Her Agenda Breakthrough Grant
Her Agenda
$5,000
$5,000 grant for U.S. women entrepreneurs with an operating business. Volume IV is open; apply by January 19, 2027. $25 fee ($12.50 for INSIDERs).
Her Agenda's Breakthrough Grant is a community-funded $5,000 award for women entrepreneurs on the verge of greatness. Volume IV is open now (closes January 19, 2027) to U.S.-based or U.S.-serving for-profit businesses that have been operating for at least a year; idea-stage and pre-launch businesses aren't eligible. Applicants must be active subscribers to the free Her Agenda newsletter. A $25 general application fee applies ($12.50 for Her Agenda INSIDER members).
- Funding type
- Grant
- Level
- Private
- Amount
- $5,000
- Realistic amount
- $5,000 unrestricted cash award
- Deadline
- Volume IV is open; applications are due January 19, 2027 (winner announced March 2027)
- Status
- active
- States
- Nationwide
Who qualifies
- Owner of a for-profit U.S. business (the grant is promoted to women; the Volume IV terms set no gender rule)
- Active subscriber to the free Her Agenda newsletter (mandatory)
- Any industry; the business must have been in operation for at least one year
- Must complete application and pay fee
Who is not eligible
- Idea-stage or pre-revenue businesses with no operations
- Applicants not subscribed to the Her Agenda newsletter
Is the Her Agenda Breakthrough Grant legit?
Yes. Her Agenda, a media company for women, launched it in May 2025 and names each round's winner. It costs $25 to apply ($12.50 for members), and you need an operating business.
- Who runs it: Her Agenda, launched for its 17th anniversary in May 2025
- Cost to apply: $25, or $12.50 for INSIDER members
- Who can apply: Women with an operating business who subscribe to the newsletter
Sources: heragenda.com · page 2. Last checked at the funder on October 18, 2026.
Past Her Agenda Breakthrough Grant winners
Winners so far:
- Emily Mack, Offline Wine · Volume II (winner post published May 4, 2026)
- Ugenia Stokes, FWIN Productions · Volume I (inaugural, 2025; winner post Dec 4, 2025)
Names as published by Her Agenda (source). GrantCompass is not affiliated with Her Agenda.
New grants like this every week: see this week's list or get it by email on Mondays.
What the Her Agenda Breakthrough Grant application asks
The Her Agenda Breakthrough Grant application asks seven written questions, alongside your contact and business details. The entry fee is $25. The deadline is January 19, 2027, 11:59pm EST, and you submit on the funder’s own form at heragenda.typeform.com. These are the questions as they appear on the form:
-
1
Describe your business or business idea. What product or service do you offer? (250 words max)
Form limit: 250 words
-
2
What inspired you to start this business?
-
3
How would receiving this $5,000 grant make a difference for your business right now? (300 words max)
Form limit: 300 words
-
4
What barriers or challenges are you currently facing as a woman entrepreneur? (200 words max)
Form limit: 200 words
-
5
How does your business create impact in your community or industry? (200 words max)
Form limit: 200 words
-
6
What’s your long-term vision for your business over the next 2-3 years? (200 words max)
Form limit: 200 words
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7
How do you define “breaking through” in your entrepreneurial journey — and how close are you to that moment?
What the judges look for
- Business clarity
- Potential impact of the grant
- Alignment with Her Agenda's mission
- Readiness
GrantCompass drafts the Her Agenda Breakthrough Grant application from your own answers. You answer four short questions about your business and we write all seven answers around what the judges look for, to fit the form. We use only what you tell us: nothing is invented, and anything a stronger answer needs is left as a marked blank for you to fill. The preview is free with no card. The full draft is $9, refunded in full within 7 days if it doesn’t make your application stronger. You review it and submit it yourself; GrantCompass is independent and not affiliated with Her Agenda. Start a free draft on this page (grantcompass.co/grants/her-agenda-breakthrough-grant), or read how the drafting works.
How to answer the Her Agenda Breakthrough Grant application questions (with examples)
The Breakthrough Grant application is one long form: your details, a few short business questions, seven written answers, then the entry fee. Five questions state a word limit, and the form doesn’t count words for you. All seven examples below come from one made-up business, a bilingual children’s book press.
Question 1: “Describe your business or business idea. What product or service do you offer?” (250 words max)
The FAQ asks for “a clear product or service, a defined customer base, and at least one year of operating history.”
- 1
Say what you sell and to whom in the first two sentences.
- 2
Prove it is running, then end on what sets you apart.
“I publish bilingual picture books in English and Spanish for children ages 3 to 8. Each page carries both languages side by side, so a child who reads one and a parent who reads the other can share the same story. I write every book myself.
I started the press in 2023, after eleven years as a third-grade teacher. We have four titles in print and have sold about 6,800 copies. Revenue over the past 12 months was $41,000.
We sell to two kinds of customers. Families buy through our online store and at the school book fairs we attend, about 60% of sales. Schools and public libraries buy class sets and library copies, the other 40%. We now sell to 38 schools and libraries in three states, and 22 of them have reordered.
What sets the books apart is that they are written for the classroom. Every title comes with a free lesson guide, and two of them follow the vocabulary lists that dual-language teachers already use. That is how most of our school orders begin.”
Why it works: within two paragraphs a stranger knows what the press sells, who it is for, and how far it has come.
Question 2: “What inspired you to start this business?” (no word limit)
- 1
Tell one real moment, not a summary of your values.
- 2
End on the first thing you did about it.
Show the made-up example 149 words
“I taught third grade for eleven years at a school where more than half of my students spoke Spanish at home. Every fall I asked families to read with their children each night, and every fall a few parents told me, quietly, that they couldn’t read the books we sent home.
We had bilingual books, but most were translations squeezed onto the back pages, or stories that looked nothing like my students’ lives. One mother told me she made up her own Spanish words for the pictures so her son wouldn’t feel left out.
That conversation stayed with me. In the summer of 2022 I wrote my first book at the kitchen table, about a girl who helps her grandmother at a Saturday market. I printed 300 copies with my savings, and they sold out at two school events. The next spring I left teaching to build the press.”
Why it works: it moves from a problem the founder watched up close to a first print run that sold out.
Question 3: “How would receiving this $5,000 grant make a difference for your business right now?” (300 words max)
The FAQ asks you to “clearly articulate how the grant would support business growth.”
- 1
Name the problem the money solves now.
- 2
Price each item, adding up to $5,000, and say what changes.
Show the made-up example 244 words
“Right now our biggest limit is stock. Schools order in the spring, when they spend what is left of their budgets, and last spring I had to turn away or delay orders for about 400 copies because our two best-selling titles had sold out. A large reprint costs more than I can pay up front, so I print in runs of 500, which nearly doubles the cost of each book.
This grant would let me print the way a publisher should. I would use the $5,000 like this:
$3,400 for a 2,000-copy reprint of our two best-selling titles, which cuts the cost per book from $3.10 to $1.70.
$900 for booth fees and travel to three regional dual-language education conferences, where the teachers and librarians who buy from us gather.
$700 for a freelance editor to check the Spanish text of our fifth title before it goes to print.
That is $5,000 in all.
The difference would show within a year. With books on the shelf, I could fill every spring school order on time, and the lower cost lets me offer schools a class-set price I can’t offer today. Conferences have been our best source of new school accounts, and I expect these three to bring in at least ten.
Most of all, the grant would end the cycle of reprinting only when cash allows. Selling the larger run pays for the next one, so the $5,000 keeps working after it is spent.”
Why it works: every dollar is named and adds up to $5,000, and each line is tied to a result the reader can picture.
Question 4: “What barriers or challenges are you currently facing as a woman entrepreneur?” (200 words max)
- 1
Pick one or two barriers and say what each has cost you.
- 2
Show what you have done about them.
Show the made-up example 153 words
“The barrier I hit most often is access to credit. Last year my bank turned down a $10,000 line of credit because the press had fewer than three years of tax returns, even though our sales had doubled. So I pay for every print run in cash, which is why our runs are small and our costs are high.
The second barrier is time. I am a single mother of two, and I do the writing, the selling and the shipping myself. Book fairs run on evenings and weekends, so every event means paying for childcare, about $1,200 last year.
I have worked around both where I can. I moved our printing to a company that takes half the payment up front and half on delivery, and my teenage niece now packs orders two afternoons a week. But the cash gap is real, and it is the reason this grant would matter now.”
Why it works: each barrier has a dollar figure and a workaround, and the last line ties the problem back to the grant.
Question 5: “How does your business create impact in your community or industry?” (200 words max)
- 1
Name each group you help and give it a number.
- 2
Include the people you pay, not only the people you serve.
Show the made-up example 149 words
“Our impact starts in classrooms. Our books are on the shelves of 38 schools and libraries in three states, and 14 of those schools run dual-language programs. Teachers there tell us ours are among the few books that both their English- and Spanish-speaking students can read on their own.
We also bring families into reading together. At every book fair we host a free bilingual story hour, and about 650 parents and children came to one last year. Each family takes home a free book: about 260 copies in all.
The press creates paid work for local artists, too. Each of our four titles was illustrated by a different local illustrator, all of them women and three of them illustrating their first book. Each was paid $2,500 per book, plus royalties.
And for every school order, we give 5% of the copies back free for the school’s take-home library.”
Why it works: it reaches three groups (students, families and local artists) with a count for each.
Question 6: “What’s your long-term vision for your business over the next 2-3 years?” (200 words max)
The FAQ says “your application should show activity and intent.”
- 1
Open with one measurable goal for year three.
- 2
List the steps for each year, starting from what already works.
Show the made-up example 155 words
“In three years I want the press to have eight titles in print and to sell to 150 schools and libraries, up from 38 today.
The plan builds on what already works. Schools reorder: 22 of our 38 have come back, so each new school is worth more over time. Next year I will publish our fifth and sixth titles and add lesson guides that match two more states’ vocabulary lists. In the second year I plan to apply for the approved-vendor lists in our three states, which lets a district buy from us without a separate approval for each school.
By the third year I want to hire my first full-time employee, someone to manage school accounts, so I can get back to writing. Revenue of about $120,000 would cover that salary and a yearly reprint budget, and the press would no longer depend on how much cash I have in a given month.”
Why it works: the goal is a number, and each year’s step starts from a result the press already has.
Question 7: “How do you define ‘breaking through’ in your entrepreneurial journey — and how close are you to that moment?”
No word limit. Her Agenda’s question sheet calls it the “creative question that ties into the grant theme.”
- 1
Define it as one moment you could recognize, in your own words.
- 2
Answer the second half honestly: what is already in motion, and what is left.
Show the made-up example 136 words
“For me, breaking through is the day a school district orders our books without me in the room. Today almost every sale starts with me: at a book-fair table, in a librarian’s office, on a call with a reading coach. That has built a loyal base, but it means the press can only grow as fast as I can travel.
I am closer than I was a year ago. Two of this fall’s school orders came from teachers who heard about us from a colleague, and a district reading coordinator has asked for samples for all 11 of her elementary schools. If our books make that district’s list, the press will have reached the point where the books start selling themselves.
That is the moment I am working toward, and this grant would bring it closer.”
Why it works: the definition is a scene you could recognize, and the “how close” half gives evidence instead of hope.
The form’s shorter boxes
| On the form | What to put |
|---|---|
| Business stage | Your real stage. “Idea/Pre-Launch” is listed, but idea-stage businesses aren’t eligible. |
| Revenue in the past 12 months | A number. The FAQ: “Revenue is one factor, but not the only one.” |
| What the grant pays for | Tick only what your Question 3 answer prices. |
| Video, deck, testimonial | Optional. The 1‑minute video (“Optional but encouraged”) and deck are links; the testimonial is a short quote. |
Her Agenda’s own warnings
- Draft in a document first. Her Agenda’s question sheet says the form “must be completed in one sitting.”
- Subscribe first. Answer no to the newsletter question and the form stops.
- The fee is final. The terms say entry fees are non-refundable, “including in cases of incomplete, withdrawn, or ineligible applications.”
Want all seven answers written from your own details? Start your free draft preview. You see the preview before you pay anything.
What it covers
Eligible expenses
- Unrestricted use to fuel business growth
Ineligible expenses
- See official program guidance
How to apply
-
1
Confirm eligibility and subscribe
Ensure you have an operating U.S. business and subscribe to the free Her Agenda newsletter before applying.
~15 min
-
2
Pay application fee
Pay the $25 general application fee or $12.50 if you are a Her Agenda INSIDER member.
~15 min
-
3
Complete and submit application
Answer the application questions and submit by January 19, 2027.
~1 hrs
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4
Await winner announcement
Winner is announced in March 2027.
Subscribe to the free newsletter first (mandatory). If you are an INSIDER member, the fee drops to $12.50.
Deadline & timing
Volume IV cycle. Applications are open now and close January 19, 2027; the winner is announced in March 2027. (Volume III closed September 18, 2026.) Re-checked against grant.heragenda.com on October 1, 2026.
Deadline: January 19, 2027 — put it in your calendar before you close this tab.
Includes reminders one week and one day before. Verify on the official program page — funders move dates.
Applications are open — don’t lose the window
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Required documents
- Application fee payment
- Proof of active Her Agenda newsletter subscription
- Description of business and planned use of funds
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