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2008 Seattle Pacific University

SOCIAL VENTURE PLAN COMPETITION

Social Venture Plan Competition Showcase Draws a Crowd

Greenbar was the big winner in the Second Annual Seattle Pacific University Social Venture Plan Competition Showcase held on the SPU campus Wednesday, April 9.  The organization was chosen as the $2500 Grand Prize winner by the combined votes of nearly 50 judges representing the business, non-profit, academic and professional community.  SourceRight, a supply chain management consulting firm, won the $500 Students’ Choice Award, with over two hundred students voting for their favorite plan amongst the sixteen teams.

As Greenbar says: “We will establish a soap company that will set up manufacturing operations in a region of the Philippines that is rich in the natural resources needed for our product but is otherwise economically depressed. Local labor will be utilized to run operations and this will provide immediate income to the families involved as well as lift the community in which this operation is based.” All team members were MBA students. Steve Bennett, a Greenbar team member, captured the reaction of his fellow team members (Adam Bolton, Bill Shoop, and Hilevy Schlager) when he said: “Participating in this has been a great experience. The win by Greenbar was fun but as far as I am concerned it was just icing on the cake. I thoroughly enjoyed the interaction with the judges and coaches and feel I gained a lot from the experience.”

In addition to the student award SourceRight won the Pioneer Prize, the top award for undergraduate students ($1,500) presented by Pioneer Human Services. The SourceRight team is comprised of junior Business major Joel VanderHoek, senior Economics major Jason Williams and junior Educational Ministry major Kelly Hogan. SourceRight specializes in supply chain management, with an emphasis on fair labor practices and ethical sourcing. Clients increase profitability and protect their brands, while ensuring that no slave labor is used.

In addition to the top awards, three $1,000 honorable-mention prizes were awarded to the following projects:

CarbonCart.com is paving the way in coupling sustainable environmental practices with e-commerce by providing a web platform that allows users to choose carbon neutral shipping no matter where they buy on-line. CarbonCart.com sells a high volume of products from drop ship suppliers at a slight markup to support environmental projects and to grow the business. Team members include freshman Computer Science major Ryan Tilton, sophomore Business major Reed Probus, junior Economics major Kevin McFarland, and freshman Political Science major Laura Hanes.

Dr. Franz applauds the CarbonCart.com team.

Rooted will connect the rural poor in Peru to organizations aimed at training and equipping organic cotton farmers.  The organic cotton produced by these farmers will then be used in a line of upscale clothing for sale in the USA.  Senior Political Science major Michelle Mormon, junior Latin America Studies major Katie Talbot, and junior Apparel Design major Emily Bajema comprised the Rooted team.

Drs. Kathleen Braden and Ruth Ediger join the Rooted team.

ReBorn Auto will be a non-profit organization that will provide reliable cars to those in need by using a portion of the parent company’s resources and acquired inventory. The parent company will be an environmentally sound and profitable auto wrecking and recycling yard.  Brian Boldman, a senior Business major, was the one-person team behind ReBorn Auto.

In all, sixteen teams comprising more than 40 students participated in the Social Venture Competition Showcase Round.  The Showcase Round was the final round of the Social Venture Plan Competition.  Earlier stages in the competition included a series of seminars on the basics of business planning, an evaluation of the teams’ written plan and coaching sessions with community leaders knowledgeable about the student’s business ideas.

Sandy Gibb, senior vice president of Pioneer Human Services, a nationally-recognized social enterprise, and one of the judges for the Showcase Round, commented “The Social Venture Plan Competition shows how strongly SPU students feel about the social issues that confront our world. The students did outstanding work!”

Event organizer Donald Summers of SPU agreed, saying ““The student teams did outstanding work conceiving and developing their plans. The work they did is inspiring and bodes well for good work that will be done in the future. As far as I’m concerned all the teams were winners!”

Sponsors of the Social Venture Plan Competition are the Kathleen and Scott Cummins Foundation, the Herbert B. Jones Foundation and Pioneer Human Services.  The competition is managed by the Center for Applied Learning in the School of Business and Economics with support from the Career Development Center and the Office of Student Life.