The Market Research Institute International (MRII) and KNow Research have announced the winners of the MRII/KNow Research Female Founder Award. The award was launched in July to provide grants to U.S.-based women-owned businesses in the insights industry that have been in operation for five years or less whose applications expressed:
- A well-defined plan for using funds from the grant to positively impact the recipient’s organization as well as the insights, market research and analytics industry in general; and
- A clear intent and plan to develop innovative products and/or services, or other valuable business cases for the use of grant funds that will make valuable contributions to the insights industry.
Through the sponsorship of KNow Research, each winner receives a $5,000 cash grant to support their continued growth and innovation.
After reviewing many impressive applications, the judges selected two recipients who demonstrated a clear vision for how they would use the grant funds to positively impact their organizations and the insights industry:
● Dawn Carr, CEO & Founder, Mahogany Insights
● Sequoyah Glenn, Principal Consultant, 924 Cooperative
Dawn Carr (pictured at left) will use her award to launch a Black-specific recruiting database, her current passion project. “Black respondents represent about 6% of average databases, despite being 14% of the population. In addition, it is disproportionately skewed toward Black immigrants (who behave very differently than African Americans) and to those in a lower-income bracket. We believe, through our research, that there are key barriers that explain whyBlack consumers are not represented, and we have a plan for how we can grow this list. We want to create the largest database of Black panelists in the U.S. that can be used for syndicated research, qualitative research, and quantitative research.”
Sequoyah Glenn (pictured at right) plans to use her grant funds to trademark her new proprietary product offering that combines marketing analytics with market research. She will also together groups such as CultureMRx, Black Marketers Coalition, and Atlanta media tastemakers to introduce them to the greater insights community and brands that 924 Cooperative serves in order to "foster genuine connections between talent and those looking to hire.”
"We were thoroughly impressed by the applications we received from talented female founders across the country," said Katrina Noelle, President of KNow Research. "Both Dawn and Sequoya exemplified the spirit of innovation and commitment to moving the industry forward that we were seeking."
"MRII is proud to support these women and the important perspectives and fresh thinking they bring to market research," added Ed Keller, MRII's Executive Director. "We believe this grant program provides crucial assistance to early-stage businesses led by women and helps foster diversity and equality in our industry. We thank the award sponsor, KNow Research, for their generosity on behalf of these grant recipients."