Greater Winston-Salem, Inc. is pleased to announce that 11 local organizations have received a total of $100,000 in grants to support entrepreneurial programming. Greater Winston-Salem, Inc. received funding to facilitate the ESO Development Fund, which supports Winston-Salem based Entrepreneurial Support Organizations whose core functions cater to Winston-Salem based early-stage companies.
The inaugural recipients are:
- Center for Creative Economy
- Flywheel
- Forsyth Tech Small Business Center
- Goler Community Development Corporation
- Greater Winston-Salem, Inc.
- HUSTLE
- Mujer Valiosa
- S.G. Atkins Community Development Corporation
- Sparq
- VisionToVenture
- Winston Starts
The ESO Development Fund will make grants annually to ESOs to advance the following operations, programs, or initiatives: Capacity Building for Operations, New Program Development and Deployment, New Resource Deployment, New Recurring Event Offering, Activities that are Aimed at Improving Early-Stage Fundraising, or Ecosystem-Wide Marketing.
“In Winston-Salem we are focused on cultivating a connected and successful entrepreneurial ecosystem,” says Mark Owens, President and CEO of Greater Winston-Salem, Inc. “Entrepreneurship and small business growth are industry sectors with remarkable opportunity to generate jobs and economic growth in our community, and the nonprofit organizations that support them are vital to their success. We are excited to see the impact of the programs and initiatives made possible through these grants.”
Applications will open for the 2025 grant cycle later this year.