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Monica Solares

Watson Institute and BMO Launch 2024 “BMO Fellowship”

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This year’s BMO Fellows include 18 of the most promising sustainability-focused entrepreneurs in Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, and Wisconsin who are driving solutions to their communities’ most significant environmental and sustainability challenges.

Watson Institute and BMO Launch 2024 “BMO Fellowship” to Support Progress of Sustainability-Focused Entrepreneurs in Underserved Communities

 

CHICAGO, May 10, 2024 – Watson Institute and BMO today are thrilled to announce the launch of the inaugural BMO Fellowship for innovative, sustainability-focused entrepreneurs and community leaders from underserved communities throughout Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. This year, 18 fellows have been selected to participate in the program, which is designed to support the progress of highly promising, diverse sustainability leaders achieve their goals centered around solving today’s environmental challenges.

“Our 2024 BMO Fellows are at the forefront of driving positive change by creating innovative solutions for environmental and sustainability challenges in their communities – from pioneering water management strategies and reducing energy emissions to developing environmentally conscious wellness products and ending food deserts,” said Eric Glustrom, CEO and Founder of Watson Institute. “We’re proud to continue our partnership with BMO to create a more sustainable and equitable future for all, and we look forward to supporting this year’s innovative cohort.”

Specifically, The BMO Fellowship enables entrepreneurs and leaders by:

  • Providing expert-guided training and ‘Impact Series’ workshops focused on building a comprehensive roadmap to guide the growth and scalability of work and skills-building to construct and refine their missions.
  • Creating access to a robust mentorship network to enhance leadership abilities and the impact of ventures, as well as the potential to form new partnerships.
  • Awarding a $15,000 venture development stipend for select BMO fellows based on progress and impact throughout the fellowship.
  • Equipping each BMO fellow with the tools and resources to power ‘Basecamps’ in their communities – impact workshops and training sessions to help expand their mission in their home state.
  • Affording the opportunity to pitch ideas to local leaders, potential investors, and other entrepreneurs – as well as to receive feedback from BMO and community stakeholders.

“At BMO, building a sustainable future and our commitment to zero barriers to inclusion are core to our Purpose, to Boldly Grow the Good in business and life to foster and strengthen communities where everyone can make progress,” said Helen Seibel, Head of Employee and Community Giving at BMO. “Through the BMO Fellowship with Watson Institute, we are proud to support the next generation of sustainability-focused entrepreneurs by providing them with the resources, mentorship, and platform to meaningfully address society’s most pressing challenges.”

The BMO Fellowship is aligned with BMO’s commitment to Environmental Sustainability and the bank’s Zero Barriers to Inclusion 2025, a multi-year strategy focused on providing access to opportunities and enabling growth both inside and outside our doors.

To learn more about the BMO Fellowship, visit www.watson.is/bmo-fellowship-2024.

BMO Gives. Good grows here.

Helping communities thrive by supporting the organizations that sustain them and encouraging employee giving and volunteerism is at the heart of BMO’s Purpose, to Boldly Grow the Good in business and life. In 2023, our social impact included more than $84 million donated to hundreds of charities and non-profit organizations across North America to help drive progress by enabling individuals to thrive and communities to prosper. Our colleagues spent 62,000 hours volunteering in the community and contributed more than $31.2 million of donations through our annual employee giving program. For more information, please visit BMO.com.

About BMO Financial Group

BMO Financial Group is the eighth largest bank in North America by assets, with total assets of $1.3 trillion as of Jan. 31, 2024. Serving customers for 200 years and counting, BMO is a diverse team of highly engaged employees providing a broad range of personal and commercial banking, wealth management, global markets and investment banking products and services to 13 million customers across Canada, the United States, and in select markets globally. Driven by a single purpose, to Boldly Grow the Good, in business and life, BMO is committed to driving positive change in the world, and making progress for a thriving economy, sustainable future, and inclusive society.

 About Watson Institute

Founded in 2013, Watson Institute partners with leading corporations and foundations to power transformative Fellowships that support highly promising, historically disenfranchised rising entrepreneurs and leaders. The Fellowships provide award-winning entrepreneurship and leadership skills training, committed mentorship, financial stipends, long-term Alumni support, and access to a global community of peers, mentors, and opportunities. Alumni of Watson Institute’s Fellowships have raised over $185 million, created over 1,900 paid jobs, and impacted 10 million people across the US and globally through their ventures.

Watson Institute Embarks on its Second Year of a Three-Year, $450K Grant Partnership with Truist Foundation

By Fellows

Funding enables Watson Institute to implement the Truist Foundation Fellowship for 720 underbanked, underserved entrepreneurs and small business owners from emerging markets across urban and rural Georgia.



Watson Institute Embarks on its Second Year of a Three-Year, $450K Grant Partnership with Truist Foundation

 

Atlanta, GA, Thursday, March 7th, 2024 – Watson Institute today announced the launch of the 2024 Truist Foundation Fellowship. The Fellowship includes award-winning training in financial literacy and entrepreneurship, seed capital, committed mentorship, Impact Series Workshops, and the tools for each Truist Foundation Fellow to power Basecamps in their communities for earlier-stage entrepreneurs.

The 2024 Truist Foundation Fellows are working to increase the economic mobility of their communities in Atlanta and across greater Georgia by tackling various inequities that prevent individuals, including those who are racially and ethnically diverse and women, from increasing their wealth. These inequities span from financial illiteracy to generational poverty for communities of color and limited access to high quality education and STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) training, among others.

“We are immensely grateful for Truist Foundation’s generous support and commitment to opening more doors for underserved entrepreneurs and small business owners,” shared Dwayne Griffith, Associate VP of Programs at Watson Institute. “The Foundation’s three-year commitment fosters a network where Alumni can nominate candidates to future Fellowship cohorts, Basecamp Participants can apply to the Fellowship to receive more advanced entrepreneurship training, and Alumni can return as Mentors and Impact Series Teachers. This well-integrated network amongst Fellows, Basecamp Participants, and Alumni ensures there will be an embedded infrastructure of support for underserved founders that lasts well beyond the Truist Foundation Fellowship.”

The primary objective of the Truist Foundation Fellowship is to address the “missing middle” for underserved entrepreneurs who are reaching Product Market Fit, but who need additional training, resources, and networks to scale their ventures and reach financial sustainability. Addressing the missing middle bolsters Georgia’s entrepreneurial ecosystem by fostering opportunities for its most promising yet underserved entrepreneurs.

The pioneer Truist Foundation Fellowship cohort supported over 600 small businesses through their ventures, created 212 paid jobs, and increased their annual recurring revenue by 83% post-Fellowship. We’re enthusiastic to support the 2024 Truist Foundation Fellows to scale their impact in similar ways.

“Truist is proud to partner with the Watson Institute to help underserved entrepreneurs and small business owners,” said Truist Regional President Katie Saez. “The work being done by the Watson Institute helps Truist fulfill our purpose of inspiring and building better lives and communities.”

About Watson Institute

Founded in 2013, Watson Institute is a place where underserved entrepreneurs and leaders can find their community, discover their calling, and accelerate their careers. Alumni of Watson Institute’s Fellowships have raised over $185 million, created over 1,900 paid jobs, and impacted 10 million people around the world through their ventures and small businesses.

About Truist Foundation

Truist Foundation is committed to Truist Financial Corporation’s (NYSE: TFC) purpose to inspire and build better lives and communities. The Foundation, an endowed private foundation established in 2020 whose operating budget is independent of Truist Financial Corporation, makes strategic investments in a wide variety of nonprofit organizations centered around two focus areas: building career pathways to economic mobility and strengthening small businesses to ensure all communities have an equal opportunity to thrive. Embodying these focus areas are the Foundation’s leading initiatives – the Inspire Awards and Where It Starts. Learn more at Truist.com/Foundation.

Western Union Foundation Fellow Provides Humanitarian Relief

By Alumni, Fellows

Western Union Foundation Fellow Provides Humanitarian Relief to Families in Afghanistan Through Community-Focused Nonprofit

 

By Shelby Crosier | Rollings School of Public Health 

When Shakila Ali was five years old, her family arrived in the U.S. as refugees from Afghanistan. As members of the Hazara minority, they left to escape the historical targeting of their people and a humanitarian emergency that was unfolding at the time. Ali’s family background and personal connection to Afghanistan and the disparities affecting the country’s religious and ethnic minorities has fueled her throughout her life, including during her time as a Rollins student and beyond.

While an MPH student in the Hubert Department of Global Health in 2020, Ali was inspired to take action to improve access to education for youth in Afghanistan. Using her network of friends, classmates, and peers, she started a grassroots fundraising campaign to provide scholarships for young people in underserved communities in the country. With over 40 volunteers, they raised over $5,000 in one weekend. After this success, she decided to make the campaign annual.

Everything changed in 2021 during the second year of Ali’s program when, on the same weekend as the fundraiser, the Taliban took over and a humanitarian emergency began. Many international organizations left the country in a rush, and it was no longer possible to send aid. Ali was left shocked and worried for her community, as well as grieving family members she lost. This grief, along with her desire to assist her homeland, led her to create Doste Afghan Foundation, meaning “a friend of an Afghan”.

“As the humanitarian situation worsened, I felt more inclined to continue directing support to my community in Afghanistan,” says Ali. “There’s nothing that we can do to change the systems of power, but we can help the families on the ground. This inspired me to turn the fundraiser into a nonprofit.”

Ali worked tirelessly throughout 2022 to develop the organization, recruiting a small but mighty team in the U.S. and Afghanistan and applying for 501©3 status. The latter was made possible through resources and mentors from The Hatchery, Center for Innovation at Emory University. Ali hopes that this status will allow them to expand their reach beyond her network alone and sustain more widespread support.

Doste Afghan Foundation’s mission is to provide humanitarian assistance to the most at-risk people in Afghanistan, with a special focus on women, children, and minority groups. Their model provides direct cash assistance to families to help address immediate needs, such as food insecurity. The organization also focuses on promoting education and economic development. They achieve the latter through a program that provides grants for individuals to develop a small business idea and purchase the equipment and materials needed to run it. The focus, says Ali, is on centering the real needs of the community and of each family to ensure sustainable impacts.

One way this is possible is through working on the ground in communities and conducting a thorough needs assessment with each family, a skill Ali developed during her time as a Rollins student.

“The needs assessment component of this is so crucial,” says Ali. “Almost every Afghan in some way has been affected by the war, loss, grief, and other circumstances beyond their control, but some identities are even more affected and at risk. I wanted to make sure that we reach those who are most in need and hard to reach. We do a full needs assessment and interview to give families the opportunity to tell us about their situation and what they need.”

Since the beginning of 2023, Doste Afghan Foundation has impacted over 80 individuals in Afghanistan. Over 50% were women, and the majority were children and youth under 16 years old. The foundation also estimates that their food stipend program has provided over 8,000 meals, and that their business grant program has increased participating families’ monthly income more than four-fold. Ali is now planning to scale up the foundation’s impact through further support from Western Union Foundation and Watson Institute.

Ali says that when it comes to getting involved with Doste Afghan Foundation, “raising awareness is one of our core goals.” Through their annual fundraisers, they provide volunteers with context, statistics, and graphics to share on social media and spread awareness of the humanitarian crisis. The next fundraiser will take place in 2024.

If you want to learn more or volunteer with Doste Afghan Foundation, you can find them on Instagram, LinkedIn, or their website.

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