TechSTL, the St. Louis technology council that launched earlier this year, has expanded with the creation of a charitable arm and scholarship fund.
TechSTL, designed to provide the 16-county bistate metropolitan area with a forum to facilitate advancement of St. Louis’ technology and innovation sectors, says its newly launched TechSTL Foundation and Scholarship Fund will help advance its efforts to support the region’s technology sector and workforce initiatives. TechSTL has started fundraising efforts for the two charitable entities, though it didn't identify a targeted goal.
Established through a federal grant awarded in 2021 by the U.S. Economic Development Administration to St. Louis Development Corp., TechSTL is a membership-based organization focused on bringing together local technology companies and organizations to advance efforts around business attraction and development, technology development, data collection and public and government relations.
TechSTL has partnered with St. Louis Community Foundation to create its foundation and scholarship fund. Executive Director Emily Hemingway said the decision to launch the foundation and scholarship fund mirrors that of other technology councils in other U.S. markets that have created similar charitable entities.
“The combination of the two organizations help make the work more robust and sustainable on behalf of the community,” Hemingway said.
The TechSTL Foundation is designed to provide grants focused on business lending and business support. That will involve awarding funds to Community Development Financial Institutions and revolving loan funds and to nonprofits that stage programming focused on issues including business and workforce development. It hopes to begin awarding grants in Spring 2023, Hemingway said.
The scholarship fund set up by TechSTL will award post-secondary scholarships to help St. Louis residents begin careers in technology, which dovetails with TechSTL’s strategic goals to expand and diversify the region’s technology workforce.
“The scholarships are helping to ensure that we are really making it easier for the underrepresented parts of our community to quickly get into tech-related fields,” Hemingway said.
The launch of TechSTL’s foundation and scholarship fund comes as the organization last month released its strategic plan, outlining how it plans to accomplish its five year goals, which include significantly boosting and diversifying the region’s technology workforce, supporting the creation of hundreds of new startups and establishing a new funding mechanism for early stage companies.
The initial phase of the strategic plan will focus on shepherding efforts to create new networks and tools within the region’s technology industry. Plans call for launching a job board, data integration system and digitals portals to help individuals navigate the technology resources. TechSTL says it is fundraising $2 million to undertake the first phase of its strategic plan, with plans to complete the initial phase by the end 2023. Hemingway said the fundraising will come through membership dues, grants and sponsorships.
TechSTL currently has more than 100 members and Hemingway said the organization hopes to have 1,000-plus members by year’s end. Launched through St. Louis Development Corp., TechSTL in January will begin operating as its own stand-alone entity.
