurs, we believe that lifting up women can benefit everyone. That is why, for over 25 years, we’ve helped aspiring women entrepreneurs and women business owners launch, build, and grow their business by meeting them where they are and providing greater access to the resources, tools, and support they need to achieve business success.

Because when we empower women to succeed economically, they’re better positioned to support themselves, their families, and the communities around them. And, ultimately, they’ll lead the way in driving sustained economic growth and creating a more equitable world for us all.

Woman at Computer on Phone

Our Purpose

We lift up the women who lift up the world.

Support our work to drive more equitable economic growth.

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Our Mission

CWE’s mission is to increase women’s economic empowerment through entrepreneurship. 

What We Do

At CWE, we’re proud to be the most trusted and impactful training and certification program for women in New England. We offer:

Vermont Class

Who We Do It For

We want every individual who identifies as a woman to see themselves as an integral part of our trusted community, united by their entrepreneurial spirit. Our clients represent a variety of racial, ethnic, and socio-economic backgrounds. We make our programs available on a sliding fee scale, so any woman with a business dream can work with us.

Our Values

We see the value in all voices. We show respect by:

  • Using language that assumes good intentions and competence.
  • Communicating in an open, direct and compassionate manner
  • Utilizing active listening techniques to ensure people feel heard.
  • Deepening individual self-awareness so we are able to identify our biases that can make the first three ways of showing respect challenging.

We clear the path to the table so all voices can be heard. We show equity by:

  • Boldly defining, and then practicing, transparency for our organization
  • Prioritizing individual and collective staff development in the budget and
  • Providing multiple means of engagement to co-create and implement our vision, mission, and strategic goals.
  • Keeping equity as a central consideration by examining our own relationship to inequity and constantly challenging the invisible walls of our organization & culture

We create connections between voices to leverage collective genius. We show collaboration by:

  • Routinely sharing resources, challenges, solutions, and the success and failure of those solutions
  • Including multiple perspectives in key projects by creating diverse teams
  • Leveraging individual staff strengths, passions, and expertise on projects
  • Partnering around our individual weaknesses enabling all of us to utilize and develop our skills fully.

We celebrate and cultivate bold ideas and curiosity from all voices. We show innovation by:

  • Staying up to date on the latest trends and research in business, technology, and culture
  • Embracing failure as a normal part of experimentation
  • Consistently creating space for both extroverts and introverts
  • Courageously embracing and implementing a decentralized organizational structure and clear systems of mutual accountability that meets the needs of our funders as well as the needs of our mission, our values, and our staff.

We use our voice to energize, engage and inspire each other. We show joy by:

  • Collectively celebrating successes and milestones - both personal and professional - as well seeking the humor in our failures
  • Bringing our “true self” to work, thereby encouraging others to do so as well
  • Sharing moments of humor – “Laughter is the shortest distance between two people” – Victor Borge
  • Having meaningful conversations with colleagues and clients

By The Numbers

93%

women

42%

people of color

68%

low income

7%

disabled

Our Strategic Plan

In 2020, we worked together with stakeholders from across our Centers to create our 2021-2023 Strategic Plan.