A $1 million program-related investment from the Battle Creek, Mich.-headquartered Kellogg Foundation established the Battle Creek Small Business Loan Fund to provide capital and technical assistance to local entrepreneurs. An additional $1.8 million from the Kellogg Company, Battle Creek Unlimited and the Miller Foundation – local capital which the foundation is matching two-to-one up to $10 million – brings the fund total to $6.4 million.
- Community fund manager. Northern Initiatives, a community development financial institution that has helped create more than 4,000 jobs through more than a thousand loans, will manage the fund.
- Racial lens. The fund is open to all entrepreneurs, but will priorities founders of color, who struggle to gain access to capital Battle Creek.
- Incubation. Later this year, the group of funders plan to launch a new business incubator Battle Creek to help residents turn their ideas into businesses.
“Creating a vibrant economic climate is critical to changing conditions and that requires all of us to concentrate efforts and speed up the process,” said La June Montgomery Tabron, WKKF’s president and CEO.
