Black Women in Science and Engineering

What Black Women in Science and Engineering does

Black Women in Science and Engineering (BWISE) is a founder-led nonprofit professional development organization headquartered in Atlanta, founded in 2015 by Erika Jefferson. Its stated mission is to support underrepresented Black women with STEM degrees in bridging the leadership gap through networking, mentorship, and career development. The organization serves Black women from middle management through senior leadership in science, math, and engineering fields, addressing the documented disparity that while more than 25,000 Black women obtain undergraduate STEM degrees annually, fewer than 5,000 reach senior management roles. BWISE operates seven local chapters ("BWISE Circles") across Atlanta, Austin, Chicago, Houston, San Diego, Washington DC, and Research Triangle Park, and maintains a global LinkedIn member network.

The organization's product surface is a multi-tier membership and corporate services platform. Core offerings include a free Professional Membership (gated via LinkedIn groups), a paid BWISE Premium Membership with mentor matching, Career Maps, and discounted events, and the BWISE Fellowship for post-baccalaureate, graduate, and post-doctoral women in STEM. Revenue is generated through six distinct streams: tiered Career Fair Exhibitor Packages (Gold $3,500, Silver $3,000, Bronze $2,500), Content Booth packages ($350–$1,000), recurring Corporate Memberships, recurring Premium Memberships, fee-based Job Board postings via an external jobboard.io platform, and a Speakers Bureau with quote-based honoraria. Technology infrastructure is entirely third-party: LinkedIn for community, jobboard.io for the job board, Zazzle for the merchandise boutique, and a GoDaddy-built marketing website.

BWISE's go-to-market motion is a hybrid of community-led acquisition (LinkedIn groups, free membership entry points), event-driven engagement (monthly networking events, virtual career fairs, Grace Hopper Conference presence), and enterprise field sales for Corporate Memberships and Career Fair Exhibitor packages. The organization has no disclosed funding, no parent company, and no proprietary technology stack, operating instead as a lean association model with diversified but small-scale revenue streams.

Name

Black Women in Science and Engineering

Legal name

Black Women in Science and Engineering (BWISE)

Website

https://bwiseusa.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2015

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

BWISE is a nonprofit professional development organization that empowers Black women in STEM through networking, mentorship, career fairs, corporate partnerships, and fellowship programs, operating across seven US city chapters and a global LinkedIn community.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

STEM Diversity Professional Development and Networking

NAICS

Convention and Trade Show Organizers (561920)

SIC

Services-Employment Agencies (7361), Services-Educational Services (8200), Services-Management Consulting Services (8742)

akta.pro primary industry

Professional & Career Networks (BPAMABAB)

akta.pro secondary industry

Mentorship, Coaching & Office-Hours Platforms (MPACALAG)

Keywords

• STEM diversity programs
• Professional networking community
• Career fair recruitment
• Corporate diversity partnerships
• Mentorship and career development

Headquarters

HQ city

Atlanta

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices7 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B and B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Operations, Technology or R&D, Others

Revenue model

1. Career Fair Exhibitor Packages: Tiered exhibitor packages (Gold $3,500, Silver $3,000, Bronze $2,500) providing corporate recruiters access to BWISE talent pool through virtual career fair booths with varying levels of placement, recruiter seats, and job posting allocations.
2. Content Booth Packages: Standalone content booth options for organizations seeking visibility at career fairs without full exhibitor packages. Booth Only at $350, Booth Plus at $1,000 with job posting and registrant access.
3. Premium Membership Subscriptions: Subscription-based premium membership offering discounted networking events, virtual career fair access, volunteer opportunities, personal career development tools (Career Map, Board of Directors plan), mentorship matching, and access to exclusive events and partner discounts.
4. Corporate Membership: Annual corporate membership fees providing organizations access to BWISE LinkedIn member network, recruitment services, ERG consulting, event sponsorship opportunities, and engagement tools for reaching Black women in STEM.
5. Job Board Postings: Fee-based job posting service on BWISE Job Board. Exhibitor packages include 30-day job postings as part of the offering.
6. Speakers Bureau: Fee-based speaker requests for corporate, government, academia, and non-profit events. Speakers typically require an honorarium with potential fee waivers for schools and non-profits.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels6 records

Marketing channels8 records

Core offering

BWISE operates a professional development and networking community for Black women in science, math, engineering, and related fields, anchored in a free LinkedIn-based membership and an upgraded Premium subscription that adds career coaching, mentorship matching, discounted and invitation-only events, and partner discounts. Revenue-generating offerings include tiered virtual career fair exhibitor packages (Gold, Silver, Bronze) and standalone content booths for corporate recruiters, an annual Corporate Membership for organizations seeking access to BWISE members for recruiting and ERG support, a Speakers Bureau, an online Job Board, a Fellowship program for post-baccalaureate through post-doctoral women, and a small branded merchandise boutique.

Product overview

Black Women in Science and Engineering (BWISE) is a professional development and networking organization offering a platform of interconnected membership services and programs. The core offerings include Professional Membership providing access to networking events and the LinkedIn community, with a BWISE Premium Membership upgrade tier adding career coaching, mentors, and exclusive events. The BWISE Fellowship provides mentorship for post-graduate women in STEM. Corporate services include Corporate Membership for recruitment and retention support, ERG Consulting, and Career Fair Exhibitor Packages at Gold, Silver, and Bronze tiers. Additional offerings include a Speakers Bureau, Job Board, and BWISE Boutique merchandise store. All services are designed to support Black women in STEM through career development, mentorship, and professional networking.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Professional Membership A free membership program providing access to BWISE Monthly Networking Events, the BWISE LinkedIn Online Community, and the BWISE Calendar of events for Black women in STEM fields.
• BWISE Premium Membership An upgraded paid membership tier offering discounted networking events, virtual career fairs, volunteer opportunities, personal Career Map, Board of Directors plan, professional mentor access, invitation-only events, and discounts to STEM courses, career coaching, and partner conferences.
• BWISE Fellowship A program providing post-baccalaureate, graduate, and post-doctoral women in engineering, science, technology, mathematics and medicine with mentorship, personal development, and opportunities to advance the BWISE mission through surveys, partner building, and programming assistance.
• Career Fair Exhibitor Packages Virtual career fair participation options for corporate recruiters at three tiers — Gold ($3,500), Silver ($3,000), and Bronze ($2,500) — offering customized booths, recruiter seats, job postings, and logo placement on the jobseeker registration page.
• Corporate Membership Corporate partnership program providing networking and recruiting events, retention support, and engagement services including social media postings, email blasts, HR access to the LinkedIn member network, and Employee Resource Group consulting.
• Speakers Bureau A service connecting organizations with BWISE speakers for events, offering expertise in engineering, science, technology, and medicine topics for corporate, government, academia, and non-profit clients.
• Employee Resource Group (ERG) Consulting Consulting services to advise and support organizations in creating effective Employee Resource Groups, including strategic planning, mentorship programs, diverse employee surveys, and speaker series featuring industry leaders.
• BWISE Job Board An online job board where employers can post jobs and job seekers can apply for positions, with 30-day posting options available through the career fair exhibitor packages.
• BWISE Boutique An online merchandise store offering products featuring the BWISE brand through Zazzle.

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

Three partnerships are on record, tiered minor.

• Chocolate Chips Association - STEM ProgramminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartner organization supporting STEM education for children. BWISE directs members to this resource for youth programming but does not provide direct children's programming.
• NSBE Jr.minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerNational Society of Black Engineers Jr. chapter program. BWISE supports this partner organization as part of its ecosystem approach to STEM diversity.
• Federal Reserve BankminorGTM or Marketing PartnerFederal Reserve Bank hosted an event at Grace Hopper Conference 2018 in partnership with BWISE, demonstrating corporate engagement with the organization's mission.

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves4 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Emerging players

• Black in AI: Community organization increasing representation of Black researchers in artificial intelligence through workshops, networking, and academic partnerships. Comparable niche-community model for Black professionals in a STEM subfield, though focused on AI research rather than broader STEM careers.
• National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering (NACME): Non-profit supporting underrepresented minority engineering students via scholarships, university partnerships, and corporate sponsors. Comparable diversity-in-STEM focus and corporate funding model, with a scholarship-led approach rather than a mid-career leadership focus.

Broad incumbents

• Women Who Code: Global non-profit supporting women in software engineering through local networks, events, and career programs. Comparable in offering career-development programming and corporate sponsorship, but is software-focused and not race-specific.
• Society of Women Engineers (SWE): Large, long-established non-profit supporting women in engineering and technology through networking, professional development, and a major annual conference. Comparable mission surface area to BWISE, but operates at much greater scale and is not race-specific.

Direct peers

• National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE): Largest student-governed STEM organization focused on Black engineers and scientists. Directly comparable in mission to BWISE — supporting Black representation in STEM — and is a more established incumbent with collegiate and professional chapters nationwide.
• AnitaB.org: Non-profit focused on advancing women in computing, with programs for career growth, mentorship, and corporate partnerships (e.g., Top Companies for Technologists). Comparable to BWISE in targeting women in technical fields with career-development and corporate-sponsorship revenue streams.
• Black Girls in Tech: Non-profit community supporting Black women in technology through networking, mentorship, and career development. Highly comparable to BWISE in target audience (Black women in STEM/tech), offering model, and use of community-driven programming.
• Lesbians Who Tech: Community of queer women and non-binary people in technology, with career fairs, mentorship, and corporate partnerships. Comparable niche community model and corporate-recruitment monetization to BWISE, though with a different diversity dimension.

Others

• The Links, Incorporated: Established service organization of professional Black women with programming in education, health, and career development. Thematically adjacent to BWISE in supporting Black women's professional and leadership growth, but operates as a generalist civic organization rather than a STEM-focused network.
• National Council of Negro Women (NCNW): Historic civil-rights and professional development organization for African American women. Related thematically as a support network for Black women's advancement, but operates as a broad advocacy organization rather than a STEM-specific community.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/bwise_bwiseusa
• YouTubeyoutube.com/channel/UC2GWuiAJgl3s_MOVgo4KXJA
• Facebookfacebook.com/groups/1096135527127468
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/groups/8428298

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Black Women in Science and Engineering