2018 Grant Program

BEACON is a community-led
campaign to make Washington, DC
the most influential and supportive
city for women entrepreneurs in the
United States.

Donate to support our business directory and flagship programs

Check out BEACON's latest report:
Building Inclusive Ecosystems with Intentionality: A Strategy to Enhance Support for DC's Women Founders

Becoming Beacon

Our goal is to make Washington, DC a model city to demonstrate how investors, companies, mentors and government can work together to ensure women entrepreneurs have an equal opportunity to succeed.

Are you an ecosystem builder?
Apply for the BEACON Grant Program!

Click Here to Apply

Help Us Build DC's Most Complete Directory of

Women-Owned Businesses

Krystin Hargrove

Empowomant is a for-profit social impact organization, empowering women to live with intention. We explore 3 core areas: self, family, and career applying our 3 step method of vision, work, and follow through to support women seeking personal and professional alignment. Through collaboration, we work to empower women around the world.

Founder, Owner, Designer

Meaning “smile/laughter” in Swahili, Kicheko Goods is a socially conscious company that designs distinctive pieces which invest in education. Founded in 2014, Kicheko is an emerging brand made in DC. Concepts for the brand’s small batch collections are inspired by geometry, nature, and travel. Kicheko's aesthetic shares an unrefined boldness, sophisticated earthiness and playful simplicity..

Just Rock Enterprises

Just Rock offers music, dance and pe instruction via private, group and workshop experiences throughout the DMV.

Vanessa Ferragut

Greenease is a mobile app that connects consumers with restaurants, cafes and grocers that buy from local and/or sustainable farms.

Find the support for your women-owned business

Resources

Young African Professionals Network (YAP)

The Young African Professionals (YAP DC) Network is the premier conveners of events and opportunities for young African diaspora professionals ages 21-40. We provide timely and relevant resources, we facilitate innovative professional development experiences, we foster inspirational networking, and we encourage impactful community building.

Advancement Strategist

Halcyon is a creativity incubator for both social entrepreneurs and socially-conscious artists. Halcyon Incubator, our flagship program, is a competitive, 13-month fellowship program, which includes a 5-month residency, to support the most promising early-stage social entrepreneurs in the world. Incubator accepts 2 cohorts of 8 social enterprises each year and has worked more than 60 ventures.

Rosemarie Truman

Founder and CEO

The Center for Advancing Innovation Accelerator

The Center for Advancing Innovation (CAI) is a global public-private partnership, non-profit focused on creating a virtuous circle of innovation and driving growth breakthroughs through novel, creative paradigms and models. CAI's mission is to accelerate and increase the volume of research commercialization in support of high growth business to ignite entrepreneurship, bolster the global economy,

I design clothing, organize snowboard/surf camps/skateboarding events for women (to empower women through action sports), support women artists/enterpreneurs/activists/advocates, and recently launched my first flag ship store in Adams Morgan DC called sPACYcLOUd Lounge.

Events

For Women, By Women, We All Belong Here

Building Brands People Love: Food Edition

Because you love food (and so do we!). We hand-picked our favorite food brands around the DMV and got them together to discuss how to build brands people love.

Free RSVP at: http://bit.ly/FoodBrandsinDC

#GEW2019 Community Kick-Off Celebration

Join us on March 28th for drinks, ideas, community and - perhaps most important - how to engage in the world renown Global Entrepreneurship Week 2019 Celebration!

Come hear from the organizers and learn how you can stand out from the crowd during the 2019 Call for Session Submissions Process.

Cocktails and Corporate Content

Cocktails and Corporate Content is a branding photo shoot event for women business owners and career professionals in need of an updated, professional and stylish head shot/portrait for social media, their website and/or marketing materials. Your glam squad includes:
- 2 Photographer
- 2 Make up Artist
- A Hair Stylist
- A Personal Stylist

Community