Just a week since NC IDEA’s new president and CEO Thom Ruhe took the reins, the foundation is ready to launch its first new grant program in a decade.
Called the Ecosystem Partner Grant, it’ll put up to $250,000 to work at non or for-profit North Carolina organizations that are supporting or plan to support high-growth potential entrepreneurship. Criteria includes promoting diversity and collaboration, facilitating capital formation, building and attracting talent and making an impact on promising young companies.
It’s all part of NC IDEA’s expanded mission since it became a private foundation last year. Tax laws require it invest an additional roughly $1 million annually toward its support of high-growth entrepreneurial endeavors that maximize the potential of North Carolinians.
According to Ruhe, who spent seven recent years as director and then vice president of entrepreneurship at the prestigious Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, the new grants are an effort to prop up the most promising efforts in the state and help them become successful and sustainable.
“If our region/state likes what an organization is doing and wants them to do more, we have to find more resources for them to do it,” he told me last month. “I want to show the rest of the state that we can help facilitate best practices and therefore be a partner in leveraging resources.”
For the full story, read:
http://exitevent.com/article/250k-up-for-grabs-from-new-ncidea-grant-program-160314
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