With the support of public and private partners—including Coca-Cola and the Arizona Community Foundation—RSGF has awarded more than $1 million in scholarships. The funds are used to cover such expenses as legal filings and mentorships. Training is free to its students, who are comprised of 75 percent minorities, 88 percent women, 13 percent veterans, and 10 percent under 18.
Students attend a one-hour course every week for five weeks. Upon completion, there is a graduation celebration, complete with cake cutting and a balloon release. “They have a moment to be proud,” Harris notes. “Some entrepreneurs who are older have never walked across a [graduation] stage before.”
Looking ahead, RSGF is preparing more advanced courses for those ready to take the next step, says advisory board chairwoman Sharise L. Erby-Castle, who became involved with the foundation in late 2014. Already the head of her own successful nonprofit, Phenomenal Woman Empowerment Network, Erby-Castle was also still hanging on to her corporate job.
“But I really felt the tugging to go off on [my] own,” she says. “The foundation just opened my eyes [to the fact] that there were so many other entrepreneurs, and RSGF provided a support system.”
The lessons in the foundation’s coursework aren’t gleaned from books, but rather from Harris’ own experiences. In 2002, he started Wize Tax Service out of his Lansing, Michigan, home after discovering his accountant had neglected tax credits to which he was entitled. Over the next 10 years, he grew the business into 35 locations in seven states before selling it to H&R Block. It was during his accountant days that he got the idea for Ready Set Go; his clients repeatedly asked for other business help.
From the beginning, Wize Tax Service gave to charities wherever it operated. Brought up with six siblings by a manufacturing worker and a housewife who emphasized giving back, Harris remembers collecting perishable goods door-to-door at age 10 using a three-wheel stroller he found in the trash. Four years later, his father died, suddenly forcing the family to rely on services they had once supported.
This year, Harris hopes to bring this “giving back” philosophy to politics with a run for councilman in Chandler. “My job is to be a great servant,” he says. “I believe in the morals I stood for then and I believe in them now.”