Top 15 Grants for Female Entrepreneurs in South America 2025
Access to funding is crucial for entrepreneurship, particularly for women looking to start or expand their businesses. South America has seen a growing number of grant opportunities specifically designed to support female entrepreneurs. Here is a detailed list of the Top 15 Grants for Female Entrepreneurs in South America in 2025, including key details and links for further information.
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1. Giving Joy Grants
Description: Micro-grants for women over 18 to launch or expand businesses/non-profits.
Grant Amount: Up to $500.
Eligibility: Women over 18, businesses located in North and South America.
Application Window: January 1-31, 2025.
Award Date: June 2025.
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2. Santander's Cultivate Small Business
Description: Program for early-stage food industry entrepreneurs, focusing on women, immigrant, and BIPOC-owned businesses.
Grant Amount: Up to $13,000 in capital grants.
Eligibility: Operating in the food industry, at least one year in business, specific locations in the USA, with potential expansion to Latin America.
Program Components: 12-week virtual education curriculum, mentorship, networking.
Application Deadline: January 30, 2025, for Spring cohort.
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3. EmpowHER Grants (Boundless Futures Foundation)
Description: Grants for female small business owners addressing societal issues.
Grant Amount: Up to $25,000 (reimbursement of expenses).
Eligibility: Female small business owners (22+), established within the last 3 years, addressing poverty/hunger, sustainability, or community strength.
Application Deadlines: Quarterly. Next deadline February 15, 2025.
4. Her Village Grant (Boundless Futures Foundation)
Description: Grants for nonprofits supporting female entrepreneurs.
Grant Amount: $5,000 to $30,000.
Eligibility: Nonprofits supporting female entrepreneurs.
Application Cycle: Biannual.
5. Pro Mujer Programs
Description: A social enterprise advancing gender equality in Latin America, providing support for women-led businesses.
Grant Amount: Not directly offered to entrepreneurs, but supports programs with a $3 million grant from Visa Foundation.
Impact: Aims to impact over 300,000 women through training, support networks, and skills development.
6. Regional Fund for Women's and Feminist Organizations and Movements
Description: Grants for women's and feminist civil society organizations in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Grant Amount: Maximum of USD 20,000.
Eligibility: Women's and feminist civil society organizations.
Activities Covered: Capacity-building strategies focused on women's rights and autonomy in decision-making.
7. Unlock Her Future Prize (The Bicester Collection)
Description: Supports women social entrepreneurs with grants and executive education programs.
Grant Amount: Up to US$100,000.
Eligibility: Women (18+) in South Asia with impactful startup ideas.
Additional Benefits: Includes coaching, mentorship, and executive education.
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8. Amber Grant for Women (WomensNet)
Description: Monthly grants for women-owned businesses.
Grant Amount: $10,000 monthly, plus an additional $25,000 annual grant.
Eligibility: Women-owned businesses, with no complex application processes.
Additional Notes: Ongoing application reviews, includes various grant categories.
9. Tinker Foundation's Institutional Grants Program
Description: Project funding for organizations working to improve lives in Latin America.
Program Areas: Focus on Democratic Governance, Education, and Natural Resources.
10. Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (We-Fi)
Description: Aims to break barriers to financial access for women entrepreneurs by leveraging donor grant funding.
Focus: Provides capacity building, access to networks, and mentors.
11. The Visa Global She's Next Grant Program
Description: A collaboration between Visa and IFundWomen to create access to funding and education for women-owned small businesses.
12. State Chambers of Commerce
Description: Provide grant opportunities to women-owned businesses at state and local levels.
13. Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs)
Description: Support women business owners in low-income communities by offering financing options.
Focus: Help with funding for business expenses.
14. Women's Business Centers (WBCs)
Description: Provide grant opportunities to women-owned businesses at state and local levels, assisting in identifying relevant funding.
15. Various Grants Listed by GrantWatch
Description: GrantWatch lists various grants specifically for minority women business owners.
Grant Amount: Up to $10,000.
Eligibility: Minority women entrepreneurs.
Focus: Support for businesses fostering innovation, diversity, and economic growth.
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FAQ
Q: What is the Giving Joy Grants program?
A: The Giving Joy Grants offer micro-grants of up to $500 for women over 18 to launch or expand businesses or nonprofits in North and South America. Learn more about Giving Joy Grants.
Q: Who is eligible for Santander's Cultivate Small Business program?
A: This program supports early-stage food industry entrepreneurs, specifically women and BIPOC-owned businesses, operating for at least one year in designated U.S. locations. Discover Santander's Cultivate Small Business.
Q: What are the EmpowHER Grants?
A: The EmpowHER Grants, offered by the Boundless Futures Foundation, provide funding of up to $25,000 for female small business owners who address social issues such as poverty, sustainability, or community building. Learn more about EmpowHER Grants.
Q: How can nonprofits apply for the Her Village Grant?
A: Nonprofits that support female entrepreneurs can apply for the Her Village Grant, which ranges between $5,000 and $30,000 and follows a biannual application cycle. Find out more about Her Village Grant.
Q: What support does Pro Mujer provide?
A: Pro Mujer advances gender equality for women-led businesses in Latin America through training, networking, and skills development, funded by a $3 million grant from the Visa Foundation. Learn more about Pro Mujer.
Q: What is the Regional Fund for Women's and Feminist Organizations and Movements?
A: This fund provides grants up to $20,000 for women's and feminist organizations in Latin America and the Caribbean, focusing on capacity-building strategies for women's rights. Discover the Regional Fund.
Q: What does the Unlock Her Future Prize offer?
A: The Unlock Her Future Prize, aimed at women social entrepreneurs in South Asia, offers up to $100,000 in funding along with executive education, coaching, and mentorship. Learn more about the Unlock Her Future Prize.
Q: What is the Amber Grant for Women?
A: The Amber Grant for Women provides monthly grants of $10,000 plus an additional $25,000 annual grant specifically for women-owned businesses, with a simple application process. Explore Amber Grant for Women.
Q: What services does the Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (We-Fi) provide?
A: The Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (We-Fi) aims to facilitate financial access for women entrepreneurs through donor funding and support services like mentoring and capacity building. Learn more about We-Fi.
About the Author
Violetta Bonenkamp, also known as MeanCEO, is an experienced startup founder with an impressive educational background including an MBA and four other higher education degrees. She has over 20 years of work experience across multiple countries, including 5 years as a solopreneur and serial entrepreneur.
Violetta is a true multiple specialist who has built expertise in Linguistics, Education, Business Management, Blockchain, Entrepreneurship, Intellectual Property, Game Design, AI, SEO, Digital Marketing, cyber security and zero code automations. Her extensive educational journey includes a Master of Arts in Linguistics and Education, an Advanced Master in Linguistics from Belgium (2006-2007), an MBA from Blekinge Institute of Technology in Sweden (2006-2008), and an Erasmus Mundus joint program European Master of Higher Education from universities in Norway, Finland, and Portugal (2009).
She is the founder of Fe/male Switch, a startup game that encourages women to enter STEM fields, and also leads CADChain, and multiple other projects like the Directory of 1,000 Startup Cities with a proprietary MeanCEO Index that ranks cities for female entrepreneurs. Violetta created the "gamepreneurship" methodology, which forms the scientific basis of her startup game. She also builds a lot of SEO tools for startups. Her achievements include being named one of the top 100 women in Europe by EU Startups in 2022 and being nominated for Impact Person of the year at the Dutch Blockchain Week. She is an author with Sifted and a speaker at different Universities. Recently she published a book on Startup Idea Validation the right way: from zero to first customers and beyond and launched a Directory of 1,500+ websites for startups to list themselves in order to gain traction and build backlinks.
