The Chelsea Guarriello Foundation helps women facing financial barriers start online businesses. Each Award sponsors 60 days of coaching, mentorship, and tools — everything a first business actually runs on.
Our mission
To remove the barriers that keep capable women from starting the businesses they already know how to run.
Most guidance about starting a business assumes you already have savings, a network, and someone to call when something breaks. Women who are working without those things are not short on ability. They are short on access.
The Foundation was established to close that gap directly. Each recipient receives a 60-day sponsorship: an experienced mentor, hands-on coaching, and the software, training, and structure to take a business from idea to launch. Community access continues for a full twelve months afterward.
We measure our work by businesses that are still operating a year after launch — not by applications received.
What we provide
Every award is a package of services delivered by the Foundation and its partners. Recipients receive all four.
A matched mentor who has built and run an online business, working with you on a set schedule across the 60-day sponsorship — through planning, build, and launch.
The practical infrastructure of an online business: website hosting, storefront and payment setup, design assets, and the core software subscriptions, provided directly or through partner donations.
Structured instruction in the parts that sink new businesses — pricing, bookkeeping, business registration, marketing, and customer service — taught in plain terms.
Twelve months of access to a private group of current and former recipients, so the question you are stuck on at 11pm reaches someone who has already answered it. Your community access continues for a full year after the sponsorship ends.
The Foundation Award
The Award is our founding program. Applications are open now, and new recipients are selected every month.
Recipients do not receive money, loans, or equity investment. Each Award is a sponsored 60 days of coaching, mentorship, tools, and training provided by the Foundation and its partners, followed by twelve months of access to the recipient community.
Tell us about the business you want to build and what is standing in your way. There is no fee to apply and no cost at any stage.
Applications are reviewed each month against our published criteria. We may contact you for a short conversation before a decision is made. If you are not selected in one month, your application stays under consideration for the next.
Recipients are paired with a mentor and work through a launch plan with clear milestones and a realistic timeline.
Your business goes live before the 60 days are up. Coaching wraps at the end of the sponsorship, and your access to the recipient community runs for twelve months.
New recipients are selected every month. Applications are accepted through December 31, 2026.
Eligibility
Our criteria are published so that every applicant knows exactly how decisions are made.
The Foundation does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, age, disability, or any other protected characteristic in the selection of Award recipients.
If you have been waiting for the right moment to start, this is a real one. It costs nothing to apply.
Apply for an Award