Dear friends of Enterprise,
Enterprise’s 2020 youth impact was powerful despite the fact that the year was filled with serious challenges. You are the reason we can look back on 2020 with pride. On behalf of the staff, Board, and our founder Glady, we thank you for your generous and inspiring contributions to our programs. Enjoy a few 2020 highlights:
I am thrilled to report that we exceeded our internship placement goal of 220—we offered 238 internships to enthusiastic, curious, and grateful young adults. Enterprise youth spent their time discovering their gifts, fine-tuning their job readiness skills, plotting out their bright futures, and networking with friends of all ages.
Enterprise’s 2020 financial picture has also left us dancing with gratitude (and relief!). We lost a tremendous amount of event income yet were able to end the year in the black with significant increases in investments from corporate partners, individual donors, and Heroes at Work participants. We are also grateful to our loyal government funders who kept their meaningful support steady.
That is not all! While some employment sites were unable to take in youth for the full internship, corporate teams showed up in huge numbers to mentor youth over Zoom. We saw enormous growth in volunteer participation with teams from Salesforce, Dropbox, Gap Inc., First Republic Bank, and many more—thank you for your deep kindness and commitment.
Most importantly, San Franciscans, we’re grateful that you see what we see: young people are talented and ready to learn. They simply need an open door to work, and kind adults to nourish their journey. Thank you for sharing our vision.
2021 is going to continue to challenge us on many levels, and yet we’re ready for another banner year in programming. We already have over 260 internships to offer to young people this summer in our signature fields of health, technology, entrepreneurship, retail, art/design, and environmental stewardship. We cannot wait to hear the reports of what the youth learn and how working in internships changes them for the better. Please stay tuned, stay close, and stay healthy. We cannot wait to see you in person.
Yours gratefully,
Nínive Calegari
Chief Executive Officer