We're Incorporated!

TL;DR: The Association of Women in Business Journalism is incorporated in New York State — and ready to receive donations! (Particularly for our one year anniversary celebration... 👀)

This past year has been an exercise in patience.

As a journalist, you get used to a certain workflow: get the scoop, conduct interviews, verify facts, hit publish. Timelines for most pieces are short by design. Most investigative stories I've worked on managed to wrap up in a couple of months.

Starting a nonprofit from scratch? A very different story.

All communication with the NYS Department of Commerce takes place via mail (because its 2025 and of course it does) and when you don't have the money to hire a law firm yourself, you end up having to do multiple month-long correspondences to fix the legalese in your paperwork.

When we started the process of incorporation in Q4 2024, I was aiming to finalize things in Q1. Yesterday, on the last day of Q2, we finally received our certificate of incorporation. A delayed win, but a win nonetheless.

Without this certificate, we haven't been able to open a bank account. But now we can. And that means... we can start fundraising!

I have to say I'm so impressed with what Snehal Shah, Jessica Hamlin, and I have been able to pull off on a shoestring budget:
- Nearly 80 non-male business journalist members from across the globe
- Intimate networking sessions and support groups
- A growing mentorship scheme pairing young journalists with senior non-male journalists in the field

Through these efforts we have realized the immense need for a conversation about the realities non-male journalists face in our field, as well as what support could look like for us. With funding, we're beyond excited to get to work on implementing this support.

We aim to launch our formal fundraising activities soon, so stay tuned. Both contributions at the individual and organizational level will be accepted. If you're curious now, feel free to send an inquiry to either me, Jessica, or Snehal (or to theawbj@gmail.com).

And yes, we’re planning something special for our one-year anniversary in September — and we’re actively seeking sponsors to help us celebrate. 😉😉

Best,

Isabel O'Brien
Co-Founder and President of the AWBJ