Kauffman Foundation allocates up to $7M for inclusive entrepreneurship effort
April 24, 2017 | Meghan LeVota
The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation has launched a grant program that hopes to fuel business growth among underrepresented entrepreneurs.
As part of the Zero Barriers movement, the Kauffman Foundation is accepting RFPs for Inclusion Open, a grant program that aims to enable champions of underrepresented entrepreneurs to expand their services to topple barriers.
“We know entrepreneurs from many diverse backgrounds face weighty barriers. These barriers impose a high cost to the U.S. economy, in terms of job creation and innovation,” Victor Hwang, vice president of Entrepreneurship at the Kauffman Foundation, said in a release. “For example, minority and female entrepreneurs encounter especially persistent barriers that limit their ability to start and grow companies. Kauffman research has found that if minorities started and owned businesses at the same rate non-minorities do, the United States would have more than 1 million additional employer businesses and approximately 9.5 million more jobs in the economy.”
Inclusion Open will award up to $7 million to programs around the nation with grants ranging from $50,000 to $500,000. The deadline to apply is 5 p.m., May 2.
The foundation is looking for U.S. nonprofits and for-profit organizations that address direct barriers to disadvantaged entrepreneurs via access to training, capital and mentorship. Barriers can include bias, poverty, declining infrastructure, social isolation and demographic shifts.
“We are looking for organizations with uncommon solutions to level the playing field for entrepreneurs who have been excluded due to demographic, socioeconomic and geographic barriers,” Philip Gaskin, director of Entrepreneurial Communities at the Kauffman Foundation, said in a release. “These could be entrepreneurs who have faced barriers related to their gender, race, age, geography, disability or sexual orientation or their status as veterans or displaced workers.”
The Inclusion Open grant program is a facet of the foundation’s Zero Barriers movement, which was announced during the foundation’s visit to Washington D.C. in February. Along with entrepreneurs and policymakers, Zero Barriers plans to develop solutions that empower more people to pursue their entrepreneurial ambitions.
Featured Business
2017 Startups to Watch
stats here
Related Posts on Startland News
KCPS superintendent to city struggling with violence: When do we all come together?
It’s inexcusable for Kansas City to simply accept 130 murders before it’s even December, Mark Bedell said. “Who do you think are committing these crimes?” Bedell, superintendent of Kansas City Public Schools, asked a crowd gathered Thursday for the Lean Lab’s Launch[ED) Day. “Probably people who have been victims of schools that have failed them…
Kauffman Foundation rolls out $1.2M microlending program to help underserved entrepreneurs
Amid a swarm of 160 events as part of Global Entrepreneurship Week, the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation announced a new microlending program to spur investment in underserved entrepreneurs. In partnership with four microfinance lenders, the foundation issued a series of grants totaling $1.2 million that a will change the way the nonprofit microlenders capitalize their…
Scared away from networking events? Anti-social introverts can turn to tech
Networking strength comes in numbers — even for anti-social introverts, Jeremy A. Smith told a crowd Tuesday at Global Entrepreneurship Week. “Anti-social people, myself included, hate events,” he said. But like all other entrepreneurs, such introverts still must build and maintain actionable professional networks from which they can request and receive value, Smith said. In-person networking…
Longfellow Farm coworking the soil amid KC’s urban food desert
In a city ripe with coworking office spaces, there’s a hunger for similar environments outdoors, Ami Freeberg said. As with maintaining individual workplaces, traditional urban farming also can be isolating and expensive, the Longfellow Farm manager said. By working together, however, the collaborative process allows for shared resources, greater human expertise and, of course, more…