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Generous Anonymous Donor Aims to Empower Students at Local Community College

Like many entrepreneurs, Katrina Bragg is full of ideas. In 2005, she started her business, Task Mania, an administrative and project management business, but reality quickly set in. "For anybody who starts a business, it’s so overwhelming," she says.

Today, Bragg is not only as business owner and a student at Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College, she is also among the first recipients of a new donor-driven grant program that will help entrepreneurs like Bragg succeed.

Called the "Building Support and Opportunities Grant" and offered through The Lavender Fund of The Community Foundation, the three-year, $250,000 anonymous gift to the Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College Foundation is focused on empowering students, especially single parents, to improve their lives through education and entrepreneurship. Specifically, the grant aims to support and build entrepreneurs through the college’s Student Business Incubator and by offering 44 scholarships to students not eligible for traditional financial aid. The grant also supports efforts to keep scholarship recipients stay in school, creates a pool of emergency funds for scholarship recipients and aids the development of a summer camp program for high school students who want to learn more about entrepreneurship.

"My personal experiences make this program particularly meaningful to me." AB-Tech President Betty Young says. "I went to college at the age of 28 as a single mother with a young daughter, so I know how much programs like (the one offered through) the Lavender Fund mean to single parents struggling to reach their dreams. I also have been an entrepreneur, and I am excited about the opportunities this grant will provide for participants in our Student Business Incubator Program, who will build a strong economic future for our community."

The Lavender Fund was established at the Foundation by an anonymous donor. Some donors choose to work with The Community Foundation to meet their philanthropic goals while maintaining their privacy. Across the nation, anonymous donors offer significant support to community organizations and issues; according to The Chronicle of Philanthropy, anonymous donors gave nearly $1.1 billion to charities last year.

Bragg says already the funds have helped her reach her goals faster, and, adds Anita Metcalf, executive director of the AB-Tech Foundation and vice president of college relations, the grant will help keep enrollment open to everyone. "By having these scholarships, it’s just going to help more and more of these students come to school," she says.