Women supporting a household
Including heads of household and caregivers building income while carrying primary family responsibilities.
VirtuAmerica Pro Bono
A website can be a doorway
VirtuAmerica Pro Bono helps micro businesses establish a website when cost, unfamiliar technology, or limited internet access make it difficult to get started. Sponsors and VirtuAmerica cover the agreed package together, so a selected business can launch on vaMicrosites at no cost.
Who it is for
For business owners facing barriers to getting online
A micro business may support a family or preserve a craft while relying on a social profile to reach customers. Its owner may have little time to learn changing technology, limited funds, or internet service that is slow or unavailable. We consider those circumstances when reviewing a nomination, looking at the business’s needs and how a website could help.
Rural entrepreneurs
Especially rural women and owners whose geography limits customers, services, capital, or access to digital expertise, including those working where internet service is slow, costly, or unreliable.
Entrepreneurs with disabilities
Business owners with disabilities who need a website they can use and help shape around their work and customers.
Older adult entrepreneurs
Owners starting again or bringing an established business online, who may need help with unfamiliar platforms while contributing years of experience in their work.
People rebuilding
Owners recovering from displacement, migration, disaster, job loss, family disruption, or another major change in circumstances.
Barriers this list does not name
Other circumstances may also qualify. We consider the local context, barriers to opportunity, and the business’s needs even when they fall outside these examples.
Open to eligible micro businesses in every country and territory of the Americas: North America, Central America, the Caribbean, and South America.
A nomination may describe the barrier without exposing private records or asking the owner to perform their hardship for an audience.
What a selected business receives
A website built around the business
We agree on a package that fits the selected business’s goals. Depending on its needs, the award may include the work described below.
Listen and set direction
A working conversation to understand the business and its customers, then agree on what the website should help them do.
Explain the business
Help organizing the offer, message, calls to action, and owner-approved content without turning anyone’s circumstances into marketing material.
Design and build
A mobile-ready, accessible, secure website on vaMicrosites, built in the language the owner’s customers actually use, with the agreed pages and contact paths.
Launch and orient
Domain connection when included, launch support, owner orientation, and hosting and care for the sponsored term written into the award.
The zero-cost promise is written before work begins. The award letter states the pages, languages, features, domain or third-party services, hosting, support, and sponsored term that are covered. Nothing begins unless the selected business can accept that package at zero cost. There is no application fee and no surprise charge, and the award is the website itself: no cash, loan, investment, or equity is offered.
What the owner brings. Time for one working conversation, accurate information about the business, and approval of the words and images that go public. Nothing is invented on the owner’s behalf and nothing is published without their review. The finished website belongs to the business, not to the program and not to the sponsor.
How it works
From nomination to a published website
An owner or supporter can nominate a business. We then seek the owner’s consent before collecting further information, and confirm funding before committing to the work.
1
Nominate
The owner may self-nominate, or a customer, neighbor, family member, community organization, or other supporter may nominate the business.
2
Ask, then review
We contact the owner to ask whether they want to continue; a nomination does not enroll the business. With their consent, we review how a website would help, what work is feasible, and the program’s available capacity.
3
Match, build, launch
VirtuAmerica confirms a sponsor or pooled funding, writes a zero-cost package for the owner to accept, then builds and launches the site with the owner’s approval.
Selection is not first-come, first-served. A nomination does not guarantee selection, and we do not promise a decision or a launch date until funding, scope, and owner consent are all in place. Every nomination is read by a person, and a business we cannot fund today can be nominated again.
For donors and companies
Help fund a website for a micro business
Sponsors help fund the agreed package, while VirtuAmerica contributes the platform, design, engineering, and ongoing administration. Sponsorship conveys no ownership, customer data, editorial control, or public recognition without the owner’s consent.
Start a sponsor conversation
You can support one website, part of an award, or a group of businesses in a region you care about. Tell us what you have in mind, and we will explain the available options, what they cover, and their cost.
Questions people ask
Eligibility, languages, and sponsorship terms
What counts as a micro business?
An owner-led operation where one person or a very small team carries most of the work and a website could create a meaningful next step. Legal size definitions vary by country, so we look at the business in its local context rather than applying one revenue or employee threshold across the Americas.
Which languages can we use?
Write the nomination in Spanish, English, or Portuguese, whichever lets you be clearest. This page is published in English and Spanish. The website an award produces is built in the language or languages the selected business actually needs.
Are sponsorships tax-deductible donations?
No tax-deductibility is promised. VirtuAmerica Pro Bono is a philanthropic initiative, and sponsorship terms are confirmed in writing before support is accepted. Sponsorship also conveys no ownership, customer data, or editorial control.
Nomination
Tell us about the business you want to nominate
Tell us what the business does and what is making it difficult to establish a website. A description of how the site could help is enough to start the conversation; you can write in Spanish, English, or Portuguese.
Explain the need with dignity
Describe the barrier to help us review the nomination, without making the owner’s hardship a public story.
Consent before visibility
The owner decides what may be shared and what stays private.
Privacy by default
The program reviews nominations and does not give sponsors a marketing list of the businesses nominated.
Share only what you may share
We never need identity documents, medical or banking records, immigration documents, or passwords. Please do not send them.
Privacy Policy
If you would like to ask about the program before sending a nomination, write to us and a person will answer. probono@virtuamerica.com