Home Madison A Fund for Women’s “Imagine Madison” Event Will Feature Entrepreneur Valerie Daniels-Carter

A Fund for Women’s “Imagine Madison” Event Will Feature Entrepreneur Valerie Daniels-Carter

The annual dinner and fundraiser also highlights over $100,000 in grants to 5 area nonprofits and a special performance by the First Wave Hip Hop Theater Ensemble.

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Valerie Daniels-Carter, co-founder, president and CEO of one of the largest female- and black-owned food franchise companies in the country, will keynote A Fund for Women’s Annual Event, “Imagine Madison,” on Tuesday, October 25, 5 p.m.-8 p.m., at Monona Terrace.

The Milwaukee-based entrepreneur built V&J Holding Companies from one Burger King in 1982 to more than 120 restaurants, including Burger King, Pizza Hut, Haagen-Dazs and Coffee Beanery stores, and some 4,000 employees. V&J is also part of a joint venture with former NBA all-star Shaquille O’Neal, sharing ownership of Auntie Anne’s pretzel stores.

In 2011, Daniels-Carter was elected to the Green Bay Packers board of directors, becoming the first African-American woman to serve on an NFL board and, loyal to her hometown roots, is an investor in the Milwaukee Bucks as part of an effort to promote downtown economic development. In 2015, Madison365 named her among “The 28 Most Influential African Americans in Wisconsin.” Daniels-Carter’s community involvement includes supporting the Kathryn Daniels Conference Center for Community Empowerment and Reunification. The center, named in honor of her mother, is home to the Daniels-Mardak Boys and Girls Club in Milwaukee.

Daniels-Carter’s appearance is part of a multiyear fundraising initiative by A Fund for Women to support local nonprofits that strengthen women’s economic security called Earn-Save-Invest. The event will feature stories of area women challenged by economic insecurity, along with a performance based on those stories by the First Wave Hip Hop Theater Ensemble, the performance company of UW-Madison’s First Wave Hip Hop and Urban Arts Learning Community. A Fund for Women will also announce $109,000 in grants to 5 area nonprofits to support economic empowerment for women and girls.

“Because female-led households in Dane County are disproportionately affected by poverty and the gender wage gap, our community faces an urgent need for funding that supports women as they transition through the three economic stages in life: earning, saving and investing,” says A Fund for Women Chair Therese Gulbransen.

Register online here.