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ON THE COVER
VICKI BRACKENS Opening Doors for Entrepreneurs Jason Klaiber
If you’re wondering what it is that will get your foot in the door and put you on the right track to entrepreneurial success, Vicki Brackens will tell you that it all starts with the word “yes.” Whenever or wherever it may come along and no matter how ecstatic the utterance, she can attest to the power of this affirmative reply to light a fire under someone from that point onward.
“Having someone say ‘yes’ to whatever your venture happens to be gives you the confidence to move forward,” Brackens said. The field of interest fund she opened with the Central New York Community Foundation, named the Jelly Bean Angel Fund for Innovation, came about to assist with and validate the endeavors brought forth by budding entrepreneurs—most of all women and people of color—who had been hearing the word “no” on a continual basis.
Even if some proposed projects don’t end up making it big, Brackens said the momentum the fund provides to various local undertakings can make long-term differences as far as how welcome these up-and-comers feel in the entrepreneurial community and how fully their talents can be revealed.
Her special purpose fund, which started grantmaking about eight years ago, has supported programs that link area entrepreneurs with academic institutions for the purpose of developing innovative ideas.
One such program is the Good Lawns project, a year-round service born out of the Good Life Youth Foundation based at the South Side Innovation Center in Syracuse.
Good Lawns works with a small group of teenagers to make money by mowing grass, clearing leaves and shoveling snow. Brackens said the foundation, which she has supported through grants for three separate years, has grown larger as an enterprise mainly because of teamwork and its “impeccable execution.”
Another effort bolstered by the Jelly Bean Angel Fund was With Love, a teaching restaurant on North Salina Street run by Onondaga Community College’s Workforce Development Program.
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The experimental kitchen became known for offering a culturally diverse range of dishes, rotating themes every six months as students learned the necessary steps for keeping a restaurant afloat and properly guiding employees.
Brackens’ fund has also helped the nonprofit Upstate Venture Connect to increase student participation in the Upstate Unleashed conference and awards luncheon, which annually brings together innovators from across the region.
Brackens said the resulting “power in numbers” could partly contribute to someday making Central New York an innovation hub in the vein of Boston or Silicon Valley.
Before establishing her fund in 2011, Brackens served on the board of the CNY Community Foundation and as investment committee chair.
During her time in those roles, she came to see the foundation as prudent, trustworthy and committed to a broad-based influence within the local community.
She furthermore began to acknowledge the misunderstanding between charity and philanthropy. Charity, Brackens said, denotes an acute need, whereas philanthropy looks at the root of a situation and attempts to apply dollars to solve the problems that eventually would result in certain needs.
Now, going forward, she plans to prop up her philanthropic fund as something others can replicate, so long as they heed her father’s often-relayed advice that the best way to eat an elephant is one piece at a time.
Many times individuals won’t try to get involved with a very big problem because they see it as something so large that they cannot impact,” Brackens said. “It may take you a long time to eat it, but you’ve gotta take that first bite.”
Vicki Brackens also owns the planning and investment firm Brackens Financial Solutions Network, the affiliated firm Heritage Financial Partners and World of Cheddar, a company which explores how gaming can affect learning and behavioral change.
The Central New York Community Foundation, which covers Onondaga, Madison, Oswego, Cayuga and Cortland counties, overlooks over 700 funds altogether.
Brackens’ fund was titled after the familiar names she and her wife Earlene Jones had given each other, “Jelly Bean” and “Angel” respectively. SWM
Photo by Alice G. Patterson
“Many times individuals won’t try to get involved with a very big problem because they see it as something so large that they cannot impact. It may take you a long time to eat it, but you’ve gotta take that first bite.” — Vicki Brackens
