Page 151 - 1-Entrepreneurship and Local Economic Development by Norman Walzer (z-lib.org)

140 Deborah M. Markley

sustainability for entrepreneurship development, insulated from the polit-
ical process, private sector resources are needed.

Finding Other Partners—Foundations
The microenterprise field was advanced through the initial support of a few
national foundations—the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, the Ford Foun-
dation, and the Levi Strauss Foundation. In entrepreneurship development,
foundation support is important in two ways. One example is the W. K. Kel-
logg Foundation. Through its Entrepreneurship Development Systems for
Rural America grant project, the foundation has invested in six laboratories for
entrepreneurship development systems throughout the rural United States.
The significant investments made in six different models for creating an
entrepreneurship development system should provide the lessons learned
that can propel the field of rural entrepreneurship development forward in
a significant way. Part of building a sustainable system is learning about and
adapting what the early innovators have found to be successful. One spe-
cific aspect of each innovative system within the Kellogg project is a focus
on building long-term sustainability. The models for sustainability devel-
oped in these laboratories will provide important guidance and insights for
other rural regions as they create entrepreneurship strategies of their own.
Another important role for foundations is as a partner in the creation of re-
gional entrepreneurship development systems. Regional foundations have
played an important role in the creation of CDFIs and CDVCs in the past, and
entrepreneurship development provides another opportunity for community
engagement. For example, foundations in Minnesota, North Carolina, and
Oregon have become partners in community- and state-level strategies to pro-
mote entrepreneurship development. This match between regional founda-
tions and community-based or regional projects is important—it keeps the
focus on achieving regional transformation through investment in entrepre-
neurship development. It also provides an opportunity to bring the nonfinan-
cial resources of the regional foundation to the partnership, whether in terms
of management experience or the persuasive powers of foundation leadership
within the region. Most importantly, the private sector resources of regional
foundations can be a powerful complement to public sector resources, adding
potential stability to the system as a cushion against the capacity constraints
often associated with local public sector resources.

A Role for Community Philanthropy

One untapped resource in many rural communities is the charitable as-
sets that exist in the community at present or as part of the intergenera-
tional wealth transfer that will occur in most rural communities over the