Desiree Browne

I collaborated with an explainer video studio to develop the script and concept for this promotional asset.

Introduction

Founded in 2009 by philanthropist and designer Tory Burch, the Tory Burch Foundation increases women’s economic power through entrepreneurship. The organization advances its work by supporting women founders in the United States with capital, education and community.

According to Wells Fargo’s 2025 Impact of Women-Owned Businesses report, women’s entrepreneurship rose 17.1 % between 2019 and 2025. Despite making up 39.5% of business owners, women- led companies that accounted for just over 6% of revenues. Experts find that capital access is a critical barrier to growth for women founders, who face gender bias as well as a confusing, hard-to-navigate financial system.

Challenge

Foundation leadership had plenty of anecdotal evidence that the early-stage founders they supported found researching suitable funding sources difficult because the information is hard to find, misleading or biased. We understood that founders have to focus on everything from broken equipment to customer acquisition, meaning we had to develop a solution that showed them credible information, fast.

Objective: Create a tool that guided founders through their capital options based on their needs, while building the organization’s reputation as a trustworthy

Solution

In March 2023, the Foundation launched its Funding Finder, an educational financial quiz whose results equips entrepreneurs with financial literacy and unbiased, non-predatory advice. The quiz takes just minutes to complete and recommends a funding option based on the entrepreneur’s responses: equity financing, debt financing or bootstrapping (self-funding), along with detailed background, pros and cons, and how to get started.

Process

Over the course of six months, I conducted research and joined working sessions with trusted advisors at a bank to create he questions, logic and results for the Funding Finder diagnostic quiz.

I developed the tone and copy of the landing page, questions and results pages to gain users’ trust and drive increased pageviews per visits. In addition, I advised on the UX in collaboration with agency partners.

Results

I worked with marketing team members, grassroots partners, PR team members and a paid search agency to promote the tool.

Not only did the Funding Finder attract users, it also served as a key email acquisition tool. Users could opt in to our newsletter at several points in the journey and email themselves their capital results, which included additional site article links to help them make the most of it.