Association for Enterprise Opportunity
ActivePublic CharityPhilanthropy & Voluntarism
About Association for Enterprise Opportunity
AEO is the leading voice of innovation for entrepreneurship and small business. AEO strengthens the ecosystem that powers entrepreneurs. Through applied research, policy leadership, innovative platforms, and targeted convenings, we help partners deliver better outcomes so founders can start, stabilize, and scale.
Focus Areas
small businessmicrobusinessfinancial inclusionentrepreneurshipresearchpolicyinnovationcapacity building
Who They Fund
microbusiness owners / sole proprietorssmall business foundersBlack entrepreneurs / Black-owned businessessmall business employees / local workforce
About Association for Enterprise Opportunity
Association for Enterprise Opportunity’s recent grant record is built around one large 2023 award: $728,994 in fiscal sponsorship to Black Innovation Alliance in Atlanta. That grant fits the organization’s broader role as a funder and convener for microbusiness and small business ecosystems, with a particular emphasis on access to capital, entrepreneurship development, and support for Black-owned businesses. Its public materials describe work that combines applied research, policy leadership, innovative platforms, and targeted convenings to help partners improve outcomes for founders. The foundation’s grantmaking points to a systems-building approach rather than a broad, dispersed portfolio. It backs initiatives that strengthen the infrastructure around underserved entrepreneurs, including cohort-based pilots, technical assistance, and programs for returning citizens. The Tapestry Project and the Innovation Hub both show how AEO uses funding to test new models, surface promising projects, and connect practitioners with capital and visibility. AEO also connects philanthropy to implementation. Several of its active programs are structured as partnerships, registries, or action labs that support organizations working with microbusiness owners, Black entrepreneurs, and community lenders. The result is a pattern of giving centered on ecosystem capacity and program design for small business support.
What Association for Enterprise Opportunity Funds
AEO’s focus areas cluster around microbusiness support, capital access, and entrepreneurship infrastructure. In one example, the foundation’s Innovation Hub — Capital & Services provides flexible seed capital for cohorts and initiatives designed to accelerate emerging solutions for underserved microbusiness entrepreneurs. Black-owned business development is another visible theme. The Tapestry Project Action Lab awards contracts or grants to selected applicants to advance collaborative approaches that address barriers such as the wealth gap, credit gap, and trust gap facing Black-owned businesses. The foundation also supports entrepreneurship after incarceration. Through Endeavor Ready, AEO works on entrepreneurial readiness for returning citizens by addressing credit-building, right-fit capital, and trauma-informed care. A third area is capital-market infrastructure. DreamFund was created as a liquidity solution with OnDeck and partners to help CDFIs expand products from third parties and improve capital access in underserved communities.
Financial Snapshot
Annual Giving
$729K
Total Assets
$8.6M
Total Revenue
$9.1M
Total Expenses
$9.9M
Typical Grant Size
Most grants fall between $729K and $729K, with a median of $729K.
25th Percentile
$729K
Median
$729K
75th Percentile
$729K
Geographic Reach
Regional1 state funded
About 0% of grants go to recipients in GA.
Funding intensity
LowHigh
Headquarters
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