About Burton D. Morgan Foundation
Burton D. Morgan Foundation champions the entrepreneurial spirit and the free enterprise system that allows it to flourish. Established in 1967 by entrepreneur and philanthropist Burt Morgan, the foundation invests in people and organizations that expand opportunity, encourage innovation, and help entrepreneurs learn, launch, and grow.
Mission
Strengthening free enterprise by investing in people and entities that embody the entrepreneurial spirit
What We Mean by Entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurship is the process of developing an economic venture or solution that adds value, embodies innovation and creativity, and involves risk to its initiators.
What Free Enterprise Means to Us
Free enterprise gives people the freedom to discover, innovate, compete, and act upon their ideas. It enables individuals to pursue opportunity, achieve financial independence, and create value for others.
We believe free enterprise is a powerful engine of American ingenuity. By unlocking human potential, it drives economic and societal progress and helps generate solutions to some of the world’s greatest challenges.
The Essential Elements of Free Enterprise
- Individuals have equal rights to own private property, make financial choices, and shape their economic futures.
- Businesses are free to respond to market needs, earn a profit, and exchange goods and services.
- Markets foster competition, voluntary exchange, and broad access to participation.
- Government protects access to the free enterprise system, enforces property rights and contracts, and helps ensure fair competition.
Burton D. Morgan, Founder
1916 - 2003
It’s rare for even the most visionary people to continue to exercise influence on the world years after their passing. But then, Burt Morgan was exceptional. He not only saw the future; he helped shape it.
For nearly six decades, the foundation Burt established has carried his entrepreneurial vision forward. It was a modest enterprise at first, but one with large ambitions. Perhaps only he could have imagined how it would develop into what it is today.
Our late founder graduated from Purdue University in 1938, in the midst of the Great Depression, when jobs were scarce and economic hope was in short supply. But the fledgling mechanical engineer went on to prosper in corporate America, before becoming a noted serial entrepreneur and informal business mentor to generations of his counterparts.
And yet for all his success, in later life he came to regret that he had no formal entrepreneurship education. He wanted others to enjoy the same freedom and personal satisfaction he had experienced by pursuing the bold life path of an entrepreneur.
In his memoirs, Burt noted “I like the idea that entrepreneurship, which is how I got to this point in my life, is to be treated as a genuine career at the universities and colleges in the United States.” Drawing upon our founder’s wishes, the foundation’s investments have helped elevate entrepreneurship education and strengthen Northeast Ohio’s entrepreneurial ecosystem.
History and Timeline
Please enjoy our interactive timeline, commemorating our 50th anniversary which we marked in 2017, honoring our founder, Burt Morgan, and capturing the history and evolution of the Foundation.
Core Values
We believe in and practice:
- Championing Free Enterprise: Supporting economic choice, the right to private property, profits as an incentive, competition, and voluntary exchange… all of which foster people acting upon their dreams, economic growth, personal financial reward, and progress.
- Being Entrepreneurial: Learning, playing, experimenting, creating, being opportunistic-- with perseverance and willingness to risk loss or failure
- Pursuing Excellence and Producing Meaningful Impact: Setting goals that make a substantial difference and doing what it takes to achieve them
- Being Accountable and Trustworthy: Acting with integrity, being reliable, keeping promises, sharing information, being open
- Respecting and Empowering Others: Acting with empathy, humility, sensitivity, kindness, and treating others as you want to be treated
- Supporting Equity/Inclusiveness: Collaborating, teaming up, supporting broad participation and engagement, providing equal access to opportunities
- Embodying Passion/Engagement: Showing up with whole self, working hard, playing hard, having fun
Strategic Direction
Our strategic direction reflects the vision of our founder and guides our investments in free enterprise education, entrepreneurship education, startup support, and second-stage business growth.