Many definitions for the work of ecosystem building are still evolving, and their meanings are sometimes imprecise. The working definitions for some key terms used in this playbook are presented below. Economic Development: The work to “create the conditions for economic growth and improved quality of life by expanding the capacity of individuals, firms, and […]

These seven goals will serve as the foundation for our collective action and build the tenants of the ecosystem building field. Goal 1: Inclusive FieldEnsure ecosystem builders with diverse perspectives lead our field. Goal 2: Collaborative CultureCultivate a culture of trust and collaboration within our field. Goal 3: Shared VisionEstablish shared outcomes and a common […]

Around the world, there is a growing number of leaders working at a systems level to remove barriers to entrepreneurship, connect disconnected resources, and cultivate a more supportive environment for the makers, doers, and dreamers. Over more than two decades, these innovators and early adopters of ecosystem building approaches have developed promising ideas, programs, and pathways […]

Communities like Silicon Valley, Boston, Tel Aviv, London, Boulder, and Berlin took decades to become robust entrepreneurial ecosystems.22 However, such ecosystems can grow anywhere today. In the modern economy, every community has the opportunity to become a thriving ecosystem. In fact, many already have. The essence of an entrepreneurial ecosystem is its people and the culture […]

The Kauffman Index, from 1996-2014 and from 2015-2016, was among the most requested and far-reaching entrepreneurship research in the United States, and, arguably, the world. View the historical KIEA reports > | View the historical KIEA microdata > From 1996 to 2014, the original Kauffman Index – authored by Robert W. Fairlie – was an […]

The Kauffman Index produced annual reports since 1996, and three new types of reports after the relaunch in 2015: state, national, and metropolitan/city trends.

The historical Kauffman Index microdata file for each year includes more than 650,000 observations for U.S. adults. The variables include entrepreneurship, age, race, gender, immigrant status, education, industry, state of residence, and many additional work, demographic, and geographical characteristics.

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January 18, 2018 The 2017 Annual Learning Report from the Kauffman Foundation synthesizes the key themes we see across the lessons that have been generated from grant reports, external evaluations and staff presentations to the Board of Trustees. Over the past year, associates from across the Kauffman Foundation developed new insights and lessons from their […]

January 18, 2018 The goal of the Kauffman Foundation’s KC Civic Nonprofit Effectiveness funding area is to strengthen nonprofits through services provided to them by quality intermediary organizations. These intermediaries provide services designed to build nonprofit capacity and efficiencies so that nonprofit organizations can, in turn, better serve community needs. The goal of the Kauffman […]