Seattle Pacific University Announces the
3rd Annual Social Venture Plan Competition

Winter and Spring Quarters, 2009

Seattle Pacific University (SPU) is pleased to announce the 2008-09 Social Venture Plan Competition.  The competition is designed to encourage SPU students to develop projects that can make a difference in the world.  Its purpose is to assist students who wish to create solutions to social needs by developing their entrepreneurial skills to engage the culture and change the world.

The Social Venture Plan Competition is sponsored by the Office of Student Life, the Career Development Center and The School of Business and Economics. 

• What does the term social venture mean?

• What is a Social Venture Plan Competition?

• Who should participate?

• What kinds of projects are desired?

• What are the program’s goals?

• What criteria will be used to judge the plans?

• What will be expected of students participating?

• What will the prizes be?

• Where will I find more information?

What does the term social venture mean?

Social venture is a term used to describe entrepreneurial activities that address two bottom lines: financial and social. A social venture is the development of a project, organization or business entity that can both address a felt social need and provide sustainable funding to do so. J. Gregory Dees, Professor at Duke University Fuqua School of Business and Faculty Director of Duke’s Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship, provides this definition.

“In addition to innovative not-for-profit ventures, social entrepreneurship can include social purpose business venture, such as for-profit community development banks, and hybrid organizations mixing not-for-profit and for-profit elements, such as homeless shelters that start businesses to train and employ their residents.”  
         Source:  The Meaning of “Social Entrepreneurship”, 2001

Social ventures take many forms.  For example, FareStart in Seattle was established to train homeless persons to become chefs and kitchen staff.  It operates as a typical restaurant but its purpose is as a job training program for homeless persons.  An international example of a project comes from the University of Washington’s Global Social Entrepreneurship Competition where the winning team from Korea proposed a project to manufacture self-powered, hand-cranked, AM radios for use by the rural population of Mongolia, a population who are without access to electricity.

Another type of social venture would be a business that deliberately pursues financial and social returns within a specific industry segment.  For example, Pura Vida is a coffee company that uses its profits to build community and enhance the standard of living of the people in coffee growing regions. 

A final example is for-profit business Overstock.com, which has an online segment called Worldstock, a market within the site that gives access to small artisans around the world.  The Overstock.com website describes the social purpose of Worldstock as “choosing items that are environmentally sound, and that don’t burn up the natural or human resources of their producers. Our goal in Worldstock is not to make money, but to create tens of thousands (and someday millions) of jobs in the poorest regions of the world, while bringing customers unique products of which they can be proud…”

What is a Social Venture Plan Competition?

A venture plan is a systematic way of evaluating, planning and organizing a project.   For the competition, students will develop a written plan based on this specific format (Social Venture Planning Template).  The plans will be evaluated by readers from the community who will rate and assign points to the plans in accordance with competition criteria.

Student competitors will then present their projects at a table display event, called the Showcase Round.  Here they will describe the project and its benefits in one-on-one conversations with visitors and judges.  The points from the written plan will be combined with the points each team receives from judges during the Showcase Round.  Those projects garnering the most points will be awarded prizes.  The grand prize is $2,500; several runner-up prizes of $1,000 will be given as well.

Who should participate?

• Do you have an idea to bring a valuable service or product to people who don’t typically have access to it? 
• Do you have a device that could be adapted to serve underserved communities around the world? 
• Do you have a business idea that could raise money to fund social change?  

Then you should participate in the Social Venture Plan Competition.

The competition is designed for any SPU student or student team interested in implementing a viable and innovative project that would address a meaningful social need.  The Social Venture Competition is an opportunity to try out your idea and present it to people in the community who may be able to help you launch your project.

Teams are the way projects work in the “real world.”  To encourage students to work together and seek fellow team members from other disciplines with a variety of skills, it is recommended that each entry be represented by at least two students.  Teams may have a maximum of six students.

Students can work on their plans through a course in any major or independently.  Several faculty members in the School of Business and Economics as well as several faculty members within the College of Arts and Sciences will be using the venture plan competition as a project in their courses during Winter Quarter 2009.  For those students as well as for others developing plans on their own, there will be a series of workshops offered in January and February 2009 to assist with the Social Venture Plan format.  The workshops can be attended for free or can be taken as a two-credit course.
           

More details are described in the section on expectations for participants.

What kinds of projects are desired?

Our definition of a venture is broad and applies to all disciplines. Projects may be very diverse.  Some categories, with web references of examples, are:

• founding a non-profit to address a social need (www.farestart.org)
• establishing a for-profit business to support a not-for-profit clientele (www.puravidacoffee.com)
• an outreach or ministry project—local, national or global ( www.qcafe.org an outreach project of Quest Church)
• practical application of an engineering device to address a social purpose (www.benetech.org )
• application of scientific research to a practical need for people who may not have access to the research results; (www.benetech.org)
• a business venture that uses profit or a segment of its business to forward a social need (Worldstock within the http://www.overstock.com/Worldstock/6/store.html site)
• an organization designs and delivers simple agricultural machines to people around the world (www.fullbellyproject.org)

Students are encouraged to be creative.

What are the program’s goals?

The program’s primary goal is to offer all SPU students the opportunity to learn the skills needed to evaluate and launch an enterprise directed at addressing a social need.  Second, it seeks to identify students throughout the University who possess an entrepreneurial nature and nurture their gifts.  Third, the Venture Plan Competition will allow students to showcase their projects to community leaders in non-profit and for-profit organizations from around the Puget Sound. It will provide students with an opportunity to network with potential investors, advisors, mentors and business leaders from both the for-profit and non-profit sectors.

What criteria will be used to judge the plans?

The projects will be scored and judged in four broad categories: 

• the significance of the social need being addressed;
• the on-going impact of the venture (i.e. projects providing impact over time will have greater value than a one-time event)
• the likelihood that the plan can be successfully implemented; and
• the financial viability of the plan. 

Internal revenue generation will have a greater value in the scoring than grants and contributions as a sustainable income stream.

What will be expected of students participating?

Students participating in the Venture Plan Competition will be expected to participate in several phases of project development aimed at building their entrepreneurial skills for successful implementation of a social venture.   Students who are not enrolled in a course in which participation is required will have the option of signing up for BUS 4661 Special Topics in Management, CRN 25539, as part of this program.  The registration deadline is January 9, 2009.

1. Students will be expected to attend a series of Resource Nights to be held on Wednesday evenings, January through March 2009.  The sessions will feature community leaders and faculty members addressing specific topics that should be covered in a plan.  More information on these workshops will be posted on this site at a later time.
   SVPC Resource Night and Workshop Schedule
   
2. Students planning to participate are asked to complete and  submit the Intent to Participate form by February 24, 2009 to the Center for Applied Learning.  The form can be found here.  Intent_Form_SVPC_2009
3. The deadline to enter the competition is March 19, 2009.  Each student team will submit an electronic version of their written plan to Don Summers at summed@spu.edu, by midnight on Thursday, March 19, 2009.  Each plan should have a two-page executive summary with a one page financial summary attached.  Here are the template for the written plan including the executive summary and the Social Venture Plan Competition entry form.  The written plans will be read and rated by outside judges. Readers will exercise their judgment as to how well a plan meets the competition criteria.  In late March, students will receive feedback on their plans, including suggestions for what works and what areas should be given additional attention in preparation for the Showcase Round.  The written plan ratings will be weighted and comprise 50% of the final score.
4. Student teams will be scheduled for a coaching session with a non-profit or business community volunteer.   The teams will be required to attend an hour session with their coach prior to the Showcase Round.  During the coaching session, teams will present their project to the coach, be asked questions pertaining to the judging criteria, and receive advice on how to present their project during the Showcase Round.  Coaching will take place on April 8 from 6:00 to 7:00 PM.
5. All teams will proceed to the Showcase Round.  Each team will be assigned a table top to be used for their display.  Team members must staff the exhibit during the entire Showcase.  This is the opportunity to “sell” the project to judges and the SPU community.  The Showcase Round will be held on April 15, 2009 from 3:00 - 6:00 PM in Weter Lounge.  Prizes will be awarded immediately following the Showcase. 

During the Showcase, students, faculty and invited community members will judge the projects.  A number of outside judges, along with SPU faculty and students will be invited to browse the exhibit, talk with the participants about their projects and cast their votes for the projects they believe best address a significant social need.  It will be an opportunity for the team to meet community entrepreneurs and social philanthropists and talk with people who may assist them in implementing the project.   Community judges and invited faculty will be given points to invest in the project(s) they believe have the greatest potential to be successfully implemented.  Points garnered in the showcase round will be weighted and comprise 50% of the final score.  The project with the most points will be the grand prize winner. 

Students will vote for a special “Students’ Choice” award, for the project that best addresses a significant social need. 

What will the prizes be?

The prizes for winners of the Social Venture Plan Competition will total $7,500.  The Grand Prize is $2,500 with a $1500 second prize and three runner-up prizes of $1,000.  A $500 prize will be awarded for the project voted the “Students’ Choice” winner.   
 

Where will I find more information?

For more information on the competition, contact Dr. Don Summers in the Center for Applied Learning, summed@spu.edu or 206.281.2621. 

Other Resources:

The following resources may be helpful as students seek examples of social ventures, formats for business plans, and methods of describing and valuing the social return of their project.  This section contains websites and documents (on-line version) that provide examples of plans written for social ventures and businesses. 

www.score.org/business_toolbox.html This site has several tutorials on putting together a plan, especially helpful with financials. It also has links to sample business plans.
 

www.businessplans.org/businessplans.html  Examples of well written plans.

Here is a case study  of a business that includes a business plan developed by the owners.  The case, written by Dr. Herb Kierulff is used in the business planning course offered in the School of Business and Economics at SPU. 

bschool.washington.edu/cie/resources.shtml is a resource page on the University of Washington’s site for its business plan competition.  The article “What’s in a Good Business Plan” by John Castle, who teaches the University of Washington’s class on business planning, is a easy to understand overview (slide format) on what should be covered in a plan for any venture. 

On the same site are articles on “Outline for a Business Plan” by Ernst & Young and “Writing an Effective Business Plan” by Deloitte & Touche that provide other examples.