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October 12. 2012 6:58PM
Nonprofit start-ups get much needed seed money to grow
MANCHESTER — Suzanne Brown, founding farmer and executive director of the New Hampshire Institute of Agriculture and Forestry, shunned the microphone as she bounded on stage to make her pitch. She got straight to the point: “I start farms; I help farmers.”
At the end of the evening, Brown left with a $10,000 grant from the Entrepreneurs Foundation of New Hampshire (EFNH) to help launch a website that will link consumers with farmers in the Granite State. In addition to developing an amazon.com for organic and local food, Brown's organization will combine the funds with a $10,000 matching grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to help start-up farmers get advice and raw materials.
“We literally need seed money,” was her laugh line.
Brown's pitch was one of three that swayed the group of entrepreneurs and philanthropists gathered Thursday around the semicircle stage at Dyn on Dow Street. The Internet services company hosted the second annual AMP NH Grant Competition, funded by the entrepreneurs' foundation.
The prizes are called “AMP grants” because they go to applicants whose business plans will amplify the impact of the grant many times over. Representatives of seven finalists, chosen from 33 applicants, did the best they could to impress the judges, all EFNH members, in three-minute pitches with styles that ranged from frenetic to professorial.
Some came equipped with slides; others relied on their own powers of persuasion. When it was all over, the judges used their “real-time” voting clickers to select the winners. Brown's presentation was clearly persuasive, as her proposal got 88 percent approval. Checks for $10,000 will also go to the New Hampshire Center for Public Policy Studies, which got 55 percent, and the Alzheimer's Association of New Hampshire, at 54 percent.
The public policy center will use the funds to develop an online learning tool for the New Hampshire state budget, primarily for state legislators, while the Alzheimer's Association will expand videoconferencing to deliver services to families and health care professionals in the northern part of the state.
Other finalists making pitches ranged from the Bhutanese Community of New Hampshire to More Than Wheels, which helps low-income families get a car.
The pitch contest appears to be gaining popularity as a way to make funding decisions these days. The EFNH event is modeled on a similar event hosted by the ABI Innovation Hub in Manchester, called TechOut, which distributes $100,000 annually to three winners.
The entrepreneurs group is a division of the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation, which calls the approach “high velocity granting ... leveraging the collective experience of our members in a low ceremony process where we are committed to make rapid determinations.”
ABI Innovation Hub and the New Hampshire Food Bank were the two winners of the AMP New Hampshire competition for nonprofits last year, when the group gave $5,000 to each. Now in its second year, the program has already expanded to $10,000 grants to each of three winners.
The entrepreneurs' foundation member list reads like a who's who of successful New Hampshire start-ups, and the rapid-fire approach to philanthropy is consistent with the group's entrepreneurial style, said foundation chairman Shawn McGown, COO of Newmarket International, a software firm specializing in the hospitality industry.
The program also allows for an approach to philanthropy that appeals to people whose wealth may be tied up in their companies, not in cash. “This enables upcoming business leaders who have yet to realize the financial returns on their business to make a promissory commitment of stock, options or other gains that will be realized later,” according to the charitable foundation.
The result is an awards program that helps nonprofits move from operational concerns to innovation. As McGowan told the group during her introduction, “If you're just trying to keep the lights on, you can't go after those high-risk, high-reward projects.”
Three nonprofits left the Dyn offices with some funding to make their high-reward projects a reality.
dsolomon@unionleader.com
At the end of the evening, Brown left with a $10,000 grant from the Entrepreneurs Foundation of New Hampshire (EFNH) to help launch a website that will link consumers with farmers in the Granite State. In addition to developing an amazon.com for organic and local food, Brown's organization will combine the funds with a $10,000 matching grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to help start-up farmers get advice and raw materials.
“We literally need seed money,” was her laugh line.
Brown's pitch was one of three that swayed the group of entrepreneurs and philanthropists gathered Thursday around the semicircle stage at Dyn on Dow Street. The Internet services company hosted the second annual AMP NH Grant Competition, funded by the entrepreneurs' foundation.
The prizes are called “AMP grants” because they go to applicants whose business plans will amplify the impact of the grant many times over. Representatives of seven finalists, chosen from 33 applicants, did the best they could to impress the judges, all EFNH members, in three-minute pitches with styles that ranged from frenetic to professorial.
Some came equipped with slides; others relied on their own powers of persuasion. When it was all over, the judges used their “real-time” voting clickers to select the winners. Brown's presentation was clearly persuasive, as her proposal got 88 percent approval. Checks for $10,000 will also go to the New Hampshire Center for Public Policy Studies, which got 55 percent, and the Alzheimer's Association of New Hampshire, at 54 percent.
The public policy center will use the funds to develop an online learning tool for the New Hampshire state budget, primarily for state legislators, while the Alzheimer's Association will expand videoconferencing to deliver services to families and health care professionals in the northern part of the state.
Other finalists making pitches ranged from the Bhutanese Community of New Hampshire to More Than Wheels, which helps low-income families get a car.
The pitch contest appears to be gaining popularity as a way to make funding decisions these days. The EFNH event is modeled on a similar event hosted by the ABI Innovation Hub in Manchester, called TechOut, which distributes $100,000 annually to three winners.
The entrepreneurs group is a division of the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation, which calls the approach “high velocity granting ... leveraging the collective experience of our members in a low ceremony process where we are committed to make rapid determinations.”
ABI Innovation Hub and the New Hampshire Food Bank were the two winners of the AMP New Hampshire competition for nonprofits last year, when the group gave $5,000 to each. Now in its second year, the program has already expanded to $10,000 grants to each of three winners.
The entrepreneurs' foundation member list reads like a who's who of successful New Hampshire start-ups, and the rapid-fire approach to philanthropy is consistent with the group's entrepreneurial style, said foundation chairman Shawn McGown, COO of Newmarket International, a software firm specializing in the hospitality industry.
The program also allows for an approach to philanthropy that appeals to people whose wealth may be tied up in their companies, not in cash. “This enables upcoming business leaders who have yet to realize the financial returns on their business to make a promissory commitment of stock, options or other gains that will be realized later,” according to the charitable foundation.
The result is an awards program that helps nonprofits move from operational concerns to innovation. As McGowan told the group during her introduction, “If you're just trying to keep the lights on, you can't go after those high-risk, high-reward projects.”
Three nonprofits left the Dyn offices with some funding to make their high-reward projects a reality.
dsolomon@unionleader.com
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