What is the measure of success? The stock market is at record-setting highs. Graduation rates are soaring. The unemployment rate is low. Advancing technology makes it easy for us to have a face-to-face conversation with someone across the globe, ask Alexa what the capitol of Vermont is, or to order a pizza without talking to anyone. So, why don’t we feel […]
The power of a common vision June 20, 2019 The democratization of entrepreneurship has built burgeoning hubs from Africa to Asia to South America providing evidence that mankind still understands what we can achieve when we work together to improve lives.
Thoughtbook 2015 by Janice Kreamer, Chairman, Board of Trustees, Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and Wendy Guillies, President and CEO, Kauffman Foundation Leo Tolstoy famously said, “Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.” At the Kauffman Foundation, we know that if our work is to make any difference, we must start by looking […]
Entrepreneurship gives hope for a generation of better days August 8, 2019 The Burgazzi family in Venezuela have watched their nation’s economic and social fabric unravel. They wait for a day of reckoning when their homeland hits bottom. When it does, they will be ready to help rebuild.
What if more startups were founded with social activism as a core value? April 23, 2019 With the impending rise of millennials as the dominant generation, social activism can no longer be an afterthought in business. Now, and into the future, businesses must be formed with a social consciousness as part of their core values.
The 2018 Mayors Conference on Entrepreneurship Please note that the following content is specific to the 2018 Mayors Conference on Entrepreneurship. Updates for the 2020 convening can be found here. In 2018, more than 142 city officials, including 102 mayors, attended the Mayors Conference on Entrepreneurship in Kansas City, Missouri. The themes of the conference included: mayors understanding their own data […]
The endangered legacy of the American risk-taker January 16, 2020 The legacy of the American risk-taker is born out of exploration, oppression, democracy, and the promise of the American Dream. We can conjure the images of American risk-takers from the rebels of the American Revolution, to Harriet Tubman and Harvey Milk, Sally Ride to Sergey Brin. As a startup nation founded on the risk of […]
Exploring and Engaging By Dane Stangler From the moment Ewing Kauffman established his philanthropic foundation, he wanted to do things differently. He had already pushed out the frontier of innovation within baseball as owner of the Royals, and had innovated his way to a billion-dollar multinational company. His philanthropic work would similarly reflect that innovative spirit. One of his […]
Uncommon voices January 3, 2019 You might have to intentionally look beneath all the rethinking, reimagining, frustration, and setbacks of 2018 to see progress, but it was there. The sparks of progress were lit, and kept burning, by some uncommon folks.
Mayors Roundtable, hosted by Mark Stodola: The changing workforce amid COVID-19 and beyond November 17, 2020 In this conversation, Mark Stodola, former Mayor of Little Rock and policy leader on the future of work, is joined by Chattanooga, Tennessee Mayor Andy Berke; Huntington, West Virginia Mayor Steve Williams; Columbia, South Carolina Mayor Steve Benjamin; Des Moines, Iowa Mayor Frank Cownie; and Juliet Schor, Economist and Sociology Professor at Boston College. The discussion ranged from whether the gig-economy lived up to the hype, or did it merely exacerbate already existent issues. Also, they discussed what a prepared workforce might look like, and how that might impact entrepreneurship in cities.