Photo by Aric Thompson
ACE | Access to Capital for Entrepreneurs celebrated its Annual Awards Reception on September 28th at The Carlyle Venue in Atlanta, highlighting the power, strength and resilience of small businesses in Georgia.
Rickey Bevington, President of the World Affairs Council of Atlanta again served as the Master of Ceremony. The exclusive, invitation-only event united honorees, special guests, ACE senior leadership, staff, and board to honor business owners who continue to excel in entrepreneurial leadership.
In addition to the beautiful award figurines distributed, the four (4) client award winners also received a grant from ACE for $1,000 each for their business. The client honorees were:
One of the evening’s highlights was the acknowledgement of the largest donation ACE has ever received – an unprecedented $6.3 million – from the Cooperative Assistance Fund (CAF). The ACE Board chose to recognize the grant and commemorate the legacy of its founder, Mr. John G. Simon by awarding the J. Alton Wingate Economic Partnership Award to the Cooperative Assistance Fund. The Wingate Award is presented to a partner that is playing a significant role in ACE’s impact story. The award was received by Robb Bunnen, former CAF Board Chair (VIDEO).
The sizable grant marks a significant milestone in ACE’s history, as the funds represent the transfer of CAF’s assets to ACE following the passing of Mr. Simon, in 2022 at the age of 93. Simon, who worked as a professor at Yale Law School starting in the early 1960s, played a pivotal role in developing the legal framework for program-related investments (PRI), a concept that has since become integral to impact investing. To this end, he worked alongside notable philanthropic organizations such as the Ford Foundation, the Rockefeller Fund, and the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation to advance investment into Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) like ACE, thereby impacting communities in…
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