The Virtual Community Group, Inc.
17 Park Road
Rural Town, NH
January 2, 2011
Jane Smith, Executive Director
Xavier Foundation
555 S. Smith St.
Washington, D.C. 22222
Dear Ms. Smith,
I am writing to inquire whether the Xavier Foundation would invite a proposal from the Virtual Community Group, Inc., requesting an investment of $50,000 per year over two years to support our Enterprise 2000 initiative. This grant would provide part of the funds needed for us to train at least 1200 low-income entrepreneurs in rural New Hampshire in the computer skills they need to create sustainable businesses as we enter the twenty-first century. Your literature indicates that the Xavier Foundation is searching for innovative ideas to improve the lives of the rural poor; we believe Enterprise 2000 falls well within your area of interest.
Information technologies are a promising solution to one of the primary obstacles facing the small rural enterprise: the geographic distances which inhibit networking with other businesses, and which segregate them from a larger marketplace. The Internet and other networks are now making it possible for entrepreneurs even in the most remote locations to communicate and do business on a region-wide, national, or even international basis. Working in conjunction with other organizations, Enterprise 2000 gives program participants technical skills training adapted to individual need; and, in collaboration with organizations which recondition and redistribute used computers, we also assure that they obtain the necessary computer hardware, at low or no cost.
We believe that broadly-implemented technical skills programs such as Enterprise 2000 have the potential to transform the lives of many struggling entrepreneurs, and change the economic landscape of impoverished rural communities. Unlike many poverty alleviation initiatives, all of the Virtual Community Group programs are predicated on the assumption that these