Our grantees build on the entrepreneurial spirit, strong community ties, and untapped potential within under-resourced communities.
We support them with grant dollars, but there’s more we can do. In particular, we want to improve our outreach, which can range from spreading information and best practices to offering networking opportunities to making the case for community work.
A survey to tell us what works for you
Which is why we’re inviting you to participate in our Engagement & Messaging Survey. This brief, interactive survey takes less than 15 minutes and offers the chance to make your voice heard about ways to engage you that are most useful, the information we can offer that is most helpful, and how we can better make the case for investing in the social and microenterprise work that makes up our Enterprise Development portfolio.
What are social and microenterprise and why invest in them?
We’re committed to advancing work that helps people gain access to good jobs and build their financial capability. One way we do that is by supporting the enterprise development work of organizations working to fill the gaps in our economic system.
In particular, we invest in:
- Social enterprise strategies—like a youth-run garden and café or a technology recycling program operated by adults facing barriers to employment—that raise revenue to further their own mission and have a greater impact for the people they serve.
- Microenterprises and the people who run them that are the lifeblood of thriving local economies. Microenterprises owned by local residents extend and expand economic opportunities, especially for people who face limited job prospects.
The survey will be open for the next couple of weeks. We’ll post again on our blog in the fall with the insights you’ve given us and how we’ll take action based on them.
