Kauffman $1.38M backs three-year push to expand Kansas City entrepreneur micro-loan program

The Kansas City, Missouri-based Association of Women’s Business Centers (AWBC), as fiscal sponsor, secured a $1.3M, three-year grant from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation to pilot a microloan program with GoodBread Innovations and Kansas City G.I.F.T. The initiative, running May 2026 through April 2029, targets early-stage entrepreneurs shut out of traditional financing by pairing credit-readiness support with access to capital. Funds will cover staffing, technology, loan deployment, and evaluation. Designed by GoodBread, the model will be tested locally with Kansas City G.I.F.T. leading on-the-ground delivery, aiming to prove scalable pathways to more equitable small business financing.