foundations

Several foundations have announced major commitments to fund workforce development efforts focused on expanding the talent pipeline in metros across the country. Each of these efforts is intended to provide high school students and/or young adults with skills and experience necessary to match specific needs of regional industries. These new initiatives also are intended to help at-risk youth from low-income families to obtain and keep well-paying jobs, and to proper evidence-based training as well as address the youth unemployment crisis faced by U.S. metros.

The Indianapolis-based Lilly Endowment announced three grants totaling $42 million to boost regional development efforts in 11 counties located in Southwest-Central Indiana with a focus on research and development, workforce and education, and efforts to enhance quality of life. The recently formed Regional Opportunity Initiatives will receive $25.9 million to implement an education and workforce plan as well as a regional opportunity fund for quality-of-place investments. The Lilly Endowment awarded $16 million to the Central Indiana Corporate Partnership Foundation to establish an Applied Research Institute near the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Crane Division. To address societal challenges faced by rural communities, Indiana University Foundation will receive $126,000. In December, Gov. Mike Pence and the Indiana Economic Development Corporation Board of Directors approved up to $126 million state matching funds to support the implementation of regional development plans in North Central, Northeast and Southwest Indiana through the Indiana Regional Cities Initiative. Each of the eligible regions will receive up to $42 million in matching funds to advance talent attraction through quality of place initiatives.

Last week, the Treasury Department released guidance recognizing foundations may make investments with a wider range of return and risk expectations so long as they are not jeopardizing or compromising their charitable missions.  Proponents for the change expect the guidance to open the doors to more mission-related investments (MRIs), impact investing and innovative finance approaches to dealing with the growing array of societal and environmental issues confronting the globe. This should also create opportunities for new partnerships with forward-thinking venture development organizations and tech-based economic development initiatives. 

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is relaunching its advocacy agenda to create a more flexible, personalized, affordable and clear U.S. postsecondary education system. At the center of this agenda will be an effort to collect better metrics on student and institutional performance and to extend finance and financial aid options for lower income students. The foundation plans to advocate for these priorities at the federal and state level, with particular focus on policies in 10 select states: California, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas and Washington.

The Blackstone Charitable Foundation announced last week that it has awarded a combined $3 million in grants to 20 non-profit organizations around the world dedicated to strengthening entrepreneurial ecosystems and supporting high growth entrepreneurs. Now in the third year of its five-year, $50 million Entrepreneurship Initiative, this year’s funding was granted to 14 new organizations and six organizations from last year’s pool of winners. Grants from the foundation work toward helping organizations pilot, expand, or replicate programs that help catalyze growth of companies, industries, and communities. In total, more than 550 organizations submitted proposals to the foundation. Read more about the 20 grant recipients here.

Arizona is in a better position to emerge as a global player in biosciences that it was a decade ago, according to a new roadmap from the Flinn Foundation. Building on an initial strategic document released in 2002, the updated strategy offers 77 potential actions the state could pursue to support bioscience entrepreneurship, research translation, talent development, institutional connectivity and collaborations. Risk capital plays a key role in the updated strategy, which challenges Arizona to attract an annual share of national venture capital investment equal to its share of population by 2025.