Woodville, Wisconsin - WBD, a small-business non-profit lender serving all of Wisconsin and Minnesota, has awarded Family Friendly Workplaces a $50,000 Opportunity Fund Grant. The funding will be used to support FFW’s general operations.

“We are deeply appreciative of WBD’s support of our work,” said Neil Kline, Executive Director of FFW. “Our focus on strengthening families and the labor force aligns with WBD’s focus on supporting small businesses, and we are thrilled to partner with them.”

FFW runs the Family Friendly Workplaces Certification Program, which is designed to help employers attract and retain talent while also working to address our region’s long-term workforce challenge. Opportunity Funds from WBD will be used to expand FFW’s operations, grow their program, and better serve the employer community and families.

“WBD is committed to supporting efforts to make the economic development ecosystem stronger by investing in organizations like FFW.  We were impressed with their efforts to collaborate with local businesses to encourage and support a more family friendly business climate,” explained WBD President and CEO Dan Schneider.  “We are excited to see how these efforts will aid businesses in finding needed employees.”

As a nonprofit WBD invests each year in organizations whose mission is aligned with their work. In the past three years WBD has distributed grants approaching $1 million.

To learn more about the Family Friendly Workplaces certification, visit their website at www.familyfriendlyworkplaces.org. 

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WBD is a business finance resource that helps businesses access the SBA 504 loan program.  This program works with local lenders to help businesses secure long term, fixed rate financing with less money down.  Since 1981, WBD has helped fund over 3,500 businesses and created over 76,000 jobs in Wisconsin and Minnesota. WBD is now consistently one of the top ten most active, of the nearly 200, CDC’s in the country with a portfolio of over $1 Billion. WBD participates in hundreds of projects each year with Wisconsin, Minnesota and Michigan lenders and serves as an integral hub in every project. Learn more at www.wbd.org. 

Family Friendly Workplaces works to address western Wisconsin's workforce shortage, and strengthen western Wisconsin families, by certifying businesses as Family Friendly, and encouraging the adoption of Family Friendly practices. For more information, visit www.familyfriendlyworkplaces.org or follow them on Facebook at www.facebook.com/familyfriendlyworkplaces.