DOVE® CHOCOLATE UPLIFTS WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS WITH THE RETURN OF ITS #DOVEInstaGrants PROGRAM

For Second Year, Mars' DOVE^® Chocolate Grants Women-Led Businesses $10,000

NEWARK, N.J., Dec. 5, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Mars-owned DOVE^® Chocolate continues its commitment to supporting female entrepreneurs and small businesses in the U.S. by launching its second year of DOVE InstaGrants – a program that is designed to uplift, celebrate and empower women entrepreneurs with a chance to win one of three $10,000 grants.

"With the great success of last year's program, we wanted to inspire moments of everyday happiness again by relaunching DOVE InstaGrants and offer even more women a chance to live out their business and entrepreneurial dreams," said Michelle Deignan, Senior Director at Mars Wrigley. "According to researchers from Columbia Business School and London Business School, 63% of women entrepreneurs are less likely to receive funding than men, regardless of their background and ideas, so there is still a lot of work to be done to ensure women are given the financial confidence they need to excel."

This year's program provides women across the U.S. an opportunity to pitch a new business idea or established small business concept for a chance to win a $10,000 grant and additional support to come in 2023. Women entrepreneurs should share a :30 second business pitch via Instagram with the hashtags #DOVEInstaGrantsEntry and tag @DoveChocolate, or upload their video on DoveChocolateInstaGrants.com, from 12:00 a.m. ET on December 5^th to 11:59 p.m. ET on December 19^th.

Last year's winners included Lehia Apana from Polipoli Farms, a native-run farm using indigenous and modern growing practices in regenerative agroforests, Brittany Rhodes of Black Girl Mathgic, a subscription box designed to increase math confidence and decrease math anxiety in girls and Shreya Nuli of Mobile Memory, a cost-effective screening tool that utilizes AI/ML to detect early signs of Alzheimer's from vocal biomarkers.

"Black Girl MATHgic was able to expand our product offering, thanks in part to DOVE Chocolate InstaGrants in 2021," said Brittany Rhodes, founder of Black Girl MATHgic. "In addition to continuing to inspire math confidence in young girls, we developed a quarterly subscription box for boys and are growing our customer base to include schools, districts and youth-serving organizations. We appreciate DOVE's support in helping us building students' skills and guiding our mission forward."

The program builds on DOVE Chocolate's long-standing partnership with CARE, an international humanitarian agency. The partnership works to empower women in West African cocoa-growing communities by building their financial literacy, defining their voices in financial decisions and developing their small businesses. The DOVE InstaGrants program aims to bring this purpose work to the U.S, as it has seen the empowerment financial community and conversation can offer in its work in West Africa.

For more information on #DOVEInstaGrants or to submit an entry, please visit DoveChocolateInstaGrants.com. For more information about DOVE Chocolate, visit www.DoveChocolate.com, or visit the brand on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and TikTok. 

Mars, Incorporated is driven by the belief that the world we want tomorrow starts with how we do business today. As a global, family-owned business, Mars is transforming, innovating, and evolving to make a positive impact on the world.

Across our diverse and expanding portfolio of quality confectionery, food, and pet care products and services, we employ 140,000+ dedicated Associates. With almost $45 billion in annual sales, we produce some of the world's best-loved brands including Ben's Original™, CESAR^®, Cocoavia^®, DOVE^®, EXTRA^®, KIND^®, M&M's^®, SNICKERS^®, PEDIGREE^®, ROYAL CANIN^®, and WHISKAS^®. We are creating a better world for pets through our global network of pet hospitals and diagnostic services – including AniCura, BANFIELD™, BLUEPEARL™, Linnaeus and VCA™ – using cutting edge technology to develop breakthrough programs in genetic health screening and DNA testing. 

For more information about Mars, please visit www.mars.com. Join us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube.

SOURCE Mars Wrigley