Community • Social Impact and Purpose

3 Steps to Support Women-Owned Businesses  Using Your Purchase Power This Women’s History Month

In honor of Women's History Month, we’re focusing on how you can use your purchase power, one of the nine elements of Points of Light’s Civic Circle, a framework for civic engagement that involves many avenues, including volunteering, voting, donating and more.
Diane Quest

Diane Quest

3 Min Read

Woman business owner working in her florist shop

How can you celebrate Women’s History Month in a tangible and impactful way? While posting on social media and discussing women’s rights with your friends and family are a great place to start, you can use the resources you have to create impact in your own community.

This month Points of Light is focusing on how you can use your purchase power, one of the nine elements of Points of Light’s Civic Circle®, a framework for civic engagement that involves many avenues, including volunteering, voting, donating and more.

What Is Purchase Power?

Simply put, purchase power represents an individual’s ability to make decisions that reflect their values or advance a social cause or issue by choosing where they do and don’t spend their money. Whether you’re buying from a sustainable company or boycotting a product, how you buy makes a difference, and purchase power has been used over and over in the past to successfully drive change. 

Start With Research

So, how can you utilize this knowledge to support women during the month of March? Start by researching women-owned businesses in your area and beyond. You can search the U.S. Small Business Administration’s database of registered women-owned small businesses to gather together your list.

You might look even further at these businesses to narrow down your list according to the issues and populations you’re most passionate about. Some companies, for instance, are veteran women-owned businesses, while others are both minority-owned and women-owned. 

Prioritize Your Purchases

Next, determine which purchases you need to make now vs. later, and what to prioritize this March. While it may be a bit early in the year to do your holiday shopping, are there any upcoming events you have that you can plan for?

Purchases don’t necessarily need to be consumable goods. Consider services as well – dry cleaning, restaurants and food service, house cleaning or janitorial services, auto repair… the list goes on and on.

Consider Other Ways to Contribute 

Finally, if you don’t have the need to make any purchases right now, take into account how else you might be able to support women-owned organizations in your area. If you have the means, making a donation to a nonprofit that is advancing women’s issues can help immensely.

Not only can you uplift the female business owners in your community, but you can contribute to boosting your local economy by spending your dollars in your own backyard.

For more ideas on how you can get involved with social impact and lend your time, talents and resources to any cause area, including championing women, check out Points of Light’s Civic Circle.

Want to explore more? Check out these additional resources:

  • Women’s History Month: 170+ Women-owned Brands to Support: this comprehensive list includes many women-owned brands and businesses you can support with your dollar.
  • Resources for Women-Owned Businesses: if you’re interested in founding your own women-owned business, check out these government and private programs to help support your journey.
  • Women-Owned Businesses: In this webinar, dive into statistics available from the Census Bureau on women-owned businesses. Learn about the different dimensions of business and demographic data from multiple programs and how to access the information.

Author(s)

  • Diane Quest

    Interim President and CEO

    Points of Light

    Diane Quest is the chief operating officer at Points of Light and has served as an executive leader with the organization since 2016. An accomplished nonprofit executive, she brings 20 years of experience in management, strategy, and external affairs, including marketing and communications, event production and experience, and partnerships. In her tenure at Points of Light, she has served in a variety of roles as a member of the executive leadership team responsible for enterprise strategy, and most recently she served as chief external affairs officer, where she was responsible for brand strategy, the annual Points of Light Conference, The George H.W. Bush Points of Light Awards and Celebration, and The Daily Point of Light Award. Diane has an extensive background in strategic and crisis communications. In her previous role at MENTOR: The National Mentoring Partnership she successfully led a rebranding effort, a strategy that resulted in increased visibility in earned media and social media, and the doubling of registration at the organization’s annual national conference. Prior to MENTOR, she was a consultant with Camino Public Relations, a boutique firm with a focus on social justice nonprofit clients. She served at The Pew Charitable Trusts as the communications manager for a jointly sponsored advocacy project with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Prior to her work at Pew, Diane was the national media director at the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. She managed the development and implementation of media relations campaigns to advance the mission of the $1 billion reproductive health care and advocacy organization. In addition to her nonprofit work, Diane also has experience working within the federal government. She was the media and legislative affairs liaison for the inspector general at the U.S. Department of State. Before entering the field of communications and public relations, she was a television journalist. She has a Master of Arts in political science from American University in Washington, D.C., and a Bachelor of Journalism from the University of Texas at Austin.