Full proposals will be invited after preliminary review by the staff. For the past two years, the Babcock Foundation has explored ways to help people and communities in the Southeast become more economically secure through enterprise and asset development. With advice from a design team of entrepreneurs and community economic development practitioners, the Foundation is launching a new grantmaking program in 2000. We envision just and caring communities where both individuals and their communities are building assets. The Babcock Foundation seeks to increase the number and success rate of entrepreneurs in low-wealth communities, targeting an increase in minority entrepreneurs .
Entrepreneurs add energy, pride of ownership, economic assets, jobs, and services to communities.
At the same time, economically viable communities provide entrepreneurs with markets, financing, and employees. Healthy communities, including low-wealth communities, need networks of public and private support to develop individual entrepreneurs and to leverage public policy and capital for business development. We seek organizations with strong connections in the communities they serve and a successful track record for strengthening entrepreneurs. We undertake this commitment to entrepreneurship, especially minority entrepreneurship, with the hope that it will complement our existing funding programs and allow us to build alliances with new kinds of partners. We will continue to support organizations working on broad-based community economic development strategies in our other funding programs.