‘Tis the season: Kauffman supports KC entrepreneurship with $1M in grants

The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation awarded more than $1 million in grants to not-for-profit organizations that serve Kansas City entrepreneurs.

The grants — totalling $1,020,000 — are a part of the foundation’s projected $8 million of investments in Kansas City’s entrepreneurial community over the next three years.

“The Kauffman Foundation is committed to helping Kansas City become an entrepreneurial hub that produces both innovation and well-paying jobs,” Kauffman CEO Wendy Guillies said in a release. “To achieve that goal, we are investing in high-quality entrepreneur-support organizations, talent-development projects and entrepreneurship education.”

The grants will support area artists, entrepreneurial support organizations, women in entrepreneurship and mentorship. Here are more specifics on the organizations receiving the funds:

The Women’s Business Center, an alternative lending organization specializing in helping women entrepreneurs with business development, will use the grant to provide technical assistance for the center’s new microloan program.

The grant will allow Artist INC, which connects local artists with career resources to help them develop entrepreneurial skills and run their own businesses, to support the group’s ongoing programming.

KCSourceLink, an entrepreneurial resource organization in Kansas City, will tap the grant to cover  operations and programming.

The Enterprise Center in Johnson County, an organization that connects startups with resources to scale their business, will use the grant to fund the center’s “Power of Two” initiative. Power of Two is a two-year mentoring program for companies that have gained traction but are under $1 million in annual revenue.

“Mr. Kauffman believed that entrepreneurship was key to giving individuals a pathway to economic independence,” Guillies said in the release. “As stewards of his vision and his endowment, we have carefully evaluated these grantees and believe that their programs can meaningfully improve the outcomes of the region’s startups.”

The Kauffman Foundation is a private, nonpartisan foundation that aims to foster economic independence by advancing educational achievement and entrepreneurial success. Founded by late entrepreneur and philanthropist Ewing Marion Kauffman, the Foundation is based in Kansas City, Mo., and has approximately $2 billion in assets.