A program with one job:
make the advantage fair.
Enterprise-grade AI capability should not be gated behind enterprise budgets. fAIr Advantage Ohio exists to put current, practical AI knowledge, and the money to act on it, in the hands of Ohio’s woman- and minority-owned small businesses.
Education plus funding. Neither works alone.
Knowing what AI can do without money to run it is a tease. Money without knowing where to aim it is a gamble. The program pairs the two on purpose.
Monthly AI education
A free one-hour session every month: thirty minutes of what changed in AI and how to use it, thirty minutes of open Q&A, and an informal never-recorded conversation after the close. Recordings build into a member library.
Sessions in detail → Pillar 02The fAIr Advantage Fund
A need-based grant pool seeded at $5,000 a year by New Era Systems, open to additional sponsors. It covers AI subscriptions, API fees, cloud spend, and tooling: sized to the actual need, awarded until the pool is spent.
The fund in detail →Every line hangs plumb.
A program like this only works if the integrity is visible from every angle. These are the rules it runs on: not aspirations, operating constraints.
- S-01No self-promotion. Ever. Sessions teach. The fund enables. Nothing is pitched, by New Era Systems or any guest presenter. Presence is the only marketing.
- S-02Consent-first recording. Presentations are recorded; Q&A exchanges are published only with the asker’s affirmative opt-in, and the after-hours conversation is never recorded at all. Full policy.
- S-03Quality over quota. No award goes out just to move money. If nothing submitted in a cycle meets the bar, nothing is awarded, and every declined applicant gets a coherent, specific reason, never a silent no.
- S-04Clean conflict lines. Family members and New Era Systems employees are not eligible for the fund. Existing New Era Systems customers are; a prior relationship neither helps nor hurts an application.
- S-05Clean separation of roles. Partner organizations decide whether to endorse and lend their channels. New Era Systems funds and administers. Partners carry no budget, no liability, and no obligations.
- S-06One administrator, end to end. New Era Systems runs the whole program: funding, selection, sessions, and awards, under a published selection framework.
- S-07Open to the whole field. Any microbusiness, and any woman- or minority-owned business of any size, is eligible. Partner channels simply decide who hears about it first.
Who does what.
Funds & administers
Seeds the fund, runs the sessions, coordinates selection, and carries every administrative and financial obligation end-to-end.
Guides awards
Applications are scored on whether the ask makes sense and on the program’s published priorities. Applicants always know who is accountable for the decision.
Open the door
Decide whether to endorse the program and share it through member channels. No funding obligation, no liability, no administrative burden.
Partner channels help determine who hears about the opportunity first. New Era Systems remains accountable for administration, selection, sessions, and awards.