BGI’s Center for Inclusive Entrepreneurship
The Center for Inclusive Entrepreneurship envisions a world without poverty.
We believe that each and every one of us has unique gifts and abilities and an innate desire to be productive and to contribute, and that entrepreneurship empowers us to think opportunistically about how to contribute these gifts and abilities to make the world a better place.
We offer accessible and affordable “first step” entrepreneurship training, one-on-one consulting and other support empowering people in low-wealth and underserved communities to start and grow profitable small businesses, create jobs, and build sustainable community resilience and wealth. Through entrepreneurship, our clients are pursuing individual financial self-sufficiency and becoming leaders in “poverty-proof” community building.
Inclusive
Programs at the Center will give priority to people with barriers to financial self-sufficiency and limited access to mainstream entrepreneurship and business support resources.
Focused on Fundamentals
Focusing on the fundamentals of business finance, marketing and management, the Center’s StartZone Northwest offers simple and effective approaches to meet the large and growing need for business development training and support in underserved communities.
Systemic Approaches
Working with its partners, the Center will innovate systemic wealth building approaches in communities where small-scale entrepreneurship can make a real difference in people’s lives. These include community-based self-help banks, cooperatives, inclusive supply chain development, import-substitution strategies and collective impact efforts that cut across multiple social interventions aimed at building sustainable community resilience and wealth.
Faculty and Student Engagement
Center clients will inspire research topics, data and scholarly work by BGI faculty and students who will have, as part of their academic work and training, access to a “clinical setting” for hands-on real world learning in support of small-scale entrepreneurship.
Contact
If you have any questions or would like more information about the Center for Inclusive Entrepreneurship, contact us by email or call us at 206.780.6228.