The Entrepreneurship Grant Round — part of SV2’s local Pathways to Opportunity focus — will look at approaches and organizations which are empowering small business owners and entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurship is a strategic pathway to economic security for many in the Bay Area, including women head of households, former military, people who were previously incarcerated, immigrants, and refugees. We’ll consider models like micro-enterprises, social enterprises, and worker-owned cooperatives, as well as organizations providing training and/or capital.
This Round will be structured as a hybrid of our Lightning and Classic Grant Round models. We will work with local funders, including the Sobrato Family Foundation and the Walter & Elise Haas Fund, who will nominate promising organizations from their portfolios and share their insights and best practices with SV2 Partners (as in Lightning Grant Rounds). Nonprofit applicants will submit SV2-specific grant applications, and Partners will conduct site visits (as in Classic Rounds).
The Round will be co-led by Shalyn Eason and John Sanchez, with staff support from Jody Chang. All Partners are welcome to join in the Grant Round in any way that meets their interests: to audit one or more meetings of the Grant Round, or to participate in the full Grant Round (four meetings in total). Meetings will be held from 11:15am-1:30pm at SV2 on March 28 (RSVP here), April 25 (RSVP here), May 16 (RSVP here), and June 6 (RSVP here). In addition, we are planning to pilot a Zoom dial-in option for the May meeting, when the finalist Executive Directors will make presentations.
We hope you’ll join us! Please email Jody Chang with any questions at jchang@sv2.org.