For years, Nebraska’s entrepreneurial ecosystem had a strong supporter from just down the road: the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation in Kansas City. It funded a variety of programs, from Greater Nebraska initiatives to research on entrepreneurship, and helped early-stage organizations develop their infrastructure.
But in 2024, the foundation scaled back its regional Midwest work for a greater focus on its hometown. “We want to make sure everything we’re investing in has impact back in Kansas City,” Allison Greenwood Bajracharya, Kauffman’s chief impact and strategy officer, told The Community Voice in Kansas.
In doing so, Kauffman leaves a gap in Nebraska’s ecosystem. “I don’t know that any existing foundations in Nebraska right now have that clear a focus on entrepreneurship growth” as Kauffman does, said Josie Schafer, director of the Center for Public Affairs Research (CPAR) at the University of Nebraska at Omaha…