We believe that the most impactful way to drive economic growth in the cities with the highest racial wealth discrepancy is to provide its residents with a proven pathway to build sustainable businesses that simultaneously solve problems facing their neighborhood. In 2016, Frank Knott approached Miller Center For Social Entrepreneurship to understand if their model that supported social entrepreneurs globally could be replicated and applied to support the established and aspiring social entrepreneurs in Baltimore, a city with one of the highest racial wealth gaps in the country. 

After a due diligence process, Frank came to believe that the model pioneered by Miller Center could be tailored to local cities and neighborhoods. He founded Innovation Works to pilot the program in Baltimore, and hired Jay Nwachu as CEO. Partnering with Pamela Roussos, who at the time worked at Miller Center, they built Innovation Works. Given the mission of building sustainable neighborhood economies, Innovation Works replicated Miller Center’s work and then built around it to focus on building wealth in the many disinvested neighborhoods in Baltimore. 

Following the successful application in Baltimore, WeavingImpact was founded to expand this methodology across the US. In 2022, Anne Lufkin-Riaño joined the team to leverage her experience of replicating financial inclusion programs. Today, WeavingImpact serves as a strategic partner to amplify the work of existing organizations and augment their offering to support local entrepreneurship. In 2023, WeavingImpact aims to expand into two new cities and has goals to have a presence in 20 cities by 2033.