Count Me In

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This article is about the charitable organization. For the country music album, see Count Me In (album).

Count Me In (full name: Count Me In for Women's Economic Independence) is a charitable organization that provides financial assistance and business consulting services to woman-owned businesses. The assistance is provided through three basic programs: an online community for women business owners, which is supplemented by live events; the "Make Mine a Million $ Business" award, providing up to US$50,000 to businesses with a minimum of two years in business and $250,000 in revenue annually; and the "Micro to Millions" award, offering up to $10,000 for businesses not meeting the time or revenue requirements for the larger award.^[1]

[edit] History

The organization was founded by Nell Merlino in 1999.

In 2005 the "Make Mine a Million $ Business" — known informally as "3M" — was launched in the cities of Dallas, Texas; Chicago, Illinois; Long Beach, California; Atlanta, Georgia; and New York, New York. Awardees were chosen by panels of local business owners.

The organization has announced a goal of helping one million woman-owned companies achieve $1,000,000 in revenues by 2010. In support of this goal, Count Me In established partnerships with American Express' OPEN credit card as well as the QVC network and Cisco Systems to provide marketing and technological support.^[2] This was Nely Galán's charity in Celebrity Apprentice.