Kirchner Impact Foundation Launches Pilot Program in Partnership with Berea College
Program will train students on fundamentals of impact venture capital and report on investment readiness in the market
July 09, 2025 – Jacksonville, FL and Berea, KY – Kirchner Impact Foundation today announced a pilot program with Berea College’s Entrepreneurship for Public Good. The three month pilot iterates on existing Foundation programming by truncating content, learnings, and investment timelines, while expanding the Foundation’s work to a new geography at the nexus of the Southeast and Central Appalachia, where there is a dearth of early-stage “risk capital.”
The program engages selected Berea College students to perform the duties of an impact venture capital analyst by sourcing companies, screening against investment criteria (including a benefit to rural communities), performing due diligence, and making investment recommendations to senior leadership of the Foundation.
“This work has been over a year in the making, starting with the SEED Study – a landscape assessment on the ways in which entrepreneurship is utilized as an economic development tool and whether there is sufficient capital to support such endeavors in the Appalachian region,” commented Hattie Brown, Manager of the Kirchner Impact Foundation. “The findings of the SEED Study led us to launch this pilot program and find a tremendous partner in Berea College. Berea’s mission of equitable and experiential education is closely aligned with the stated mission and the implicit ethos of Kirchner Impact Foundation and Kirchner Group.”
“The Kirchner Impact Foundation has a long history of training students from a variety of backgrounds in the tools, methods, and practice of social impact investing,” commented Ian Norris, Professor and Director of Berea College’s Entrepreneurship for Public Good. “We are grateful for this partnership, as it can not only benefit our students, but the entrepreneurial community across Kentucky and Central Appalachia.”
The aims of the pilot include 1) workforce development for impact venture capital or entrepreneurship support roles, 2) deployment of small-dollar investments to early-stage companies in rural Kentucky and Tennessee, and 3) collection of granular market data on investment readiness from an early-stage “risk capital” lens.
“After researching the entrepreneurial ecosystem across several counties in Eastern Kentucky, I applied to join the Kirchner Impact Foundation program to help turn those insights into action,” commented Eber Seco Lima, a computer science and music major. “Through this internship, I’ve been able to directly engage with rural entrepreneurs, connect them to venture capital and other funding opportunities, and build a data analysis report to help investors understand what types of support will truly drive growth in their communities.”
“I’ve seen firsthand the barriers rural communities face—and I believe mission-driven capital can be a powerful tool to change that,” commented Sarah Keown, an accounting major. “It’s exciting to see a rising focus on the Appalachian region. This internship has given me a clearer path toward using finance to drive lasting, community-centered change and help underserved communities.”
Kirchner Impact Foundation
KIF is a non-profit organization that serves as one of the “returning” arms of Kirchner Group. KIF harnesses the positive power of enterprise to make a difference in addressing some of the most important issues of today and reflects our belief that all businesses should contribute to a positive human future. The primary activities of KIF include the Kirchner Fellowship and Kirchner Investment Academy as well as other initiatives primarily across three sectors: Agriculture/Food, Health/Life Science, and Education. Through the Kirchner Impact Model (“returning” with head, hip and heart), the Foundation promotes capital efficiency and sustainable enterprises, while aiming to generate measurable, social and environmental benefits.
The Foundation is always looking for like-minded organizations and individuals to help it continue to expand its training programs and impact. www.kirchnerimpact.com
Hattie Brown | Manager | hbrown@kirchnergroup.com
Kirchner Group
Kirchner Group was founded in 1985 as a boutique firm and today operates various subsidiaries, providing advisory services (M&A, assessments, diligence) and operational support (interim management, workouts, turnarounds) as well as asset management (dedicated, portfolio optimization) – all leveraging a proprietary approach that dovetails domain and process expertise.
Throughout the decades Kirchner Group has been internationally recognized for its unique business model centered around creating value while promoting values: “earning while returning”. The firm has also established a reputation for building and rebuilding important business and social paradigms based on its deep entrepreneurial orientation.
Kirchner Group’s clients and partners include early stage to mid-market companies, venture capital and private equity firms as well as family offices and some of the world’s largest insurance companies, commercial banks and institutional investors. www.kirchnergroup.com
Blair Kirchner | Managing Director | bgkirchner@kirchnergroup.com