Business Planning for Nonprofits

True or False: “Business planning is for businesses, and strategic planning is for nonprofits." Be honest. When you first heard the phrase "business plans for nonprofits," did you think, "We don't do that"? Many people think that businesses do business planning, and nonprofits do strategic planning. Strategic planning remains a core element of capacity building. State Associations of nonprofits report that strategic planning is perennially one of the most popular educational programs they offer. Funders often want to see a strategic plan along with a grant proposal. But increasingly, we’re hearing executive directors say to one another, “Do you have a business plan?” Are business plans for nonprofits becoming the new hot thing? And are they replacing strategic plans – simply by adding dollar signs? Advertisement Business planning is not the same as strategic planning. Ideally business planning will inform and improve a strategic planning process that keeps evolving. Business planning provides a sound financial context for the planning process and forces us to look at our nonprofit in the context of a competitive environment. It is hard work because it grounds big picture ideas in reality. Understandably given the option we might prefer to paint a canvas with a broad vision and fill in the colors, rather than first determine what it costs to buy the paint and canvas, and how to price our painting. (It’s much more fun to paint the picture and let somebody else figure out whether it will sell and for how much!) The problem for enthusiastic and inspired artists (as with board and staff members) is that the canvas gets bigger and bigger – but when the masterpiece is finished, there might not be a market for it.     For us amateur artists, two recent books approach nonprofit business planning from a strategic planning perspective and explain it in a very accessible way, even for those not familiar with business terminology. The Nonprofit Business Plan: The Leader’s Guide to Creating a Successful Business Model , a new book by David La Piana and his distinguished colleagues at La Piana Consulting, may just change your attitude towards using the words “business” and “nonprofit” in the same sentence. Also take a look at Nonprofit Sustainability: Making Strategic Decisions for Financial Viability, by the terrific trio Jeanne Bell, Jan Masaoka, and Steve Zimmerman. We think both books are masterful in helping to explain why nonprofits need to pause and take a look at, well…let’s just say it, their “business model.”   Your nonprofit is in the business of something, whether it’s recycling computers, helping veterans rejoin the workforce, or preserving open space from development. And in order to pay for talented employees, that new website you dream of, and the internet connection that makes it work, your nonprofit needs cash. The problem is, assuming your nonprofit is like many others, it’s tempting to continually add new projects or improve existing programs to meet changing needs in the community. Just before a nonprofit launches that new program or makes the necessary adjustments, that’s the time to stop and ask, “How much is this really going to cost? And how will it be paid for?” The question should even be asked for services that clients pay for -- or that are paid by third-parties: “Are all the costs of the program paid for?” What we’re hearing is that many nonprofits have not calculated the full cost of running their operations. Consequently, the revenue received, whether through donations or fees for services (or a combination) might not cover 100% of what it costs to deliver those programs. Private philanthropy is concerned about this funding gap and the strain it puts on charitable nonprofits. The Donors Forum has convened a community of practice on the subject of overhead, bringing together funders and nonprofits to recommend how nonprofits can more easily identify and articulate the true cost of their work, and how grantmakers can become educated about the failure to pay full costs, as well as help nonprofits understand how to calculate the true cost of delivering services.   In today’s challenging economy, the severe consequences of failing to engage in business planning is laid bare when cash stops flowing. The cash flow crunch is a concern for a huge number of charitable nonprofits. The Nonprofit Finance Fund’s 2012 survey found that only 43% of nonprofits surveyed had more than 3 months of cash reserves – and many had less than one month. Nonprofits that continue to focus exclusively on what they do, instead of also what it costs to do it, will find themselves at risk of closing their doors for good. Here is just one example of the need for nonprofits and board members to focus strategically on business models: a 30 year old charitable nonprofit, dependent on donations to pay the rent and stay afloat, is hit hard by the recession when donations dry up. If the nonprofit closes its doors the community’s poor and disabled will be without access to medical equipment, such as wheelchairs, walkers, and oxygen tanks. For 30 years the nonprofit has collected donated equipment, refurbished it, and trained its new owners how to use it. For free. Now at the brink of being forced to shut down, the group’s executive director, reflecting on what happened, explained his mind-shift towards being more business oriented: “We’re not about money, but we have to be right now.”   A solid business plan will take into consideration not only the “vision” and the strategy for how your nonprofit will address needs in the community, but also how everything your nonprofit does fits within a competitive landscape, and how it will fund its activities in a cost-effective way. Done well, business planning is very comprehensive – and requires time. An outside consultant may be helpful to move the process along. The CEO, key program staff, and a few board members are usually tapped for the business planning team so that multiple perspectives inform the analysis of all aspects of the nonprofit’s operations: from mission delivery (programs, services, advocacy) to physical and human resources infrastructure, and marketing, to communications and fundraising activities. A business plan might also include funding projections, and address risk mitigation as well as how outcomes will be evaluated (and the associated costs).   The advantage of having a business plan in place – especially when an attractive new idea presents itself - is that some ventures, partnerships, or projects may strategically fit the mission and perfectly support the vision – but may not be successful financially. With the discipline of a business plan as the “enforcer,” it makes it easier to prioritize the activities that make the most financial sense, and to make hard decisions, such as stopping a program that offers little ROI. As champions for our nonprofits’ missions it is no longer enough to know deep in our bones that “the mission is good.” Instead we need to help boards and staff ask hard questions about money, so that the ability of each charitable nonprofit to deliver its mission into the future is protected. We encourage your nonprofit to take a look at the resources highlighted in this newsletter and on the Council of Nonprofits’ website, and we hope that when your nonprofit engages in this process, business planning will feel much more like painting a masterpiece than counting pennies. Coming soon - a new look for this newsletter and the National Council of Nonprofits   Interested in learning more about business planning for nonprofits? Join us for a free webinar on October 18th with Heather Gowdy and Lester Olmstead-Rose, authors of The Nonprofit Business Plan: The Leader’s Guide to Creating a Successful Business Model. This webinar is an exclusive benefit for members of our network of State Associations. Contact your State Association for the registration link. Not a member? Find your State Association and join today!   This webinar is offered free of charge thanks to generous support from Resources on strategic and business planning (National Council of Nonprofits)    The Nonprofit Business Plan: The Leader’s Guide to Creating a Successful Business Model , by David La Piana, Heather Gowdy, Lester Olmstead-Rose, and Brent Copen   Nonprofit Sustainability: Making Strategic Decisions for Financial Viability, by Jeanne Bell, Jan Masaoka, and Steve Zimmerman   Business Planning for Nonprofits: What It Is and Why It Matters  (Bridgespan)   Sample business plans for nonprofits (Bridgespan)   Tools for business planning, creating a theory of change, a case for support, and building a revenue plan (for purchase from Social Velocity)   Congratulations to Valerie Lies, President & CEO, Donors Forum, and Ann Silverberg Williamson, President & CEO, Louisiana Association of Nonprofit Organizations, as well as Tim Delaney, President & CEO of the National Council of Nonprofits, for being named to the 2012 NonProfit Times Power & Influence Top 50 list.   The National Council of Nonprofits provides information about the failure of government to pay the full costs of services both on our Government-Nonprofit Contracting website and in Nonprofit Advocacy Matters, our bi-weekly newsletter on public policy and advocacy matters affecting charitable nonprofits. An upcoming edition of Nonprofit Advocacy Matters will include an update on federal reforms affecting indirect cost reimbursements. Subscribe today so you won’t miss the latest on this important issue.

Copyright 2012 National Council of Nonprofits. All rights reserved 1200 New York Avenue, NW | Suite 700 | Washington, DC 20005 | www.councilofnonprofits.org

Website aims to help artists space out

 

Nycpaspaces.org launches as a place where artists can find, schedule and rent performance and rehearsal space; and organizations can produce revenues from their underutilized space.

A new website makes it easier for performers to tap into space quickly while offering the organizations leasing it the opportunity to generate some extra cash from an asset that might have sat idle otherwise.

Updated: August 27, 2012 4:32 p.m.

It's hard enough for anyone to find real estate in the city, but for artists, who often have not just limited budgets but odd needs in terms of the timing of the space they need, the search can be all but impossible.
Now a nonprofit is trying to make it easier for them to find, schedule and rent performance and rehearsal space. Last week, Fractured Atlas, an arts service organization, launched NYC Performing Arts Spaces at nycpaspaces.org, which allows artists to search for space using a variety of their own requirements from dates and times, to location and price.
"We are like an Open Table for the arts world," said Adam Huttler, the executive director of Fractured Atlas.
He said there is a chronic shortage of rehearsal and performance space in the city and that it is especially difficult to find on short notice. The website makes it easier for performers to tap into space quickly while offering the organizations leasing it the opportunity to generate some extra cash from an asset that might have sat idle otherwise.
"Now instead of making 50 calls for find space, you can make just one," Mr. Huttler said.
The product was in testing for about six months before its official launch last week. So far, 1,090 organizations in all five boroughs have listed space on the site.
Organizations pay $20 a month to list their space. When an arts' group rents the space, Fractured Atlas keeps 1.5% of the transaction's cost.
Mr. Huttler says Fractured Atlas doesn't view the service as a major revenue generator, but it does need to charge to cover the cost of running and maintaining the site.

Read more: http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20120827/REAL_ESTATE/120829912#ixzz24oELK04F

Potsdam arts incubator project aims for new businesses

Village officials hope vacant downtown storefronts soon will fill up with arts-themed businesses.

The village is set to launch its arts microenterprise and incubator project. Potsdam received $100,000 to launch the program several months ago as part of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s first award to the North Country Regional Economic Council.

Planning and Development Director Frederick J. Hanss said the funding hopefully will help launch up to eight to 10 arts-themed businesses.

“Potsdam has the reputation of being the arts and cultural capital of the north country,” Mr. Hanss said. “I hope it cements our reputation. ... I would hope it would make downtown Potsdam a more interesting place for visiting.”

The funding would be used as “seed money” for arts entrepreneurs to set up their business, Mr. Hanss said. An informational session will be held at 7 p.m. Thursday in the Potsdam Civic Center Community Room. Those who cannot attend that meeting will have another chance at 7 p.m. April 24.

“We’ll walk them through the application process and the eligibility process,” Mr. Hanss said. “We’re being pretty open for eligible use of funds.”

The program will accept a wide variety of applicants, from an artist seeking to open a gallery, a potter who intends to sell products or a musician who repairs instruments, Mr. Hanss said.

“They have to present a body of work that’s original and innovative,” Mr. Hanss said. “We’re focused on new businesses. They’re the ones that typically need a leg up.”

A panel from the arts community will determine who can be admitted to the program, Mr. Hanss said. Applicants will have to complete a 10-week course to develop a business and marketing plan for their proposal before receiving any funding, which the village will distribute.

Discounted space in Clarkson University’s Old Snell Hall will serve as an “incubator” for successful applicants.

After a period of time, the businesses hopefully would move into downtown storefronts, Mr. Hanss said.

“Nobody has really applied it to this particular segment of the economy,” Mr. Hanss said. “I don’t think anyone has done this in rural parts of New York state.”

Mr. Hanss and Hillary Oak, executive director of the St. Lawrence County Arts Council, each have received five or six inquiries into the program over the last several months.

The program is co-sponsored by the village and the arts council.

Ms. Oak said the funding could be used to help reduce the business rent or pay for marketing expenses.

“If they have an interest in starting or expanding an arts-related business, these funds might help them,” Ms. Oak said. “We want to make sure businesses that use these funds are sustainable. As far as we know, this is the first microenterprise grant program geared specifically to the arts. Hopefully by next year, we’ll have some new businesses that have been given a boost by this program.”

Read article here.

How National and Local Government Can Promote Entrepreneurship

David Teten, ff Venture Capital
David Teten is a Partner with ff Venture Capital and Chairman of Harvard Business School Angels New York.

I’ve recently met with several universities, nonprofits, and government employees who’ve all asked the same question: how can we promote entrepreneurship? Just like me, they’re distressed about the poor economy and jobs situation, which contrasts dramatically with the growth and tight labor market in the technology ecosystem. They’re concerned with this issue at both the local and national levels.



The first and primary role of a government is to provide basic public goods competently. Like many Americans, I’m disappointed that our government sometimes fails to do this. Above all, I’d like our friends in government and the policy world to figure out how the US government can deliver what it’s supposed to but sometimes doesn’t: sound money; an affordable budget; effective education; functioning infrastructure (e.g. airports, less-intrusive airport security); functional legal system (tort reform); logical immigration reform; and a functional tax system (tax simplification). To Mayor Bloomberg’s credit, he is using his bully pulpit for exactly this purpose, e.g., decrying US immigration policy as ‘national suicide’. Sadly, he doesn’t control our immigration policy.



There are a range of organizations that help address issues in the technology ecosystem, including: Women in Technology, Technology Policy Institute, New York Technology Council and various other state technology councils, Center for Policy on Emerging Technologies, Information Technology Industry Council, Silicon Valley Leadership Group, and Tech Policy Central. I support their goals of making entrepreneurship accessible to those who have the ingredients to become a successful self-starter. Like virtually the entire tech industry, I am particularly in favor of Startup Visa, which has the goal of stimulating our domestic startup community through acts to keep our foreign-born entrepreneurs in the United States.



Following is a list of some of the ideas I’ve working on (to various extents). If you see something that piques your interest and want to get involved, please contact me. I have ranked this list in ascending order of cost (defined as combined time and money).



- Educating the VC/angel community on the city/state resources available to them to build companies. I’ll likely organize a Harvard Business School Angels of NY event on this topic in 2012.



- Studying best practices of VCs in supporting portfolio company operational improvement. I am now leading a Columbia MBA team (ex-Mckinsey and BCG) on a study regarding best practices of VCs in supporting portfolio company operational improvement. This is effectively a sequel to my study of best practices in deal origination, published in the Journal of Private Equity, Harvard Business Review, Institutional Investor, and Business Insider. You can see preliminary results of this value creation study here.



- Encouraging non-US companies to set up operations in the US.As the former CEO of an Israeli startup with a (modest) US and UK presence, this is an obvious way to create more jobs here.



- Creating angel groups with other alumni organizations, using HBS Angels as a model, e.g., alumni of major NY schools (Columbia, NYU) and institutions (McKinsey, Goldman Sachs). I’ve talked informally with some universities about doing exactly this. -



Creating a for-profit business with the goal of helping students conduct research projects for businesses, so that they’re more connected with potential employers. I wrote a blog poston this.



- Organizing events for local mid- to large-company CIOs / CEOs to meet technology startups, in order to help startups get traction and keep their momentum going. HBS Angels will likely execute this in 2012.



- Publishing notes on local tech events. New York has an extremely active Meet-up culture; almost every night there are 3-10 tech-focused events. However, no one systematically provides notes/videos of these events. Here’s a win-win way to address this: recruit a team of students who would attend these events and publish their transcripts/videos, so that everyone learns more and faster and can network more easily. I’m already doing this on an experimental basis on my blog.



- Publishing joint research. See ffvc.com/topicsfor a full list of topics we want to research. Part of our strategy as a VC is to do in-depth research on the questions that interest us, in order to make us smarter and to help improve industry best practices. We typically do this by partnering with graduate student teams. In particular, we think it would be helpful to the ecosystem if someone were to publish research on who are the most active and most successful New York-area angels, superangels, and early-stage VCs, in order to identify the leaders with whom entrepreneurs should most want to work. (it is likely that ‘active’ and ‘successful’ are not synonymous.)



- Creating a master operating checklist for New York entrepreneurs. Visualize a grid, with the standard entrepreneurial steps down the y-axis (ideation, market research, incorporation, etc.), and the major New York industries across the X-axis (internet, food, retail, fashion, etc.). It would be valuable to have checklists for all of the intersections in this grid. We’ve created some but not all of these checklists for the tech industry; see our presentation notes and links on our resources page. Other useful checklists we’ve identified include Biztree, Wickedstart, Goodwin Founders Workbench, American Express Open Forum Crash Courses, StartupToDo , Entrepreneurcountry, and StartupPlays.



- Organizing angel pitch nights focused on special-interest communities, including industries (healthcare, retail, fashion) and affinity groups(Women, Asian-American, Latino, LGBT, African-American). I am now talking with some affinity groups in these domains about co-organizing such pitch nights under the umbrella of HBS Angels. Our goal is to source and fund great entrepreneurs, regardless of personal or industry background. We are planning a healthcare-focused evening on February 29, and are working on an evening focused on African-American entrepreneurs and on the mobility sector. Details to come.



Here are some much more ambitious and expensive ideas:



- Setting up a ‘virtual seastead’, perhaps on UN headquarters territory, for high-quality entrepreneurs who do not have US visas. A team in California is already creating a offshore seastead for non-US citizens who want to build companies in the US. The UN headquarters in New York is technically located on ‘international territory’. I’m sure there are already some for-profit businesses there, e.g., restaurants. I wonder if it is possible to set up an apartment building near UN HQ as a virtual seastead? I’m unclear whether this legal arbitrage is possible. Is anyone else looking into this?



- Launching a seastead acceleratoroffshore from New York.



Read more: http://www.teten.com/blog/2012/02/02/how-national-and-local-government-can-promote-entrepreneurship/#ixzz1lKvpNxR4

PETA to launch porn site in name of animal rights

Nonprofit to launch a porn site? Not a headline one would expect to see, but definitely an attention-grabbing one. More interestingly then the generated pr or crtiticisms and rolled eyes with this recent PETA action is the business impact of this idea. This does seem to have an entrepreneurial nature to it, but definitely not something to hang your hat on. It is worth looking at as a case study, but don't take this as a recommendation for visiting PETA's new .xxx domain.


As the article relates:
An animal rights group, which is no stranger to attention-grabbing campaigns featuring nude women, plans to launch a pornography website to raise awareness about veganism.

The nonprofit organization, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) whose controversial campaigns draw criticism from women's rights groups, said it hopes to publicize veganism through a mix of pornography and graphic footage of animal suffering.

"We're hoping to reach a whole new audience of people, some of whom will be shocked by graphic images that maybe they didn't anticipate seeing when they went to the PETA triple-X site," said Lindsay Rajt, PETA's associate director of campaigns.

PETA has been accused of campaigning for animal rights at the cost of exploiting women. A Facebook group, Real Women Against PETA, was launched after the organization paid for a billboard showing an obese woman with the message: "Save the Whales. Lose the Blubber. Go Vegetarian."


Another critical Facebook group is called, "Vegans (and Vegetarians) Against PETA."


"PETA is extremely disingenuous," said Jennifer Pozner, executive director of the New York-based advocacy group Women In Media & News. "They have consistently used active sexism as their marketing strategy to garner attention. Their use of sexism has gotten more extreme and more degrading.


"This may be in their minds the only thing left at their disposal to lower the bar," she said.


PETA has filed paperwork to launch its pornography site when the controversial new .xxx domain becomes active in early December. While many nonprofits and corporations are scrambling to protect their website names from being hijacked by a pornographer slapping on a .xxx domain, PETA is embracing the new domain as just another way to conduct business.


"We try to use every outlet that we can to speak up for animals," Rajt said. "We anticipated that this new triple-X domain name would be a hot topic and we immediately decided to use it and take advantage of it to try to promote the animal rights message."


Jill Dolan, director of the program in gender and sexuality studies at Princeton University, was critical of the PETA campaigns.


"Exploiting porn to get people's juices going seems lame; exploiting pornographic images only of women to make their point is retrograde and misogynist," Dolan said in an email. "Come on, PETA. Don't be Neanderthals."


Rajt denied that PETA has been insensitive to women.


"Our demonstrators, the models, all chose to participate in our campaigns . . . It's not a very feminist thing to do to turn to women and tell them whether or not they can use their voices, their bodies to express their voice."


Visitors to the X-rated site will initially be presented with pornographic content as well as images from PETA's salacious ads and campaigns, Rajt said. Those images will be followed by pictures and video shot undercover of the mistreatment of animals. The site will also include links to vegetarian and vegan — using no animal products — starter kits as well as recipes.


PETA's ad campaigns have featured adult film stars Sasha Grey, Ron Jeremy and Jenna Jameson. In 2008, the organization's YouTube account was temporarily shut down after showing racy videos of celebrities and others posing nude.


"When people first visit the site, it will be very enticing and once they go just a little bit deeper, that's when they'll be confronted with images that we hope will make them stop and think and get them talking and hopefully encourage them to make a lifestyle change to a plant-based diet," Rajt said.


Read more: http://www.windsorstar.com/news/PETA+launch+porn+site+name+animal+rights/5424516/story.html#ixzz1YVNCq8aG

Philanthro-teens delving into nonprofit world

Crain's New York Business reported that kids raise the bar on giving with Facebook fundraisers, even their own foundations.

When Shannon McNamara was 13, her parents took her and her siblings to Peru during summer vacation to volunteer in an orphanage.

“At the beginning of the trip, I was thinking, 'Why can't I be on a cruise ship instead?' ” said Ms. McNamara, now 17 and a senior in high school in Basking Ridge, N.J. But the experience was “worth more than any cruise or trip to Disneyland could give you,” she said.

The family took a similar trip to Africa three years ago, and Ms. McNamara started her own nonprofit, Share (Shannon's After-School Reading Exchange), shortly after to help educate African girls. She has since volunteered in Tanzania every summer, and has collected 23,000 books and shipped them to schools there. She has also begun raising money for scholarships.

Meet the teen philanthropists. Armed with new technology and an awareness of global issues, post-Millennials are engaging in social entrepreneurship in previously unimaginable ways. Though still materialistic, these teens and even preteens want to do something more significant than acquire the latest i-Pod Touch or Wii.

Looking for a purpose
Borrowing from trends in celebrity charity, kids are mobilizing their peers to address everything from infant mortality in developing nations to neighborhood concerns. They're donating presents to charity, and they're establishing their own nonprofits.

“The number of kids creating their own organizations and taking action for causes they care about is skyrocketing,” said Nancy Lublin, chief executive of DoSomething.org, a New York-based nonprofit that helps young people to engage in philanthropy.

“Kids today just saw their parents go through a recession, get laid off and struggle,” Ms. Lublin said. “They look around and say: 'What's the point? I don't just want a second car in my driveway. I want a life of purpose.' ”

In the past year, 79% of girls in the United States have contributed food or clothing, 53% have given their own money, and 66% have asked family or friends to give or volunteer, according to research commissioned by the United Nations Foundation.

READ MORE HERE.

For Artists’ Fund-Raising, a Social Network Site

The NY Times featured an article about United States Artists, a nonprofit group founded by foundations and wealthy art donors to broaden support for working artists, and their new Web site that solicits small donations from regular people to help underwrite specific artworks.

Part social network, part glossy brochure, part fund-raising mechanism, the site seeks to democratize arts patronage as government support for the arts continues to decline and private sources of financing also shrink.

“What we’ve tried to do is take the good ideas about microphilanthropy and the good ideas about social networking and put them together in a way that people can learn about artists and learn about their projects and how they work,” said Katharine DeShaw, the organization’s executive director.

In testing, the Web site attracted roughly 36,000 unique visitors and raised a total of $210,000, with an average of $120 from each of 1,500 small donors, Ms. DeShaw said.

Artists like Zoe Strauss, a photographer, who have received United States Artists grants in the past were asked to participate in the test, and 47 did so. Ms. Strauss sought $4,000 for a project to document the effects of the BP oil spill on the Gulf Coast and its people, and to make a book of her photographs.

Ms. Strauss said about fund-raising, “I would rather have someone stab me in the face.” She added, “I’m totally unskilled in how to hustle money and totally repulsed by the idea of asking people for it, so this site was a dream come true for me.”

She ended up raising $5,185, which is helping her make additional trips to the region to take more photos. “I probably would have had to stop at the one trip I made because I couldn’t afford anymore,” she said. “By making one or two more trips down there, I will have much more to choose from for the book.”

Ms. Strauss said she also appreciated the social networking aspects of the site. “I work very much by myself, and so the ability to talk back and forth with other artists and see how they go about raising money and talking about their work is great.”

Thomas Allen Harris worried it might be too much work. But he decided he could use the test to raise money for a documentary that grew out of his work on Digital Diaspora Family Reunion, a multimedia project that asks blacks to share their family photos as a means of broadening the historic record of the black experience in America. As part of that project, he interviewed Byron Rushing, a Massachusetts legislator who had played a pivotal role in the state’s debate over gay marriage, and saw a way of tying that issue to the civil rights movement in a film.

Using the new Web site and other resources, Mr. Harris raised $11,600, 16 percent more than he had sought, to pay for archival materials, a composer and other postproduction costs.

“In first week or two, all I raised was $25, and I started wondering what would happen if people started thinking about this as a failure,” Mr. Harris said. “I’m used to sharing my creative process, but sharing how I’m actually raising money in such a public way introduces another level of vulnerability.”

Bill Frisell, a jazzss guitarist, said he, too, was uncomfortable with so publicly soliciting money. “I’m not rich but I make a living, and so for me to say, ‘Please, please, please give me money,’ it felt a little embarrassing,” Mr. Frisell said. “I had to get over that.”

He raised $20,300 through the new site, which will be used to complete a program called “The Great Flood,” a suite of original music composed by Mr. Frisell and accompanied by a film by Bill Morrison about the Mississippi River flood in 1927 and its effect on society and music.

The money will enable him to take the band that will perform the music on a tour along the Mississippi River. “We’ll play in various places,” Mr. Frisell said, “set up on the street and play or get smaller gigs that wouldn’t pay enough to cover expenses without this money.”

Ms. Strauss, Mr. Harris and Mr. Frisell say they anticipate that the kind of incremental fund-raising on the site will become more and more important to sustaining art. Mr. Frisell said, “We have to try new things.”

Helping 1,000 startups in 2,000 days

Veteran Silicon Valley entrepreneur Martin Babinec is looking for an Albany-area university to team up with him.

Babinec, of Little Falls, N.Y., founded Upstate Venture Connect in January and already has partnered with Cornell University, Syracuse University and LeMoyne College in Central New York to make it easier for technology startups to succeed.

Babinec formed UVC with a goal of helping entrepreneurs team up with advisers and find access to investors to increase their odds of survival. UVC seeks to help create 1,000 technology startups in upstate New York over the next 2,000 days.

“For entrepreneurs to get connected here is extremely difficult,” Babinec said.

UVC, a nonprofit, is developing a database and social network for mentors, advisers, startup companies, incubators and investors.

Teaming up with upstate universities to create a network of resources to help entrepreneurs solve funding, marketing, sales and commercialization problems is a key that Babinec said will help upstate encourage the development of more startup companies.

The resident of Herkimer County, N.Y., spent 22 years building TriNet HR Corp., a San Leandro, Calif.-based human resources outsourcing company, into a national firm with $200 million in annual revenue and more than 2,800 clients in the Unites States.

Babinec, who remains on the TriNet board and is the second-largest shareholder of the private company, said he is dedicating the next 10 years to bringing some of Silicon Valley’s entrepreneurship culture to upstate New York.

UVC is run by Nasir Ali, president of The Tech Garden in Syracuse.

Last month, UVC opened an office in Saratoga Springs. Greg Gibson, an entrepreneur who moved to Saratoga Springs from Boston two years ago, is running the local office.

“Upstate has many of the assets necessary to build an innovation-oriented economy,” Babinec said. They include 113 universities and colleges, roughly 500,000 students who attract more than $3 billion in research funding each year.

Those assets are spread out and do not work together as much as they should.

By partnering with universities throughout upstate, Babinec said he hopes to start changing the entrepreneurship culture here.


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Read more: Helping 1,000 startups in 2,000 days The Business Review

Connecting Entrepreneurs in Central New York: New Website

Enitiative, a coalition of six campuses in Central New York that promotes student and community entrepreneurship, has a new website aimed at connecting Central New York entrepreneurs with the resources available to help them launch and grow their ventures.

Students, faculty, staff and community members can visit www.cnyentrepreneurship.com to find resources they might need at any stage in their business. From conducting basic market research to forming legal structure and designing a marketing campaign, fledgling and established business owners can find both university and community resources that are there to help them succeed.

“There are many organizations, college courses and seasoned entrepreneurs in Central New York that offer services, knowledge and experience to those entrepreneurs who are just starting out or who want to take their business to the next level,” says Bruce Kingma, associate provost for entrepreneurship and innovation at Syracuse University. “We wanted to provide a single place for entrepreneurs to get this important information.”

Enitiative worked with organizations and colleges across Central New York to compile the resources listed on the website. Any organization that would like to be included on the website as a resource for entrepreneurs should email the Enitiative office at excel@syr.edu.

The SU-led Enitiative is funded by a grant from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation of Kansas City, Mo., focusing on entrepreneurship in the arts, technology and neighborhoods. SU’s academic and community partners in this initiative include Cayuga Community College (CCC), Le Moyne College, Morrisville State College, Onondaga Community College (OCC), the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (SUNY-ESF), the Central New York Community Foundation, the Gifford Foundation, CenterState CEO, Messenger Associates Inc. and National Grid.

TED Talks

Check out TED Talks, a small nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. Since then its scope has become ever broader. Along with two annual conferences -- the TED Conference in Long Beach and Palm Springs each spring, and the TEDGlobal conference in Oxford UK each summer -- TED includes the award-winning TEDTalks video site, the Open Translation Project and Open TV Project, the inspiring TED Fellows and TEDx programs, and the annual TED Prize.

Profits for Nonprofits

The Nonprofit Newswire offered this recent view on an article in the Wall Street Journal, which highlights an idea that should be given more consideration: win-win business partnerships between nonprofits and for profits.

Recent Newswires in North CarolinaAugust 3, 2010; Source: Wall Street Journal For those of you that do not already know, the Wall Street Journal now prints a “Donor of the Day” column that has become a must read for many. Yesterday Suzanne Sunshine was profiled. This author knew Ms Sunshine at LISC where she was the unsung hero in LISC’s program for helping CDCs develop supermarkets in low-income neighborhoods.

Last year, she started a private, for-profit real estate brokerage and consulting firm specializing in nonprofit office space. In an era of much-hyped, short-on-evidence innovations, S. Sunshine & Associates LLC operates on an innovative model. On every deal, she arranges for 10 to 50 percent of her real estate commission to be returned to the client or an associated charity. In her first year of operations, she has made a profit and returned over $100,000 to New York charities. Read more here.

Panera's new model of nonprofit restaurants

Syracuse.com offered the following national story:

As the first crowd of customers filed into Panera Co.'s nonprofit restaurant here, only the honor system kept them from taking all the food they wanted for free.

Ronald Shaich, Panera's chairman, admitted as he watched them line up that he had no idea if his experiment would work. The idea for Panera's first nonprofit restaurant was to open an eatery where people paid what they could. The richer could pay full price-or extra. The poorer could get a cheap or even free meal.

A month later, the verdict is in: It turns out people are basically good.

Panera, which operates 1,400 franchised and corporate-owned bakery-cafes across the country, plans to expand the nonprofit model around the nation, opening two more locations within months.

"I guess I would say it's performing better than we even might have hoped in our cynical moments, and it's living up to our best sense of humanity," Shaich said in an interview.

Its cashiers tell customers their orders' "suggested" price based on the menu. About 60 to 70 percent pay in full, Shaich said. About 15 percent leave a little more and another 15 percent pay less, or nothing at all. A handful have left big donations, like $20 for a cup of coffee.

The restaurant took in $100,000 in revenue its first month. He declined to say what kind of margin this left between total costs and revenue, but he predicted the restaurant will be able to cover its costs within months and eventually generate extra cash for charitable programs.

Panera's nonprofit plan is the largest example yet of a concept called community kitchens, where businesses operate partly as charities. Customers who need a discount, or even free food, can get it with no questions asked.

Shaich borrowed the idea from a restaurant in Denver and then connected with Denise Cerreta, who runs The One World Salt Lake City restaurant with a sliding scale menu. Cerreta's community kitchen and others he looked into were impressive, Shaich said, but operated on a smaller scale than Panera could afford to run.

The Clayton store is run under the company's St. Louis Bread Co. banner by a nonprofit organization called Panera Cares that publicly traded Panera Co. supports. But Panera won't bear the nonprofit's losses if the experiment fails. For the expansion, Panera spokeswoman Kate Antonacci said, the nonprofit is considering locations that, like Clayton, are upscale but accessible to lower-income customers. In Clayton's case, St. Louis County's offices and court house are nearby. Read more here.

Looking to jump-start your business? You might try entering a contest.

The Wall Street Journal reported that a growing number of corporations, nonprofits and universities are giving small companies a chance at a big break—by holding contests.

Covering a broad range of categories, from the most promising women entrepreneurs to the strongest tech ideas, these competitions offer a number of powerful lures. Some offer cash prizes that can range into the six figures. Then there are longer-term rewards, such as increased exposure and grist for future marketing campaigns. Even if they don't win, entrepreneurs often come away with valuable critiques from expert panels of judges.

But there's an art to deciding which contests to enter and making the best case for your company. Here are some keys to finding, entering and winning these competitions.

The best place to start looking for contests is www.AwardSync.com, a site that helps groups publicize their awards. Once you've focused in on some competitions, the groups' own sites can be valuable. For instance, you could scour their sites for more information about what they do—which might give you ideas about what to highlight in your presentation.

At the outset, start small with awards from, say, local chapters of national organizations. This has a number of benefits. You can refine your case and practice your presentation without as much at stake. You also stand a better chance of winning a smaller contest—and judges of larger events like to see that you have some victories under your belt.

Once you've homed in on some contests, network like crazy. Call previous winners to see what worked for them; more than anyone else, they'll understand why you're in the hunt—and typically they have nothing to lose because they're ineligible to win again. If you can get into the audience for an award's oral presentations, go do it one year, see what makes the finalists stand out, and then apply the next year. Read more here.

Foundations Offer Loans to Nonprofits: Possible Idea of Seed Funds

The Buffalo News reported that a $650,000 check in 2008 from the Community Health Foundation of Western and Central New York for a new program to assist the frail elderly in Cattaraugus County came with a caveat: Trustees of the foundation wanted the money back, with interest.

A single grant of that size was beyond the capacity of the foundation, so trustees decided instead to make it a loan.

The money allowed Community Care of Western New York to launch a program that will keep more than 200 rural elderly people safely in their homes. Without it, the project probably would have stalled.

"It would not have opened without us, and what is a really promising model for elder care in a rural community would have been lost," said Ann Monroe, foundation president.

Increasingly, foundations in Western New York and across the country are turning to loans, loan guarantees and other measures as a way to aid needy nonprofit organizations without giving away the store.

The John R. Oishei Foundation, the area's largest private foundation, currently has more than $12 million — nearly 4 percent of its $280 million asset base — being used in this fashion. And at least two other local foundations, the Margaret L. Wendt Foundation and the Joy Family Foundation, have experimented with alternative financing.

Known as "program-related investments," or more popularly "PRIs," the loans and loan guarantees are serving a dual purpose for foundations hammered by stock market losses in 2008.

PRIs, like grants, put money toward projects that might not otherwise get off the ground. Read more here.

6 qualities of successful social entrepreneurs

As related in The Nonprofit Times e-mail newsletter:

So, what makes a successful social entrepreneur? In his book “How to Change the World,” David Bornstein disputes the common assumption that highly successful entrepreneurs are more confident and persistent than most others.

Instead, he found that what distinguishes successful social entrepreneurs is the quality of their motivation; they were the ones who were most determined to achieve a long-term goal that was deeply meaningful to them.

With this, he sets out six qualities of highly successful social entrepreneurs.:

Willingness to self-correct. Inclination to self-correct stems from the attachment to a goal rather than to a particular approach or plan.

Willingness to share credit. A willingness to share credit lies along the “critical path” to success, because the more credit entrepreneurs share the more people will want to help them.

Willingness to break free of established structures. By doing this, entrepreneurs can gain the freedom to act and the distance to see beyond orthodoxy in their fields.

Willingness to cross disciplinary boundaries. Independence from established structures not only helps social entrepreneurs break free of prevailing assumptions but also gives them latitude to combine resources in new ways.

Willingness to work quietly. Many social entrepreneurs spend decades steadily advancing their ideas.

Strong ethical impetus. At some moment in their lives, social entrepreneurs get it into their heads that it is up to them to solve a particular problem.

Entrepreneur to hear business pitches on Quadby Kevin Tampone

John Liddy, entrepreneur in residence at the Tech Garden in downtown Syracuse, will spend a few hours Tuesday afternoon handing out cash on the Syracuse University Quad.
Students will have to earn the money though.

Liddy will listen to business ideas from any student and hand out vouchers for $5 in cash. Students must show up to an event for young entrepreneurs scheduled for April 28 at the Tech Garden to claim the money.

And the idea must be real, says Paul Brooks, vice president for entrepreneurship programs at the Tech Garden. Liddy will vet the concepts and only distribute the cash vouchers to students with top ideas.

The April 28 event will bring together student entrepreneurs from various SU schools, investors, and potential mentors for a program on entrepreneurship and emerging companies, Brooks says.

Liddy will be on the Quad from noon to 2:30 p.m.

New York Entrepreneur Week April 12-16

New York Entrepreneur Week (NYEW) is a non-profit movement formed around a single belief: entrepreneurs change the world. And now is the time for entrepreneurs who have the will and drive to prove they can achieve anything, to stand up and come together in New York State for another groundbreaking NYEW event.

With over 100 speakers from 40 cities, 15 states and 3 continents, NYEW unites the state’s diverse entrepreneurial community; giving you the opportunity to connect with and learn from New York’s best and brightest entrepreneurs who are relentless, driven and dedicated to improving your business and the economy. View the full agenda here.

New York Entrepreneur Week encompasses five days of innovative and hyper-targeted events, including:

* Inspiring keynote speeches from recognized business leaders
* Riveting panels delivering relevant mission-critical advice
* The flagship RELENTLESS business plan competition

Need Ideas for Your Venture? How About Recycling Soap?

Here is a great example of an entrepreneurial start up that an individual developed. Although this is a stand alone nonprofit, tourism-focused nonprofits could have (or maybe still can) developed this type of program and partnership with local accomodations. Here is some info from a recent article:

Children in earthquake-devastated Haiti may already be washing their hands with Mickey Mouse soap from a Walt Disney World hotel.

The giant Disney resort recently signed on with Clean the World Foundation Inc., a year-old nonprofit group that hopes to improve hygiene in impoverished parts of the world by recycling soap and shampoo from tens of thousands of local and out-of-state hotel rooms.

The nonprofit group collects the used toiletries, which hotels previously tossed in the trash, sanitizes them and then redistributes them to people in need around the world. Read more here.

Look at your organization. What opportunities do you have, or can you create with your partners or supporters? Have your own ideas? Share them here.

Southern Oregon Historical Society Looks to the Past for a Future

The NY Time reported on this Historical Society's plans to sell some of its historic properties. As the article relates:

They say economic collapse is what froze this place in time, a gold rush relic all but abandoned when the railroad passed it by. Decades later, that chance preservation positioned Jacksonville to benefit from new interest in the past. Boutiques moved to quaint California Street. Californians soon moved to town.

The U.S. Hotel building in Jacksonville, Ore., is one of the 19th-century buildings that a historical society has proposed selling. A high-end housing development, Nunan Square, is a recent addition to the historic town.

History sells, but now Jacksonville may learn that, the hard way.

The Southern Oregon Historical Society, which controls five of the most prominent historic properties in a town that is itself a historic district, has proposed selling some of the sites as a way to prevent the organization’s own economic collapse. After changes in state and county tax policies left it without a clear revenue stream in the 1990s and several short-term measures since then have run their course, the society says it is essentially out of money.

Last September, the society shut down the Jacksonville Museum, housed in a former courthouse from the 1880s. It has also closed the rectory of a local Roman Catholic church, built in the 1860s, and Beekman Bank, which still houses scales used to weigh gold. The rectory and the bank, as well as the U.S. Hotel, built in the 1880s, are among the properties the society said it hoped to sell. Read more here.

This is a trend across the country. Museums and cultural organizations have found themselves in the position of multiple properties with no way to sustain them, let alone maintain them. With facilities literally bleeding these organizations dry, what other alternatives do they have? Have your comments on this article? Share them here.

New nonprofit aims to spark growing firms

The Central NY Business Journal reported that a new nonprofit group has launched to encourage the development and growth of more small, innovative companies in upstate New York.

The organization, Upstate Venture Connect, aims to increase connections among mentors, entrepreneurs, and those interested in working for young, growth-oriented firms. Group leaders also want to spark more collaboration among business groups, universities, and economic development organizations.

Upstate New York isn't likely to generate major job growth by attracting large companies that will hire hundreds or thousands of people, says Martin Babinec, founder and chairman of Upstate Venture Connect, which started in January.

"That's yesterday's industrial model," he says. "But it's not reality with the way things currently work."

A better path, Babinec says, is to focus on developing numerous smaller companies. The group will concentrate on firms that can attract private-equity financing since they tend to be those with the best shot at growth. Read more here.