Women supporting a household
Including heads of household and caregivers building income while carrying primary family responsibilities.
VirtuAmerica Pro Bono
A website to help your business get started online
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 VirtuAmerica Websites 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 location makes it harder to reach customers, find funding or services, or get technology help. This includes businesses 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 have years of experience in their work but may need help with unfamiliar technology.
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.
Explain what makes getting online difficult, without sharing private records or making the owner’s personal circumstances public.
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 explaining what the business offers, organizing owner-approved content, and showing customers how to get in touch. The owner’s personal circumstances are not used as marketing material.
Design and build
A secure, accessible website that works on phones, built in the language the business’s customers use. It includes the agreed pages and ways for customers to get in touch.
Publish and explain the next steps
We help publish the site, explain how to request updates, and keep it online and maintained for the sponsored period stated in the award. Connecting the website address is included when the award says so.
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 ask the owner whether they want to continue; a nomination does not enroll the business. With their permission, we review how a website could help, what work we can do, and whether the program has room to take it on.
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. We confirm funding, agree on the work, and get the owner’s consent before promising a decision or launch date. A person reads every nomination, 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 pay for the agreed website package. VirtuAmerica contributes the website service, design, technical work, and ongoing management. Sponsorship does not give a sponsor ownership, customer data, or control over the content. Public recognition requires 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?
A business where the owner or a very small team does most of the work and a website could help them reach or serve customers. Business-size definitions vary by country, so we consider the local context instead of applying one revenue or employee limit 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?
We do not promise that sponsorship payments can be deducted from taxes. VirtuAmerica Pro Bono is a program to help businesses, and we confirm sponsorship terms in writing before accepting support. Sponsorship gives no ownership, customer data, or control over the website’s content.
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.
The owner decides what is shared
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