The Miami Bayside Foundation

The Miami Bayside Foundation is a nonprofit organization designed to advance economic development in the City of Miami through the support of minority businesses and education. The Miami Bayside Foundation seeks to do this through the creation and administration of a loan program for minority businesses, through the creation of programs and educational scholarships for minorities, and by providing technical assistance to local organizations engaged in economic development.

In the early 1980’s, prior to the ground-breaking for the Bayside Marketplace, the City of Miami and famed Bayside Marketplace developer Jim Rouse began discussing ideas for an organization that would support minority entrepreneurs in the City of Miami.

In 1986, The Miami Bayside Foundation was created from this partnership as a means to better serve the City of Miami’s downtown economic center. The Miami Bayside Foundation currently provides minority businesses in the City of Miami access to funds through a loan program. It also provides invaluable business tools and resources such as counseling and training in business development and management and other related services, through partnerships with local community organizations engaged in economic development.

A special charter of The Miami Bayside Foundation is the creation of a vocational and educational scholarship endowment fund for minority students. Since its creation, the Foundation has provided 213 scholarships. The Foundation currently has an endowment fund of close to $1 million at Miami Dade College and has recently created additional endowment funds at Florida International University (FIU) and Florida Memorial University (FMU). In the year 2012 the Foundation made a five year gift to Breakthrough Miami, an academic enrichment program that provides motivated middle-school students from underserved communities with the tools they need to achieve their most ambitious goals in life.