Trustees of The Burton D. Morgan Foundation awarded grants of nearly $440,000 in September to promote entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship education in the Northeast Ohio region. Many of the grants awarded will benefit local youth entrepreneurship programs in the 2011-2012 academic year, including $177,500 to support programs provided by four Northeast Ohio affiliates of Junior Achievement USA. The funding will help bring programming to K-12 classrooms reaching nearly 6,000 students across 19 Northeast Ohio counties.
The Foundation also made grants to two local public television stations for programs about business and entrepreneurship, Nightly Business Report on WVIZ/PBS and Micro Business for Teens: Starting a Micro Business, a 90-minute special to be produced with a live, local audience of teens, parents, and educators and broadcast in February 2012 by Western Reserve PBS.
“Through this funding, Foundation grantees will reach thousands of Northeast Ohio students with valuable lessons in entrepreneurship,” said Foundation President Deborah D. Hoover. “For many of them, the experience will have lifelong impact,” she added.
Grants approved by Foundation Trustees in September include:
Entrepreneurial Engagement Ohio – $50,000 for 2011-2012 support of the SEE Economics & Entrepreneurship classroom program and the Science & Technology Forum for Northeast Ohio high school students.
Foundation for Teaching Economics – $44,000 for one Economics for Leaders high school program on a Northeast Ohio college campus in summer 2012.
Friends of Breakthrough Schools – $53,200 to support the entrepreneurship academic program at Cleveland Entrepreneurship Preparatory (E Prep) School
Girl Scouts of North East Ohio – $20,000 for expansion of the Teen CEO entrepreneurship program and for certification of two instructors by the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship.
ideastream – $40,000 to support the television broadcast of Nightly Business Report on WVIZ/PBS in 2011-12.
Junior Achievement of East Central Ohio – $27,000 (partial challenge grant) to support “JA Youth Entrepreneur Connection” programs in grades 8-12 in 2011-2012.
Junior Achievement of Greater Cleveland – $45,500 for middle grade and high school programs in 2011-2012.
Junior Achievement of Mahoning Valley – $25,000 for 45 programs serving students in four Mahoning Valley counties in 2011-2012.
Junior Achievement of North Central Ohio – $80,000 to support classroom programs in 2011-2012 for students in grades K-12 in eight Northeast Ohio counties and for one-time support of relocation-related expenses.
Western Reserve Public Media – $55,000 toward production of a 90-minute special, Micro Business for Teens: Starting a Micro Business, to be broadcast locally on Western Reserve PBS and made available to PBS stations nationally, on the Web, and on DVD.
Since last June, the Foundation also approved several small grants to advance youth, collegiate, and adult entrepreneurship initiatives, as well as programs in the Foundation’s home community of Hudson. Among the recipients are: University of Mount Union, to support entrepreneurship programming for students and faculty ($10,000); the TechBelt Initiative, for job creation, attraction, and retention in the life sciences and energy sectors in the Cleveland-Youngstown-Pittsburgh region ($5,000); the Consortium for Entrepreneurship Education, for the Youth Entrepreneurship Alliance ($5,000); and NorTech, for the 2011 Advanced Energy B2B Conference and Expo ($1,000). Hudson recipients include Hudson Job Search, for three projects supporting its job placement mission ($6,550) and Laurel Lake Retirement Community, for the youth philanthropy program conducted with Seton Catholic School ($2,500).