THE WOODLANDS, Texas,
Dec. 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Woodforest National
Bank® teamed up with LiftFund Dallas/Fort Worth Women's
Business Center to launch its first virtual/online Woodforest
FoundrySM.
The Woodforest Foundry is an award-winning program and recipient
of the Consumer Bankers Association's 2019 Joe Belew Award, for the
most innovative and impactful small business initiative. The
Woodforest Foundry is facilitated by entrepreneurs, for
entrepreneurs, acting as mentors to activate local entrepreneurial
ecosystems, which revitalizes underserved communities and helps
grow businesses. With the Woodforest Foundry, entrepreneurs find a
community of mentors and trusted guidance from peers, Woodforest
bankers and community partners.
Doug Schaeffer, Executive Vice
President and CRA Executive Director at Woodforest, commented,
"Thank you LiftFund Dallas/Fort Worth Women's Business Center for
working with us to launch the Woodforest Foundry for the first
time, 100-percent online. Because supporting entrepreneurship and
small businesses is critical, especially now, our team quickly
adapted the Woodforest Foundry program into a virtual format which
is establishing a network of peers across Woodforest's footprint
despite the COVID-19 pandemic."
Tarsha Hearns, Director of the
LiftFund Dallas/Ft. Worth Women's Business Center added, "Teaming
up with Woodforest National Bank to launch the Woodforest Foundry
(virtual edition) empowered entrepreneurs to pursue their
entrepreneurial dreams and helped us expand our reach. This joint
effort strengthened our mission to support business owners,
especially women and minorities, through business education and
mentoring."
The Woodforest Foundry starts with open community events called
Entrepreneurship4AllSM that demystify entrepreneurship
through candid conversations with successful entrepreneurs from the
community. Next, aspiring entrepreneurs complete a series of
educational ideation workshops called Ideas 2 Action.
Lastly, entrepreneurs test and validate their ideas in a cohort of
their peers, successful small business owners, and other
professionals who provide mentorship and trusted guidance. Twelve
women graduated from this first virtual cohort representing
industries such as fashion, accounting, home manufacturing,
trucking, and retail.
For more information about the Woodforest Foundry, please
contact Doug Schaeffer, Executive
Vice President and CRA Executive Director at
dschaeffer@woodforest.com or Krystian
Reyes, Community Development Relationship Officer,
East Texas at
kreyes@woodforest.com.
About Woodforest National Bank
Celebrating 40 years of
community banking service, Woodforest National Bank has
successfully stood among the strongest community banks in the
nation, proudly offering outstanding customer service since 1980.
Woodforest currently operates over 750 branches in 17 states across
the United States and is an
Outstanding CRA rated institution. For more information about
Woodforest National Bank, please visit www.woodforest.com
About LiftFund Dallas/Ft. Worth Women's Business
Center
The LiftFund Dallas/Fort Worth Women's Business
Center (DFW WBC) is dedicated to supporting business owners,
especially women and minorities, through business advising and
training services. Launched in 2018, the DFW WBC has served the
Greater Dallas/Fort Worth small
business community with guidance, programming, and resources to
empower entrepreneurs at all stages of their business. The DFW WBC
is a program of LiftFund, a non-profit small business lender, and
funded in part through a Cooperative Agreement with the U.S. Small
Business Administration.
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SOURCE Woodforest National Bank