National not-for-profit Interise has been awarded one-million dollars to bring insights on systemic barriers to quality job creation at small businesses from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The Small Business STRONGER initiative will fund Interise programming designed to create change in the small business ecosystem by assisting BIPOC-owned small businesses and small businesses located in low-income communities support high quality jobs.
The Small Business STRONGER initiative will feature capacity building executive education for small business owners, enacted in four phases; a learning phase, curriculum and resource development phase, and an implementation phase with a continuous monitoring, evaluation, and learning process to better understand the impact of programming on the small business ecosystem that leads to the creation of quality jobs.
“We are both humbled and grateful to the Gates Foundation for their substantial investment in Interise,” said Interise CEO Darrell Byers. “The needs of the small businesses we assist are always evolving, especially in these times, and this generous grant will allow us to expand and scale the scope of our work.”
This timely investment will allow Interise to add an element to their work by looking to their constituent groups to create and implement effective practices to boost economic mobility for business owners and their employees through the creation of quality jobs. Through this work, Interise will be able to offer feedback on systemic barriers to good job creation and potential constituent-led solutions that may encourage more successful uptake of effective practices.