A National Project to Advance Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Building

Leaders Across Thirty Plus National Entrepreneurship Support Organizations Come Together to Advance the Field of Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Building

An initiative has launched to advance the entrepreneurship ecosystem building field of practice, hosted by the International Business Innovation Associate (InBIA), with funding and support by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. The Ecosystem Building Leadership Project (EBLP) seeks to collaboratively design, create, and validate a field-wide infrastructure that will help accelerate wider understanding and adoption of ecosystem building as a practice in economic, community, workforce, and entrepreneurship development in the United States.

“The EBLP is a once in a generation opportunity to transform the ways in which communities support entrepreneurs and enable equitable prosperity,” says Charles Ross, Project Co-chair and President CEO of InBIA. “We’re excited to collaborate on this initiative with a great group of partners that will bring a wealth of insight, experience, and guidance to the project. ”

The project will also be led by co-chairs: Dell Gines, Inclusive Urban and Rural Economic Development Consultant and Kristin Leutz, Founder of Petra Impact Partners. Over thirty leaders and entrepreneurship ecosystem builders from a diverse collective of National Resource Providers are engaged as advisors to the co-chairs and the project team.

The project will accomplish the following goals:

• Collaboratively develop a vision and plan to create field-wide infrastructure to support ecosystem builders
• Create conditions for the sustained efforts needed to create a ‘home’ to center the field of ecosystem building
• Increase shared leadership across multiple organizations in working to accelerate the professional field of practice

Visit ebleadershipproject.com/launch to learn about getting involved with this project.