CNote | Wisdom Fund | Fixed Income Solution

Wisdom Fund

Invest in the Future of Women

What is the Wisdom Fund?

The Wisdom Fund is a fixed-income solution designed to expand capital access for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) women-owned businesses while delivering competitive financial returns. This innovative initiative combines purpose with performance, enabling investors to support wealth creation and economic opportunity for women of color across the United States. Co-created to introduce new thinking and sustainable solutions, the Wisdom Fund provides a meaningful way to align your financial goals with measurable impact in underserved communities.

Empowering Women Entrepreneurs While Earning Competitive Returns

Designed for Competitive Returns Earns a potential 4% return while supporting an investment that drives tangible impact for women entrepreneurs of color.1

Long-Term Impact and Systems Change

Investments contribute to supporting lasting solutions, fostering systemic change to address the challenges faced by women entrepreneurs of color.

Accredited Investors Only 2

Available to accredited investors offering an exclusive investment opportunity.

****60-Month Term Designed with a fixed 60-month investment term, offering stability and a long-term focus on impact.

****$100,000 Minimum Investment

The fund requires a $100,000 minimum investment, ensuring significant contributions toward impactful outcomes.

How does the Wisdom Fund help?

Every day 1,800 new women-owned businesses are added to the U.S. economy, yet women-owned businesses only receive a small fraction of total lending.3 The impact of the small business lending gap, which can affect many of the 12 million women-owned businesses in the U.S., is significant.4

Capital access is a significant issue for women entrepreneurs5 and is particularly pronounced for BIPOC women entrepreneurs. To illustrate, “if revenues generated by minority women-owned firms matched those currently generated by all women-owned businesses, they would add four million new jobs and $1.2 trillion in revenues to the U.S. economy.”6

When you invest in the Wisdom Fund, your capital empowers mission-driven financial institutions to provide loans to BIPOC women, supporting their businesses and growth.

The Statistics

Even when controlling for credit risk, low credit risk women-owned firms were approved for business loans at a rate 10% lower than man-owned businesses. 7

Less than 5% of small business lending— only about $1 in $23—goes to women. 8

Small business ownership can be economically transformative , “the median net worth for Black business owners is 12 times higher than Black nonbusiness owners.” 9

Despite accounting for almost a third of all businesses in the US, women-owned small businesses receive 16% of all conventional small business loans issued. 10

Alternative funding sources are also limited, women receive just 7 percent of all venture funding. 11

What kind of businesses does the Wisdom Fund support?

The borrowers profiled below were all funded by CNote partner lenders.

They are representatives of the borrowers the Wisdom Fund aims to support.

Built to Thrive: The Case for Investing in Women-Led Businesses

The changing economic and social landscape in the United States highlights the crucial need to invest in women-led businesses. These entrepreneurs are not just building companies; they’re creating resilient enterprises that positively impact their communities, generate jobs, and drive economic growth. However, many women still face barriers when it comes to accessing the capital they [...]
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Innovating pathways to wealth creation for women of color entrepreneurs: a Wisdom Fund update

Co-authored by CNote’s VP of Business Development, Danielle Burns and CNote’s Director of Impact Evaluation, Tamra Thetford. Women of color (WOC) entrepreneurs continue to face intersectional and systemic barriers — such as discrimination, bias, and a lack of networks — that limit their access to capital. Business ownership is a powerful wealth-building tool, and supporting [...]
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How Toni Hopkins Embraced Her Entrepreneurial Side To Open Cool J’s Apparel During The Pandemic

In the years leading up to the COVID-19 pandemic, Toni Hopkins and her husband talked about moving from their home in Springfield, Illinois to North Carolina to pursue what she describes as “something different.” They’d even gone as far as to meet with a real estate agent to explore selling their house. Ultimately, the couple [...]
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How Deshonda Charles Turned Her Dream Of Becoming A Lawyer Into A Successful Small Business – The Tackett Firm

When Deshonda Charles, Esq. was a little girl, she wanted two things in life: to be a singer and to become a lawyer. According to her, she was attracted to the legal world thanks to Clair Huxtable, the matriarch at the center of The Cosby Show. A young Deshonda watched the television show during its [...]
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Meet Dr. Nola Veazie, the Entrepreneuring Veteran Who’s Growing Her Business – V-solutions consulting, around Mental Health and Addiction

Nola Veazie grew up in Panama with the belief that she could do anything she set her mind to. Nola’s mother, who raised her children on her own, encouraged all of her children to dream big; however, when Nola was 16, she realized that the opportunities she wanted for herself didn’t exist in her home [...]
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Invest in Wisdom Fund

Currently available to accredited investors only.*

If you’re an accredited investor, you can sign up for a CNote account and invest in women today.

Note: Individuals are “ accredited investors” if their net worth is at least $1,000,000, excluding the value of their primary residence, or they have income at least $200,000 each year for the last two years (or $300,000 combined income if married) and have the expectation to make the same amount this year.