KeyBank Foundation Gives JumpStart $24 Million

CLEVELAND — The KeyBank Foundation Monday awarded JumpStart Inc. a four-year, $24 million grant to fuel the “KeyBank Business Boost & Build Program, powered by JumpStart” in communities across Ohio and upstate New York.

The initiative is designed to stimulate economic growth and workforce development by fostering small business success. The grant represents the KeyBank Foundation’s single largest philanthropic commitment to date, at more than six times the size of any past gift, officials say.

“KeyBank’s purpose is to help clients and communities thrive,” said Beth Mooney, CEO of KeyBank. “We accomplish this by improving access to education and career opportunities, lifting neighborhoods up, fostering innovation, creating pathways to home and business ownership, and encouraging community engagement, diversity, and inclusion. While KeyBank and JumpStart have been long-standing partners, this expansion is purpose in action.”

Ray Leach, CEO of Jump Start, called the expanded partnership with KeyBank “transformative,” one that will enable his organization “to provide services and much needed capital for many more startup and scaling companies, catalyzing job growth and innovation across Ohio and in upstate New York. It will also dramatically increase the participation of minorities and women in the growth of these companies, a goal we’ve long shared.”

The program is based on a five-pillar initiative that will:  

• Accelerate the growth of more than 2,500 small businesses and micro-enterprises – the majority of which will be women or minority-owned businesses.
• Accelerate the growth of more than 2,000 tech startup and scale-up companies.
• Create a minimum of 5,350 jobs.
• Provide support for participation in the tech economy by meeting business needs or enabling workforce training for 1,000 individuals.
• Connect 800 individuals to open job opportunities.
• Prepare more than 1,000 students to enter the workforce after graduating high school.

These goals will be accomplished, KeyBank and JumpStart say, by:

• Establishing the KeyBank Center for Technology, Innovation and Inclusive Growth to serve individuals across Ohio.
• Providing small business technical assistance in Cleveland, Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse and Albany, N.Y.
• Offering technical assistance and grant/equity capital for technology startups and scale-ups.
• Facilitating vocational education and workforce training for students in Cleveland.

The $24 million grant is part of KeyBank’s $16.5 billion National Community Benefits Plan, which established a $175 million philanthropic commitment in 2016.

KeyCorp’s roots trace back 190 years to Albany. Headquartered today in Cleveland, it is one of the nation’s largest bank-based financial services companies, with assets of approximately $135.8 billion on June 30.

Copyright 2024 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.