The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation has announced a $1 million grant to the Lorain County Community College Foundation to replicate a model for mentoring and funding entrepreneurial start-ups at community colleges across the country.

The grant will enable LCCC to expand its successful Innovation Fund to three community colleges around the country. Since its launch in 2007, the fund, which provides mentoring and early-stage funding to high-growth start-ups in Northeast Ohio, has made nearly a hundred awards totaling some $6 million, leading to $62 million in follow-on funding.

Over time, Kauffman and LCCC hope to expand the model to other community colleges in conjunction with the launch of a national network to support them.

"Despite being situated in one of the more economically depressed areas of the state, Lorain County Community College, through its Innovation Fund, has had a tremendous and positive impact on the entrepreneurial ecosystem of Northeast Ohio," said Kauffman Foundation vice president of entrepreneurship Thom Ruhe. "We believe it's a model that LCCC and Kauffman should replicate in other regions, and we will show that community colleges can, with the right resources, be at the center of local entrepreneur-led growth."