CIBC was the inaugural funder of Entrepreneurship 101. We support MaRS Discover District's Entrepreneurship 101 course – Canada’s largest live and online entrepreneurship course, helping over 27,000 entrepreneurs, students and individuals in Canada and around the world with a range of issues including financial literacy.  

What began as a lecture series back in 2006 has since grown into a global, online learning experience. The 5-week course offers a mix of materials for every style of learning, weekly mentorship from expert practitioners and the tools needed to create a startup all in one place. It’s designed for emerging business leaders and innovators that want a masterclass in entrepreneurship.

CIBC Bank USA, in collaboration with Bethel New Life — one of our community partners — created an Entrepreneur Loan Program on Chicago’s west side that combines an entrepreneur training and counselling program with the opportunity to obtain startup and emerging business financing at below market rate terms. This program has since been expanded to a significant number of community organizations in the Chicago, St. Louis, Detroit and Milwaukee CRA assessment areas.

Each year, CIBC Bank USA donates $500,000 to community organizations that provide entrepreneurial training programs.