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JuJu Knits a Red Backpack Fund Recipient

May 19, 2020

Read the published article by FWBP Staff of Fort Worth Business Press here: https://fortworthbusiness.com/culture/juju-knits-a-red-backpack-fund-recipient/

GlobalGiving has selected JuJu Knits to receive a $5,000 COVID-19 relief and recovery grant from The Red Backpack Fund, an opportunity for small businesses and nonprofits made possible by The Spanx by Sara Blakely Foundation.


“I am thrilled to be one of the first 200 Red Backpack Fund recipients selected,” said Julie Hatch Fairley, owner of JuJu Knits – a local yarn store in Near Southside, Fort Worth. “Our shop had only been open a little over four months when the pandemic hit. As a brand-new retailer, I’m adapting the best I can – but every single day presents new challenges.”


The Spanx by Sara Blakely Foundation donated $5 million to support female entrepreneurs in the wake of COVID-19 and teamed up with GlobalGiving to establish The Red Backpack Fund.

“My hope is that this gift will help alleviate some of the pressures caused by this horrible pandemic. Twenty years ago, I started Spanx with $5,000 in savings, and I see this as a time to pay it forward. Small business is the backbone of our culture. I know what it’s like to be a small business owner, and I want to provide some relief to these entrepreneurs during this time,” said Spanx Founder Sara Blakely.


Fairley said her former way of doing business with frequent in-person classes, monthly trunk shows, weekly fiber fellowships and other special events is all having to be reinvented.

“This financial relief will be incredibly helpful as I continue to strategize ways our binding community can continue to share the healing power of yarn, while adjusting to ongoing health practices to keep our fiber friends safe,” she said.

Thousands of business owners and nonprofit founders from across the United States and its territories applied to receive a grant from The Red Backpack Fund to combat economic hardship caused by COVID-19.

JuJu Knits is among the first 200 Red Backpack Fund recipients to be selected. GlobalGiving, a 501(c)(3) organization with nearly two decades of grantmaking experience, will award grants to at least 1,000 women entrepreneurs from now through September 2020 through The Red Backpack Fund.


GlobalGiving has assembled a 100% women-led team to lead the grantee selection process. The team includes grant specialists, social workers, female entrepreneurs, analysts, and monitoring and evaluation experts.

“We’re proud to announce the grantees of The Red Backpack Fund. They have successfully undergone GlobalGiving’s rigorous vetting process, and we believe this grant will help them continue to thrive, despite the shifting economic circumstances brought on by this crisis,” said GlobalGiving CEO Alix Guerrier. “The world needs more women-led organizations who are a key force in overcoming COVID-19 and establishing a better normal.”
More information about The Red Backpack Fund:

www.globalgiving.org/redbackpackfund

The Spanx by Sara Blakely Foundation has donated millions to charities around the world, focusing on charities that empower underserved women and girls since its inception in 2006.
In 2013, Sara Blakely became the first self-made, female billionaire to sign the Giving Pledge, created by Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett, promising to give at least half her wealth to charity. In 2020, Sara and the Spanx by Sara Blakely Foundation launched the Red Backpack Fund in partnership with GlobalGiving.


www.spanxfoundation.com
www.globalgiving.org