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2009 Seattle Pacific University

SOCIAL VENTURE PLAN COMPETITION

Social Venture Plan Competition Showcase Doubles in Size

Evenblade was the Grand Prize winner in the Third Annual Seattle Pacific University Social Venture Plan Competition Showcase held on the SPU campus Wednesday, April 15.  The business plan was chosen as the $2500 Grand Prize winner by the combined votes of 75 judges representing the business, non-profit, academic and professional community.  Olive Only came in second, winning the $1500 Pioneer Award. Over 300 students voted for their favorite project of the afternoon and the student’s choice award of $500 was given to The Red Kettle.

As stated in the team's Executive Summary: “Evenblade's vision is to provide sustainable employment to individuals who face high barriers to employment in the greater Seattle area and to help re-establish them into society by providing efficient and effective landscaping services to the West Seattle population."  The project proposes hiring ex-offenders and providing them with both life and job skills.  The Evenblade team consisted of seniors Scott Fillingame and Stephen Smoots, junior Jake Kirkwood and sophomore Allen Klein (right); all four are Business majors.

Award sponsor and judge Larry Fehr of Pioneer Human Services with the Olive Only team members.

The runner up was Olive Only, winner of the Pioneer Prize presented by Pioneer Human Services. The Olive Only team was comprised of senior Business majors Joshua Russell (left) and Loren Downs and Kevin McFarland (above right), a senior with a self-designed major.  The proposed Olive Only business would manufacture and distribute a line of high-quality snack food products (e.g. potato chips) made with olive oil to reduce obesity and improve cardiac health.

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

Kor Rajo (Grow Hope) seeks to establish a microfinance institution (MFI) to improve the economic situation of the low-income, productive poor in the Somali region of Ethiopia by providing financial and social services. The MFI would give small farmers and the rural poor access to lending, savings, and market-linking services, as well as consultation for increased agricultural productivity.  Kor Rajo is the work of junior Noah Simpson (right) and senior Lisa Anderberg, both Global Development Studies majors, and senior Melissa Deveney, an Accounting major.

The Red Kettle, an ethnically-inspired tea-house proposed for Seattle’s Fremont neighborhood, would work to combat human trafficking by raising awareness and working directly with a local rescue organization.  The shop would serve fair-trade teas from countries particularly plagued by human trafficking and would also raise funds to actively partner withWashington’s own Tronie Foundation, a not-for-profit organization dedicatedto delivering men andwomen from slavery.  Junior Global Development Studies major Melanie Ukosaku, Business majors sophomore Courtney Schwartz and junior Alison Howard, and junior Apparel Design major Cami Ledford, (left to right) and Ashlee Yancey, comprised The Red Kettle group.

Phoenix Furniture aims to provide homeless, runaway or other at-risk youth in Seattle sustainable employment, giving them the opportunity to learn vocational and practical business skills through the refurbishment of pre-owned furniture. 

Phoenix Furniture will then sell these creative and unique masterpieces at a retail price. The Phoenix Furniture Company also strives to reduce the volume of waste placed into landfills, therefore reducing the negative impact of human life upon the environment.  Phoenix Furniture was the work of senior Latin American Studies major Carli Basaites, junior Political Science major Bree Blackhorse (left), senior Sociology major Heather Sibet (right) and senior History major Brandon Megrath.

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, scoring of the teams’ written plans and coaching sessions with knowledgeable community leaders and professionals about the students' business ideas.  In all, more than 160 community volunteers gave time as readers, instructors, coaches and judges.

Congregations for the Homeless (below), a team made up of three freshmen and an MBA student, developed a business that will employ homeless men in window washing, and in coffee sales at bus stops. Paul Tomlinson, a retired business executive who now works with finding opportunities for homeless men in Bellevue, served as an advisor to the team and said, “I want to thank these terrific students for doing the research and putting a plan together that my colleagues and I will now implement. The team’s effort will have a direct and positive impact on homeless men in Bellevue.”

Ken Grimm, a local businessman and Showcase judge, said “It was very exciting and incredibly inspirational to see such a large group of creative, motivated and passionate young people. I was impressed by the variety of projects and the needs they addressed, as well as the quality of the plans for achieving their goals.”

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.

Along with congratulating all of the students who participated, the School of Business and Economics gratefully thanks the scores of judges, coaches, faculty and others who made this years' Social Venture Plan Competition the best yet.