UNCW Entrepreneurship Center Receives its First Community Gift from Bruce Cameron Foundation

Wilmington, N.C. – The Bruce Barclay Cameron Foundation Inc. has given the University of North Carolina Wilmington’s Entrepreneurship Center (EC) its first gift from community donors. The gift includes a matching funds component, so the foundation will give the university $25,000 outright, with a dollar-for-dollar match up to another $25,000. Including the $25,000 UNCW must raise to receive the entire matching funds, the end benefit could be as much as $75,000 for the Center.

“There is a high level of support in the regional business community for the UNCW Entrepreneurship Center and its work,” said Chancellor Gary Miller. “The EC exemplifies the innovative spirit of the university and serves as a catalyst for positive change in the community and the local economy. We are grateful for this gift from the Bruce Cameron Foundation, and the continued support of UNCW by the Cameron family.”

In February, UNCW reorganized the Entrepreneurship Center, formerly a part of the Cameron School of Business, into a Limited Liability Corporation (LLC) under the UNCW Research Foundation. Miller said the new structure gives the EC more flexibility to be nimble and innovative in expanding its programs and creating new initiatives.

Scott Sullivan, president of the Bruce Barclay Cameron Foundation, said he would like the foundation’s gift to motivate other donors to support the EC.

“The Entrepreneurship Center has energized students, entrepreneurs and local businesses by providing broad resources, from mentorships to avenues of financing, to our regional business community,” he said. “A number of businesses have started here and grown here with support from the EC. That needs to continue.”

Sullivan is confident the new structure will benefit the EC, and he noted that its programs are moving in the right direction.

“Chancellor Miller’s leadership with the EC has been great,” said Sullivan. “He has embraced entrepreneurship in a very positive way. In the entrepreneurial world, you have to have a little less structure and be able to move quickly. Fran Scarlett is already making progress getting the business community even more involved with the center’s programs and services.”

Scarlett, director of the southeastern regional Small Business & Technology Development Center (SBTDC), housed at UNCW, was recently named interim director of the Entrepreneurship Center.

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