Jennifer Lopez, Grameen America's National Ambassador, Returns to The Bronx to Mentor Women Entrepreneurs and Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month
Grameen America, which Lopez and Limitless Labs partnered with last year, is on track to provide a groundbreaking $1 billion in loans to underserved women in a single year.
The organization is projected to have disbursed $4 billion in total throughout the United States by early 2024.
Lopez with Grameen America members in The Bronx
Lissette Martinez, owner of Bella Shique
Lopez pictured with Andrea Jung and women entrepreneurs from the Grameen America program
NEW YORK, October 6, 2023 — To mark the start of Hispanic Heritage Month, global icon Jennifer Lopez visited her hometown of The Bronx, New York, to provide mentorship to more than 20 Latina women entrepreneurs who receive access to loan capital, financial education, and peer networking through Grameen America’s program. This special gathering, which featured Jennifer Lopez alongside Grameen America members and staff, holds significance as it also marks the first time the organization projects to invest $1 billion in loans to women entrepreneurs in one year alone.
“With Jennifer’s partnership, Grameen America is proud to announce we are on track to disburse a groundbreaking $1 billion in loan capital to underserved women and their businesses in just one year’s time,” said Andrea Jung, President and CEO of Grameen America. “This progress is historic, as it took us ten years to reach an investment of $1 billion in women entrepreneurs and another three years to reach $2 billion.”
Since June 2022, Jennifer Lopez and Grameen America have been working together to expand financial inclusion for Latina women entrepreneurs. The partnership seeks to advance Lopez’s philanthropic project, Limitless Labs, which aims to uplift, educate and provide essential resources to underserved communities like the one in The Bronx where Lopez grew up. As Grameen America’s National Ambassador, Lopez advocates for and mentors the organization’s network of over 80,000 small businesses run by women of color in low-income communities across the United States.
Watch Jennifer’s Return to The Bronx
“All I’ve ever wanted was an opportunity. Give me an opportunity just like you’re giving everybody else and let me prove myself. That’s why it was a perfect fit for me to join Grameen America and become the National Ambassador. That to me is the biggest, most beautiful thing that you’re affording all of us to have.”
On Friday, September 8, Lopez joined a group of 20 Latina entrepreneurs at Bella Shique, a beauty spa owned by Lissette Martinez, a member of Grameen America who grew up in the same community in The Bronx as Lopez. Lissette is an esthetician with a lifelong passion for beauty and skin care. When Lissette discovered she was vastly underpaid compared to other colleagues, she was motivated to open her own spa business focused on skin care and microblading.
“When I saw some of the ladies there [on Friday], we were all saying how inspiring it is. Some of these women have three children and multiple jobs and they don’t know where they’d be without Jennifer,” said Lissette Martinez. “I’ve worked my whole life and still have a passion. It doesn’t matter how old I am, my dream is worthy.”
Lissette joined Grameen America in 2014 to grow her at-home spa business and quickly benefited from the access to capital and peer support she experienced through the microloan program. With the help of loan capital, Lissette turned her big dream into a reality when she opened her first retail location in October 2022. Lopez toured Bella Shique and discussed Lissette’s business goals for the future.
Lopez also sat down with Andrea Jung, President and CEO of Grameen America, to discuss the challenges Latina women entrepreneurs face and valuable insights and business advice to achieve success. 1 in 4 small businesses in the U.S. are Latino-owned, yet Latino-owned businesses are significantly less likely to receive loans from national banks despite demonstrating strong lending criteria. Lopez shared with the group, “It is life-changing to not be able to fund your business or have an idea or a dream that you can’t build upon because you’re lacking capital and you go to a bank and they won’t give it to you because you’re Latina, because they don’t think that’s something they should invest in. For me, that obviously hits very close to home. Not just because of what I do, but because I was raised by strong Latina women.”
Grameen America provides women entrepreneurs living in financially underserved communities with loan capital, financial education, asset- and credit-building, and peer support. Since 2008, Grameen America has reached more than 179,000 women of color with over $3.5 billion in affordable capital.
Lopez speaks with business owner Lissette Martinez
Lopez speaks alongside Andrea Jung, President and CEO of Grameen America, to 20 Latina entrepreneurs
Women entrepreneurs from Grameen America’s microloan program in The Bronx