UM Students advance in Business Plan Competition

A team of University of Montana alumni and graduate students have developed a new venture business plan that has been selected to advance to round two of the National Business Plan Competition for Nonprofit Organizations. The plan was created for Child Care Resources and is one of 80 selected to compete in round two.

The Goldman Sachs Foundation Partnership on Nonprofit Ventures, sponsored by Yale’s school of Management, received 655 applications from both large and small organizations across the United States. The partnership was funded through combined grants totaling $4.5 million made by The Pew Charitable Trusts and The Goldman Sachs Foundation. The partnership grew out of members’ increasing concern that nonprofits increasingly find the need to enter the marketplace to generate new revenues beyond their philanthropic activities, and they need the guidance and resources to do so.

Child Care Resources’s business plan includes a recommendation for the launch of online training for child care nationally. With its inception in 1969, Child Care Resources strives to meet the varied needs of families in Missoula, Mineral and Ravali counties by offering high quality, readily available and affordable child care. Child Care Resources is testing its online training in 2002 and seeks to launch the program nationally in 2003.

Child Care Resource’s online training program initiative was developed by a team of UM alumni and graduate school students, including Jodie Rasmussen, Joy Williams, Gordy Pace, Kelly Rosenleaf and Jesse Pasichnyk.

The 80 nonprofits will submit working drafts of their business plan by mid-December. Twenty finalists then will be selected to present their business plans to a panel of expert judges at the first Annual Conference and Awards Ceremony in New York May 2-3, 2003. Four grand prize winners will receive $100,000 and four semi-finalists will receive $25,000. In addition to cash awards, winners will receive technical business planning consultations to assist implementation of the new ventures. All entrants will receive comprehensive feedback to assist their organizations in moving their ventures forward.

Contact: Jodie Rasmussen, Consumer Service and On-line Training Coordinator, Childcare Resources, (406) 728-6446.