Why Entrepreneurship?

Why Entrepreneurship?

In Conversation with Amy Stursberg: Executive Director of The Blackstone Charitable Foundation

Meera Patel (MP): Why did the Blackstone Charitable Foundation develop a focus on entrepreneurship and economic development, over more traditional forms of giving?

Amy Stursberg (AS): When our Foundation was formed, we knew we wanted to make the greatest impact possible. In order to do this, we knew we needed to be able to leverage the resources of the firm, not just the resources of the Foundation. Following a series of conversations with Steve Schwarzman, Blackstone’s Chairman, CEO and Founder, we settled on entrepreneurship as our focus as a response to the economic crisis and as a way to drive job creation. Even after thirty years, Blackstone remains a tremendously entrepreneurial firm – in short, we believed that we could leverage our human and intellectual capital, as well as our scale, to support entrepreneurship and economic development in communities around the world.

The Ashoka Journal, Spring 2017

in short, we believed that we could leverage our human and intellectual capital, as well as our scale, to support entrepreneurship and economic development in communities around the world.

We knew that our Foundation would never have a huge infrastructure, so we wanted to be strategic about how we could have the most impact. I saw a real opportunity to build new and innovative programs to strengthen the entrepreneurial eco-system of a region in ways that others weren’t already addressing. Happily, our programs – focused on addressing a specific regional need and collaborating with key players in a region – have resulted in real impact. Since we’ve started, we’ve committed over $42m in over 30 regions globally helping to create over 25,000 jobs.

MP: What is the business case for creating social impact?

AS: For Blackstone, having a social impact is important both to our employees and to our firm at large. Since we started, we’ve seen a huge increase in our employees

The Ashoka Journal, Spring 2017

But 2008 was a moment where it had to be an all hands on deck in both the private and public sectors in order to create jobs and support economic development.

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hoping to get involved in the work of the Foundation. We’re proud to say that this past year nearly 70% of our employees volunteered with our nonprofit partners through Foundation programs. Our firm too is very philanthropic and lives our values that “we can do well by doing good.” Blackstone invests on behalf of more than half of all pensioners in the US and millions more internationally. Globally, we employ more than 600,000 people through our portfolio. Our entrepreneurship work through the Foundation reflects how seriously we take the reality of the firm’s reach, but so do a number of other efforts at the firm, including setting an example for our industry in sustainability across our portfolio.

MP: Why is philanthropy focused on entrepreneurship gaining ground over more traditional methods of philanthropy?

AS: In 2008, when we decided to focus on entrepreneurship, there were almost no other funders, let alone other corporate foundations, focused on entrepreneurship. Just keep in mind that when we started, Twitter had been around for just about a year and AirBnB had just been founded. Uber didn’t even exist. Entrepreneurs as we now define them weren’t a part of public conversation the way they are now. And supporting job growth wasn’t a philanthropic priority – it was an area that governments invested in. But 2008 was a moment where it had to be an all hands on deck in both the private and public sectors in order to create jobs and support economic development. We definitely saw an opportunity to become a leader in philanthropy focused on entrepreneurship, and also a real opportunity to align our social impact with the skills and other assets of Blackstone – a primary function of the firm’s work is help the businesses we invest in succeed and thrive in order to drive economic growth and jobs.

Over the past nine years, many other funders have realized that entrepreneurs around the world are going to be the big job creators of the future and that helping ecosystems support their entrepreneurs can be a really impactful way to create sustained job growth and change. Today, we are excited to work with so many of our peers on collective impact in entrepreneurship. We recently launched the #FacesofFounders campaign with Case Foundation, Google for Entrepreneurs, and UBS. Through that campaign, and thanks to the partnership of these other funders, we are now working to change the face of entrepreneurship to make it more inclusive.

This brochure was produced thanks to the generous support of Blackstone Charitable Foundation. The photographs in this article are from the Ashoka UK Changemaker Summit, also supported by Blackstone Charitable Foundation. Photo credit Claire Greenway Photography.

The Ashoka Journal, Spring 2017