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Showing Them the Money
SOM pledged $4.5 million to improve business acumen among non-profits
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Business New Haven
2/18/2002
By: BNH
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NEW HAVEN - The “Yale SOM-Goldman Sachs Foundation Partnership on Non-Profit Ventures” is a new initiative at the Yale School of Management (SOM) to be funded through combined grants totaling $4.5 million made by the Goldman Sachs Foundation and the Pew Charitable Trusts.
The partnership, formed to launch a pioneering business-plan competition for non-profits, grew out of the three partners' growing concern that non-profits increasingly find that they must enter the marketplace to generate new revenues beyond their philanthropic activities.
The Pew Charitable Trusts will contribute $3 million over three years, while the Goldman Sachs Foundation is investing $1.5 million the first two years complemented by in-kind services.
“Many nonprofit organizations want to supplement their philanthropic endeavors with business income, but fail to fully achieve their objectives due to lack of the requisite business planning skills,” explained Yale SOM Dean Jeffrey E. Garten. “This major initiative will not only bring together the strands of our learning environment's teachings - entrepreneurship, hard-edged business skills, and social responsibility - but will be imbued with the school's philosophy that superb business and management skills are a critical ingredient for leadership in every sector of the economy.”
Yale SOM Professor Sharon M. Oster, an authority on competitive strategy and non-profit management, will direct the new partnership with Deputy Dean Stanley J. Garstka.
Beginning in May, the collaboration will launch the National Business Plan Competition for Non-Profit Organizations, the first of its kind worldwide, offering stem-to-stern consulting input from a variety of experts at every stage of the business-plan development. Four grand-prize winners will each receive $100,000, while four semi-finalists will receive $25,000 to launch the winning business ventures.
According to Stephanie Bell-Rose, president of the Goldman Sachs Foundation, “The competition catalyzed by this innovative partnership will inject the use of high-quality financial and management techniques into the non-profit sector and thereby increase the measurable impact of outstanding organizations.”
“Non-profits across the country always have had to balance their social mission and bottom line,” added Don Kimelman, director of Pew's Venture Fund. “Traditionally, most have been more concerned with doing good work - carrying out their charitable purpose - than with their finances. We expect that this pioneering project will have ripple effects throughout the nonprofit sector.”
The SOM-Goldman Sachs Foundation Partnership on Non-Profit Ventures will benefit from the business-planning expertise of faculty, alumni leaders and current Yale MBA students, as well as from the venture philanthropy engagement of Goldman Sachs professionals who will provide management, financial and leadership expertise.
These project consultants will be involved in evaluating all aspects of the competition from business ideas, providing feedback on their market viability, participating in technical assistance consultations, and assisting with research and case studies. As well, a new course on non-profit venturing will be offered to Yale MBA students, and there will be opportunities for them to become involved in case-writing opportunities and research issues involving nonprofit institutions.
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