NWL’s Origin Story

Native Women Lead was founded in 2017 by 8 Indigenous women whose collective backgrounds consisted of entrepreneurship, leadership and lending. The Co-Founders, each navigating their entrepreneurial and leadership journeys while trying to close their own racial wealth gaps and care for their families and communities, together asked themselves, what made Native women entrepreneurs and leaders unique? It was affirmed that CULTURE and COMMUNITY were primary motivational factors that shaped how they approached their ideas around wealth, business and purpose in life. In October 2017, they hosted a kickoff event and World Cafe design session, ELEVATE, to co-create the first Native Women’s Business Summit with community. As a result, 70+ Native American, Alaskan Native, and First Nations women attended the EVEVATE event representing over 30 tribes. Attendees confirmed a desire for a Native women-centered space to create a community and network to learn from and lean into.

In April 2018, the Inaugural Native Women’s Business Summit was held at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center in Albuquerque, NM bringing together 150 Native women in business and leadership from throughout Turtle Island. This SOLD OUT gathering was the largest entrepreneurial convening of Indigenous women entrepreneurs in the United States. In addition to exciting panels and breakout sessions, attendees were also offered free on-site childcare throughout the day. What was learned, shaped the future of how our community convenes…

In April 2019, Native Women Lead hosted over 300 native women and women of color for the 2nd Native Women’s Business Summit at the Isleta Resort & Casino in Isleta Pueblo, which also sold out, and pushed the edge of convening by adding conversations around public policy and ecosystem building, a Matriarch Marketplace and continuing the conversations about what it means to Decolonize Wealth. In addition, during the 2019 New Mexico Legislative Session, Native Women Lead was appropriated $150,000 through House Bill 461: Support for Native American Women-owned Small Businesses.

In March 2020, what would have been the 3rd Native Women’s Business Summit was cancelled due to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and instead virtual programming was offered. During this time, Native Women Lead with funding support from the NDN Collective, launched a relationship-based lending model in partnership with Nusenda Credit Union. The Matriarch Response Fund deployed $150,000 to 35 entrepreneurs to provide an economic safety net with loan forgiveness woven in and business technical assistance provided by New Mexico Community Capital. Additionally, in an effort to support self-care and uplift Native women owned businesses during the pandemic, Native Women Lead distributed over 200 self-care boxes containing Native made products to the community and supporting 9 Native women owned businesses.  

In September of 2020, Native Women Lead announced their first Co-Director, Co-Founder Alicia Ortega to lead the organization full-time and help structure, fundraise and build the organization into a 501(c)3 Non-profit. In January 2021, Native Women Lead welcomed their Inaugural Board of Directors which included Vernelle Chase, April Tinhorn, Brandi Douglas, Veronica Lane, Liz Gamboa, Phoebe Suina and Joan Timeche. The NWL team grew as well with Jennifer Lujan and Arienne Tenorio joining the team as Program Managers.

As the pandemic continued, Native Women Lead continued to offer virtual programming affectionately known as #TransformationThursday featuring 14 Indigenous & BIPOC speakers, and 13 events reaching over 350 attendees. Native Women Lead also launched its second lending program, the Matriarch Creative Fund, funding 20 entrepreneurs up to $10,000 in the creative economy to sustain or grow their businesses. With the excitement of the self-care boxes at the onset of the pandemic in 2020, interest in purchasing curated boxes to support Native women owned small businesses sparked which led to the creation of the Fair-Trade Initiative featuring seasonal BEWE Boxes filled with Native made products. Through the Fair-Trade Initiative BEWE Box sales, Native Women Lead partnered with over 25 Native women owned businesses.

In July 2021, in partnership with New Mexico Community Capital and Roanhorse Consulting, LLC, Native Women Lead was named one of three award recipients of $10 million in the Equality Can’t Wait Challenge funded by Melinda Gates, Stacy Shusterman and McKenzie Scott catapulting our co-creation of a waterway ecosystem of business support for 3,000 Native women entrepreneurs across Turtle Island. In August 2021, Co-Founder Jaime Gloshay joined Co-Director Alicia Ortega in leading the organization as a Co-Director full-time to help develop and manage access to capital work, fundraise and support programming for the organization.

In 2022, Native Women Lead launched the Matriarch Restorative Fund geared toward established entrepreneurs providing capital from $10,000-$50,000 to grow businesses primarily informed by Indigenous values and serving Indigenous communities. Native Women Lead also returned to in person convening and in October 2022 brought over 200 Native women together for a Native Women’s Business Retreat at the Tamaya Hyatt Regency in Santa Ana Pueblo, NM. This event focused on self-care, reconnection, kinship and included a business pitch competition. In 2023, Native Women Lead launched the Matriarch Revolutionary Fund, the country’s first-ever Indigenous women’s gender lens Investment Fund. Through the Rematriating Economies Apprenticeship (REA) in partnership with Roanhorse Consulting LLC and New Mexico Community Capital, 10 Indigenous women graduated from the inaugural cohort to increase representation in the field of finance. In September 2023, Native Women Lead hosted a Capital Growth Summit in San Francisco, CA.

In 2024, after experiencing accelerated growth, new journeys and change, Native Women Lead is opening the doors to invite more Native women into the organization and looking to community to help identify and uplift a new Executive Director to lead the organization. Native Women Lead has recently also welcomed two new Board of Directors, Onawa Haynes and Vina Little Owl. New and exciting developments are on the horizon as Native Women Lead grows!