Jim Moran Institute Receives $250,000 Grant To Support Entrepreneurship Training Programs for Military Veterans

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. —In honor of the U.S. Small Business Administration’s (SBA) National Veterans Small Business Week, the Jim Moran Institute for Global Entrepreneurship, part of the Florida State University (FSU) College of Business, announced today a $250,000 grant from the SBA. Submitted in coordination with the Institute for Veterans and Military Families (IVMF) at Syracuse University, the grant funds the expansion of the Jim Moran Institute’s entrepreneurship training programs for military veterans.

“We are honored to receive such a generous grant from the SBA, and we look forward to continuing to work with our longstanding partners at IVMF,” said Dr. Randy Blass, executive director of the Jim Moran Institute and founder of the Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans programs at FSU. “Florida State University and the Jim Moran Institute have been assisting underserved entrepreneurs throughout the state of Florida for more than 25 years, and we have been actively serving veteran entrepreneurs for nearly 15 years.”

The grant was awarded as part of the SBA’s $100 million Community Navigator Pilot Program, an initiative of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, designed to deploy trusted community partners within underserved communities across the U.S. and to coordinate the economic recovery efforts of specific communities including women, veterans, and socially and economically disadvantaged individuals.

The Community Navigator Pilot Program takes a “hub and spoke” approach, featuring a lead “hub” at the center of a network of “spoke” organizations deploying trusted community advocates to support small businesses hit hard by the pandemic.

IVMF was awarded a $5 million grant over a two-year period and named a Tier 1 partner by the U.S. Small Business Administration, becoming one of the lead “hubs” in the Community Navigator Pilot Program network. As a spoke organization and partner in the application process, the Jim Moran Institute was awarded $250,000 to expand its support of veteran business owners and provide entrepreneurship training, resources and technical assistance.

“Since 2008, the Jim Moran Institute has assisted nearly 500 military veterans through our veteran entrepreneurship programs,” said Melissa Roberts, managing director of the Jim Moran Institute. “Our partnership with IVMF has allowed us to launch and facilitate programs that focus on the unique challenges and opportunities that come with being a veteran business owner. This grant recognizes the strength of our past impact and furthers the Jim Moran Institute’s outreach efforts to provide cutting-edge entrepreneurship training to veterans throughout Florida.”

The Jim Moran Institute’s partnership with IVMF spans 12 years and four highly successful programs, including the Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans (EBV), the Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans’ Families (EBV-F), the Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans Accelerate (EBV-A) and most recently the RISE (Resilience, Innovate, Sustain, Evaluate) virtual program to help veteran business owners pivot through uncertain times. These programs aim to help veteran entrepreneurs tackle the financial, management, marketing and strategic challenges they may face when attempting to grow their businesses. Upon completion, all participants are incorporated into the national IVMF network, which provides a navigation and support mechanism to nurture entrepreneurial aspirations and sustain growth and success.

Historically, the Jim Moran Institute’s EBV programs have taken place in Tallahassee. After a period of online training, groups of military veterans nationwide have traveled to Tallahassee and spent up to a week learning from FSU faculty members, subject matter experts and industry leaders.

The Community Navigator Pilot Program allows the Jim Moran Institute to offer veteran entrepreneurship programs in the organization’s other Florida market locations in Ft. Lauderdale, Jacksonville and Tampa Bay, in addition to Tallahassee, which significantly increases the number of veteran entrepreneurs who will receive assistance and support each year.

To learn more about the Jim Moran Institute’s veteran entrepreneurship programs, contact Melissa Roberts at mroberts@jimmoraninstitute.fsu.edu.

About the Jim Moran Institute for Global Entrepreneurship
The Jim Moran Institute for Global Entrepreneurship cultivates, trains and inspires entrepreneurial leaders through world-class executive education, applied training, public recognition and leading-edge research. Jim Moran was an automotive pioneer and an entrepreneur at heart who, at the age of 7, sold soda pop at sandlot baseball games in Chicago. With a career that spanned more than six decades, he built an amazing chronicle of achievements in the automobile industry. His vision for the Jim Moran Institute was to provide opportunities that would help others become more successful business owners. A 1995 contribution from Jim and Jan Moran and JM Family Enterprises established the Jim Moran Institute for Global Entrepreneurship at the Florida State University College of Business. Since 2011, further enhancements to the Jim Moran Institute and its outreach have been made possible by Jan Moran and The Jim Moran Foundation.