The Los Angeles nonprofit’s Disruptor Award, Financial Aid, and Change Agent Prize open for their first grant cycle this week.
Pave HER Way opens applications August 31 for its first grant cycle, giving women across the country a new avenue to fund the work they are already building. The Los Angeles-based nonprofit is offering up to $90,000 through its Disruptor Award and up to $30,000 through its Financial Aid program, with a third opportunity, the Change Agent Prize, reserved for women nominated through the organization’s invited pool of nominators rather than an open application.
The Disruptor Award is built for transformational projects and ideas that create meaningful public benefit for women and girls, while Financial Aid targets women facing financial barriers as they pursue education, professional development, or work that advances equity for women. Those figures represent the maximum funding available through each program, not a guaranteed award amount for every recipient.
What Recipients Actually Receive
Pave HER Way was not built to write a check and disappear. Every award comes with mentorship, professional networks, and a community of women working through similar challenges, an approach the organization describes as investing in women at different stages of their journeys rather than backing a single milestone.
That structure reflects how the organization talks about its own mission. Co-founder Jamie Mohn has been direct about the gap the nonprofit is trying to close.
“We started Pave HER Way because too many extraordinary women are still expected to overcome structural barriers with determination alone. Talent is everywhere. Opportunity isn’t.”
That distinction between talent and access sits at the center of the organization’s pitch. Pave HER Way frames its work as investment rather than charity, positioning funding, mentorship, and network access as a full suite of support rather than a one-time gesture.
Who Should Apply
Pave HER Way welcomes applications from women across all industries and backgrounds whose work demonstrates a commitment to advancing equity and opportunity for women. The organization has also built out a volunteer infrastructure for professionals, executives, entrepreneurs, and community leaders who want to serve as mentors, connectors, or builders rather than applicants, extending the nonprofit’s reach beyond the women it funds directly.
Founding CEO Irene Shih has described the organization’s approach as a rejection of the idea that women should simply work harder within systems that were not designed with them in mind. The goal, as Pave HER Way frames it, is real investment across financial, communal, and structural lines, with the expectation that funded women will go on to create space and access for other women behind them.
Where to Apply
Applications for the Disruptor Award and Financial Aid programs open August 31 through Pave HER Way’s official application portal. Women interested in the invite-only Change Agent Prize can build visibility with the organization through its mentorship and volunteer programs, since that award is not accepting direct applications.
For women who have spent years creating opportunities for other women without a formal platform to show for it, this grant cycle is the moment to put a name and a number behind that work.
