Yield Giving, the organization created by billionaire philanthropist MacKenzie Scott, has awarded a $9 million gift to The Entrepreneur Fund, a nonprofit that provides startup capital to fledgling businesses in Minnesota and Wisconsin.
The Duluth, Minnesota, organization announced the donation on its blog, noting that the money was unexpected. Scott's organization often researches potential donation targets on its own and gives money without the nonprofit soliciting it.
“Our entire team was taken by surprise when we received the news,” said Shawn Wellnitz, CEO of EFund. "This is a game changer for our work going forward.”
Entrepreneur Fund focuses on underserved communities in Minnesota and Wisconsin, working with more than 3,400 entrepreneurs since 2021. In 2022, EFund expanded to serve a dozen more counties in northern Wisconsin along with seven Native nations in the region, according to an EFund progress report.
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The expansion was made possible by $8 million in Diverse Business Assistance and Diverse Business Investment grants from the Wisconsin Department of Administration. In the first year beginning in 2023, the EFund invested $4.4 million and provided no-cost consulting to 258 businesses in northern Wisconsin.
Wisconsin entrepreneurs who have benefited from the fund include Kelly Shaggy, whose Native American- and woman-owned firm EduTechTrek in Ashland provides digital marketing services; Annalisa Bermel, who established a boutique hotel in downtown Bayfield called St. James Social; and Nick and Robyn Olson, who tapped EFund's expertise in securing lending and setting business strategy for an expansion of their Superior company, Anderson & Hammack Construction Co.
Scott, the ex-wife of Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, has given away vast sums of wealth in recent years — more than $16 billion so far, often to relatively small nonprofits, some in Milwaukee.
