The Blackstone Charitable Foundation has announced grants totaling $1.6 million to seventeen nonprofit organizations working to foster entrepreneurship and innovation.

Awarded through the Blackstone Organizational Grants Program, the funding will support efforts to pilot, expand, or replicate programs aimed at catalyzing the growth of successful businesses, industries, and communities. Six grants were awarded to organizations that received funding last year, including Launch Tennessee, One Hen, Inc., and Tumml. New grant recipients include BioSTL in St. Louis, which was awarded $100,000 to expand the scope of its Bioscience Inclusion Initiative to include high-potential women and minority bioscience entrepreneurs; Businesses United in Investing, Lending, and Development (BUILD) in Redwood City, California, which will receive $100,000 to launch an innovation incubator program and expand entrepreneurship opportunities for disadvantaged students at two schools in Washington, D.C.; and the Nonprofit Enterprise and Self-Sustainability Team in San Francisco, which was awarded $150,000 to replicate in Brazil a program that incubates high-impact social businesses in partnership with universities and student entrepreneurs.

"We are proud to be able to provide this year's grant recipients with the resources they need to expand the reach of their programs both within their regions and beyond," said Amy Stursberg, executive director of the Blackstone Charitable Foundation. "As we continue to focus on building a robust network of entrepreneurial activity across the nation and globally, we are pleased to extend funding to this year's recipients, who have shown immense potential and innovation in the area of entrepreneurship."