Minority Entrepreneurship

Minority entrepreneurs represent a largely untapped resource in the United States economy. Although the number of minority-owned businesses has grown significantly over the past twenty years, these firms continue to lag behind in economic indicators. The Kauffman Foundation is working to better understand these gaps, studying the layers of social and cultural perceptions and strengthening the infrastructures and networks that will help minority entrepreneurs be successful.

 

Initiatives

  • The series of papers contained in this volume are the result of a conference funded by the Kauffman Foundation and are a key piece of the effort to encourage young scholars.

  • The Ice House Entrepreneurship Program consists of a book and an online companion course.  The book shares timeless lessons from the life experiences of Clifton Taulbert (successful entrepreneur and acclaimed author) while growing up in the Mississippi Delta.

  • UEP Gulf Coast, Inc. was created by the Kauffman Foundation's Urban Entrepreneur Partnership (UEP) to spearhead business development following the devastation of Hurricane Katrina.

  • This initiative provides for the development of one-stop economic empowerment centers to provide business training, counseling, financing, and procurement opportunities to minority and urban business owners.

Highlights

  • The new Ice House Entrepreneurship Program provides eight timeless life-lessons, taught by real-world entrepreneurs.

  • Bill Strickland's visionary leadership, willpower, and underlying belief in the goodness of people has turned a dilapidated community center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania into one of the most successful nonprofit arts and technology organizations in America.  Blending jazz, ceramics, orchids, cooking and whatever else will bring light into the inner city, he gives people the tools they need, treats them with respect, and watches as they accomplish miraculous things.

  • Within weeks after Hurricane Katrina hit, the Kauffman Foundation's minority entrepreneurship team began site visits to the Gulf Coast region to assess the situation and to form a strategy of how our organization could most effectively offer support. See how restoration of the gulf coast region begins with businesses.

     

Featured Resources

  • UEP site screen shotLearn more about UEP through its site, which explains the process for going through the program and shares success stories.

  • Find a comprehensive library of articles and videos with relevant insights and information for entrepreneurs here at Entrepreneurship.org.

  • Marked and measurable progress has been made in minority business development since the authors first examined the topic in depth for the U.S. Department of Commerce more than 25 years ago. Taking the next step, moving from presence to prominence, poses new challenges and therefore demands a "New Agenda," with a focus on growing larger and self-sustaining minority businesses.

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