Foundation Announces Grants Awarded at June Meeting
At the June Board Meeting, Burton D. Morgan Foundation Trustees approved nearly $1 million in grants for initiatives to promote entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship education for youth, college students, and adults.
Morgan Foundation believes strongly in educational programs that help instill the entrepreneurial mindset in youth. To that end, several grants were awarded to youth-serving organizations. University School was awarded a grant of $136,500 to support Young Entrepreneur Institute (YEI) programming in 2019-20. YEI is regarded as our backbone partner, as it delivers invaluable educator consultation at no cost, coordinates Lemonade Day programming for the region, and holds the annual Enspire conference each November for educators to learn curricula and techniques to help their students develop the entrepreneurial mindset.
Western Reserve Historical Society received a two-year grant of $264,500 for its museum-based program that reaches more than 5,000 CMSD students in grades 4-6 through entrepreneurship programming that capitalizes on the collections at Hale Farm & Village and the History Center. Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship also received a grant of $85,500 to train teachers to implement entrepreneurship education in their classrooms.
Foundation President and CEO Deborah Hoover commented, “In Northeast Ohio, Morgan Foundation serves as a diehard ecosystem builder enhancing the network of imaginative partners engaged in entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship education, including those seeking to educate the entrepreneurs of the future. The array of grants approved this cycle will help strengthen the skills of the tireless educators who are working directly with young people to help them develop the entrepreneurial mindset and pursue their dreams.”
Additional grants approved by the Foundation Trustees to benefit organizations supporting innovation and entrepreneurship include the following:
BioEnterprise - $75,000 to support operations for Entrepreneurial Assistance services and internships
Economic and Community Development Institute - $150,000 to support operations of the Akron office
JumpStart, Inc. - $142,000 to continue its entrepreneurial internship program
Other grants for entrepreneurship initiatives that have been approved by the Trustees in the interim period between meetings include:
Akron Roundtable - $2,500 to sponsor the luncheon featuring entrepreneur Brandon Chrostowski
America SCORES Cleveland - $11,250 for the One Hen program and for educator training on student-directed learning
Cleveland Water Alliance - $8,000 for a hackathon for high school students focused on the development of creative technology solutions for Lake Erie challenges
Cuyahoga Community College Foundation - $12,025 for the Entrepreneur Expo and for CLE3 Institute student stipends
Emmanuel Christian Academy - $19,250 for entrepreneurship and financial literacy programming
Kent State University Foundation – $5,000 for sponsorship of the Fashion Show
National Association for Community College Entrepreneurship - $7,200 for the Entrepreneurship Explorations Conference
The University of Akron Foundation - $20,000 to develop digital course materials for the Entrepreneurship Teacher Institute
Telluride Foundation - $20,000 for the Entrepreneur Funders Network
University of Massachusetts-Lowell - $10,000 for the Deshpande Symposium
Trustees also approved the following grants to benefit the Hudson community and to support philanthropy in Northeast Ohio:
City of Hudson - $1,200 for Hudson Community Television’s production of Good Day in Hudson
Hudson Bandstand, Inc. - $2,500 for the summer concert series in 2019
Hudson City Schools - $1,500 for the Earth Balloon program at Ellsworth Hill Elementary School
Hudson Community First - $10,000 for the Career Panel/Intern for a Day program
Hudson Rotary Foundation, Inc. - $1,000 for scholarship fund support