Build Institute

Small businesses are the backbone of our communities. They transform our neighborhoods by beautifying them, creating jobs, increasing property values, and allowing residents to keep money reinvested and recirculated continually through the local economy. Without providing long-term, robust support for our small businesses now, they will falter and our neighborhoods will be decimated.

This is why Build Institute’s programming is so important right now. We are focused on keeping our small businesses open by connecting to resources, providing access to capital, and helping them pivot their business model for long-term success. All of our programming is currently offered virtually, including business planning classes, developed our technical assistance programming, and have created opportunities to connect with others through networking.

It takes a village to start and run a business - Build Institute helps surround our entrepreneurs with the support system they need to thrive. 

How You Can Help:

• Donate:
  By providing support to Build Institute, we can ensure our small businesses gets the support they need, whether through scholarships for our classes, matching support for our capital programs, or through our technical assistance program. Please consider supporting Build Institute today.
• Become a Lender:
  Community capital moves funding decisions from the boardroom to the living room, increasing capital for our neighborhood businesses. You can support Michigan businesses through our Kiva and Honeycomb Credit programs by becoming a lender today. Learn more at www.kiva.org/lend or www.honeycombcredit.com/invest.
• Volunteer Your Skills:
  Entrepreneurs need as much help from experts in areas like marketing, legal, financing, etc. right now as possible. You can play a major part by dedicating your time utilizing your expertise to help small businesses.

Background on Build Institute

Build Institute empowers people to launch ideas and grow businesses by providing access to education, resources, and a supportive engaged community. We are an incubator and champion of local talent, removing barriers to small business ownership that often exist for women and people of color. Our focus is on serving microenterprises and “Main Street” entrepreneurs - our true neighborhood businesses. Build aims to shift the current paradigm that says small business success must be big and immediate, that taking risks outside of tech - such as retail, services, and arts - is bad, and that investing in women or people of color comes with a lower ROI.

Build Institute was founded in 2012 as part of D:hive a program of the Downtown Detroit Partnership (DDP). We provide tools, resources, support and community that would not exist otherwise. Build Institute’s programming plays an active role in creating a pathway out of poverty by building wealth and ownership for entrepreneurs and their families, leading to financial and economic health and wellbeing. Our programming centers around our four pillars: 1) Learn, focused on our business planning courses, 2) Launch through test-of-concept programs, 3) Fund through our community capital programs such as Detroit SOUP, Kiva and Honeycomb Credit, and 4) Connect through our networking events and groups such as OpenCity and Build Roundtables.

To date, Build Institute has seen the following growth:

• Served close to 2,000 entrepreneurs through its programming
• Build graduates have created 1,300+ jobs since 2012
• 83 percent of graduates are women and 63 percent are people of color
• 600+ active businesses led by Build graduates generate $41.7 million each year in regional labor income and reach 14,000 people each month. 
• In October 2019, Build Institute moved into The Corner, an incubator space dedicated to advancing the needs of entrepreneurs.