Frequently Asked Questions

AFIA DEI Index is for any company or organization that provides business funding to entrepreneurs - banks, credit unions, development corporations, non-profit organizations, angel investor groups, venture capital firms and more. 

Our online training is for team members who work for companies and organizations that fund entrepreneurs. May include directors, managers, loan officers, business advisors, risk assessors, DEI champions and more.

AFIA DEI Training is designed to build awareness and capacity about the barriers to business funding faced by women and gender-diverse entrepreneurs, especially BIPOC and 2SLGBTQ+, and what funders can do about it. 

AFIA DEI Index is designed to support:

• Women entrepreneurs across Canada
• Indigenous women entrepreneurs
• Black women entrepreneurs
• Women of Colour entrepreneurs
• 2SLGBTQ+  entrepreneurs
• Gender-diverse entrepreneurs
• Women entrepreneurs in rural areas
• Women entrepreneurs in urban areas
• Newcomer women entrepreneurs

DEI is an acronym for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, three closely linked values referring to ensuring the inclusion of diverse people - diverse races, ethnicities, religions, abilities, genders, and sexual orientations. Equity is about ensuring that resources and opportunities are allocted in an equitable way between diverse peoples.  

While DEI  is often used in the context of Human Resources (an inclusive, diverse, equitable workplace), it can also refer to an approach to clients, customers, community and more. 

AFIA DEI Index uses the term DEI to refer to including women entrepreneurs, diverse women entrepreneurs, gender-diverse entrepreneurs, and entrepreneurs with diverse sexual orientations in an equitable way in processes and access to financial capital for their businesses. 

BIPOC stands for "Black, Indigenious, People of Colour".  BIPOC is an extension of the term "POC-People of Colour" - recognizing that Black and Indigenous people are severely impacted by systemic racial injustices in an ongoing way that impacts their economic well-being, health, and access to information and opportunities.  

Reconciliation with Indigenous peoples recognizes that the relationship of Canadians and Canadian institutions to Indigenous peoples requires recognition of the Truth of what happened in Residential Schools and through the Indian Act, and commitment to repairing relationships with Indigenous peoples through respect and cooperation.

2SLGBTQ+ is an acronym that stands for Two-Spirit, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer or Questioning and additional sexual orientations and gender identities. 

At AFIA, we understand that gender is broader than 'male' and 'female' and includes Trans women, non-binary people, gender queer people, and more.  

We also understand that people with any gender identity also have a diversity of sexual orientations. 

This term is used as a short-hand to refer to all of these people inclusively. 

Gender-diverse is an umbrella term for people whose gender identities lie beyond the binary of male/female. Some gender-diverse people may identify as differently gendered or may have no gender. Non-binary, genderqueer or X gender are other descriptors, or people may have more specialised terms to describe themselves. Many gender-diverse people use the pronouns “they/their” instead of “he/him” or “she/her” and some may use more than one pronoun interchangeably (e.g., “she/they”). Source: A Gender Agenda Inc. 

AFIA DEI Index acknowledges and respects that there are many ways to identify outside of the binary of male and female and that addressing gender gaps in financing includes recognition of and respect for a range of gender identities.

If you look up the characteristics of entrepreneurs online or in most business school textbooks, you will see words like “risk-taking, confident, decisive, innovative, passionate.”  Unfortunately, these words are also characteristics that are mainly associated with men, and in particular with men from privileged socio-economic and ethnic groups. 

Indigenous and Black entrepreneurs are much more likely to start businesses out of a desire to improve their lives and/or the lives of people in their community and to rely on friends/ family in their decision-making and resourcing of their venture. Does this mean that they have less potential for success than someone who is individually decisive or has a singular focus on profit for their business?  Not at all.  

Newcomer entrepreneurs are also much more likely to rely on support from their family and community and may be less comfortable with high-risk ventures due to their unfamiliarity with the culture or place they are in, or their financial responsibilities to family.  Likewise, women entrepreneurs with children often start businesses to find a better work-life balance and may specifically choose not to grow their venture beyond a certain size due to this motivation. Does this mean that they are not ambitious or risk-taking enough to be called entrepreneurs?  No!

At AFIA, we say unequivocally that all of these people are entrepreneurs and that it is time to expand our understanding and perception of the idea of what makes an entrepreneur thrive.  

Not feeling included: Research suggests that women are less likely to seek funding from formal, external sources such as banks, credit unions, angel investors and venture capitalists, compared to men. In fact, just 25% of women business owners seek business financing according to some studies. 

In addition, when they do approach funders, women often ask for lower loan amounts than men. While internalized sexism plays a role in ‘self-exclusion,’ it is also evident that many women do not see themselves in funders’ messaging and funding criteria. 

It is further evident that immigrant women, Black women, First Nations and Metis women, gender-diverse people, and other historically marginalized groups are particularly likely to avoid seeking formal avenues for financial capital.

Unconscious Biases: Several studies have found that funders are less likely to invest in women-led start-ups, even when all other factors were comparable to men-led start-ups. One reason is that loan officers (front-line customer service staff) are less likely to provide opportunities for women to provide ‘positive’ information about their ventures compared to men, and to ask more questions that focus on the ‘risk’ of women’s ventures. 

Funders often have unconscious biases about the characteristics for ‘success’ in business. Perceptions about what makes a successful entrepreneur or what it takes to be successful in business are largely based on the experience of white, cis-gendered men. 

The motivations, approaches, strategies, and characteristics of successful women entrepreneurs can be quite different from their male counterparts, and research on Indigenous entrepreneurship, Black entrepreneurship and newcomers also demonstrate tremendous diversity in how various groups of people start-up, manage, and grow their ventures. 

Biases can be even worse for gender non-conforming individuals and people with diverse sexual orientations. In fact, a recent national survey showed that about 37% of all LGBTQ2S+ entrepreneurs choose to hide their gender identities or sexual orientation to avoid discrimination. Both male and female staff and investors exhibit these gender and diversity biases. 

Sole-Proprietorship: Women are less likely than men to incorporate their business ventures. Additionally, they are more likely to operate as ‘self-employed’ when offering professional services, rather than registering as a business. Indeed, while women were majority owners of just under 17% of SMEs in Canada in 2020, they made up 37% of all self-employed people. These patterns have implications for access to business loans or venture capital.  

Colonial legacies: The Indian Act creates distinct challenges for First Nations people in accessing financing. For example, Section 89 of the Indian Act prohibits use of reserve land as collateral. First Nations people may own their home, but not the land it sits on. In addition, the Act prohibited women from owning or having rights to the family home, which means that many First Nations women are not on the title of their homes. These are just a few examples of how colonial legacies continue to create systemic barriers for Indigenous people.