The Foundation carries out this commitment by investing in building the capacity of local people and organizations, especially in low-wealth communities, to improve their own lives and to make their communities better places to live for everyone. For the past several years, our grantmaking has focused on building the capacity of these nonprofit organizations, developing grassroots leaders, and supporting community coalitions working across race and class barriers to achieve tangible community improvements. These strategies seem to us to be necessary but not sufficient for demonstrable progress on the persistent problems of poverty and racism. The purpose of this new initiative is to strengthen low-wealth communities' economic base through entrepreneurship, especially in communities of color. We envision just and caring communities where both individuals and the community are building assets.
Successful entrepreneurs add energy, pride of ownership, assets, jobs, and services to communities.
At the same time, economically viable communities provide entrepreneurs with markets, financing, and employees. Healthy communities need entrepreneurial opportunity for individuals. In order to pay off in the long run, investments in entrepreneurship in low-wealth communities must pay attention to building relationships and skills that leverage public policy and capital for business development. We are most interested in enterprises that are large enough to employ people, although we see the value of investing in promising microenterprises. We will consider grants to support training for new or existing entrepreneurs, brokering or providing management or other technical assistance to enterprises, providing financing, and advocating for public and private sector support.