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Entrepreneurship Community Partnership

NetWork Kansas is devoted to the growth of entrepreneurship and small businesses throughout the state of Kansas. Our mission is to promote an entrepreneurial environment by providing a central portal that connects entrepreneurs and small business owners with the right resources—expertise, education and economic resources—when they are needed most.

About

Selected communities partner with NetWork Kansas to establish a locally-administered loan fund to assist entrepreneurs with capital, to increase connectivity to resources available to assist entrepreneurs and small businesses, to initiate activities to generate entrepreneurial development and to participate in a statewide partnership with other E-Communities.

The E-Community partnership has grown from six communities in 2007 to 69 in 2021. To date, E-Communities have provided $21.5 million to businesses, leveraging an additional $99.2 million (bank loans, owner down payment, resource partner loans and more.)

Goals of the E-Community Partnership

Grow a flourishing, sustainable entrepreneurial environment supportive of business startups and expansions
Engage and/or develop entrepreneurial resources to meet identified community and business needs
Create a revolving loan fund to provide matching loans to entrepreneurs and small businesses with local control of decisions and terms
Forge a community vision centered around entrepreneurship as a tool for economic development

Components of an E-Community

A NetWork Kansas E-Community has made a decision to proactively pursue entrepreneurship as an economic development strategy. The following components are present in all 69 E-Communities:

Local leadership teams, committed to meeting regularly to provide the overall direction and leadership for the E-Community and to discuss ways to create a flourishing environment
Local financial review board, tasked with acting as the loan committee for E-Community loan applications
Locally-controlled revolving loan fund
Active engagement with local sources of public and private funding
Access to a statewide network of over 500 partners, focusing on connecting entrepreneurs and small business owners to the education, expertise and economic resources they need
Access to entrepreneurship programming designed to benefit different types of businesses
A marketing fund to support the development and/or implementation of special projects and initiatives