HQ Update: How Doyenne continues to fulfill our mission during the crisis

Over the past month, we've all had to adapt to massive change and trauma due to the COVID-19 crisis. Although many of us have not yet felt a direct impact from the virus itself, the pandemic has affected every part of our lives and work. Doyenne is no exception to this, but we’re doing everything we can to continue to fulfill our mission of serving women entrepreneurs and build equitable ecosystems.

Doyenne Programming

We have shifted our programming to a digital platform, and our first few sessions of the Iso-Learning series have gone well! We plan to continue holding these virtual training sessions on a weekly basis as long as the crisis lasts. We’re also publishing the recordings of these webinars on the Learning Lab for people to view later if the webinar time doesn’t work for them.

Our new Doyenne Strategy Accelerator is also moving forward virtually, and the pilot cohort is helping us work out the kinks of transitioning a very hands-on and interactive program into a digital format. Although it’s taking a lot of creativity and the formation of some new partnerships, we’re excited to be able to reach new audiences in cities that don’t yet have Doyenne once we finalize the digital version. 

Collaborating with entrepreneurial support organizations to keep your needs in front of lawmakers

 In both of the cities where Doyenne operates, Madison and Milwaukee, we have launched networks of entrepreneur support organizations to collaborate together to advocate for entrepreneurs and small business owners at local, state, and national government levels. 

 We encourage you to join the Madison Entrepreneur Community LinkedIn Group and/or the MKE Entrepreneur Support Coalition Facebook Group. Both of these groups are publishing tips and resources and are servings as a place for entrepreneurs and small business owners to post their successes and the hurdles they're working through right now.

 How do these collaborations serve you?

• • • • • • Resources: There are approximately 30 organizations represented in each city. All of the organizations have pledged to share materials, resources, opportunities, and more with each other to share with our networks

          • Surveys: We are sending surveys to our networks to monitor the impact of the crisis on all of your activities, whether that’s sourcing and creating products or making sales and raising startup capital. We’ll continue to do that through the crisis and into the aftermath, whenever that starts. We share the results of these surveys with government leaders to keep them informed about how they can best support you. We try to make them as short and easy as possible. Please fill them out because we can only report on the information we gather. If we don't have information then it's hard to tell people what they need to hear.

          • Community: We're here to help, listen, provide options, and also let you know that you're not alone by connecting you with other entrepreneurs who are going through similar challenges. 

We hear too much in the media about all of the resources flowing to support the big corporations that supposedly drive the economy, but we know that you all are the true source of innovation and economic growth. We are screaming to all that will listen to make sure you're recognized and not forgotten in the shuffle.