The Yale School of Management (SOM) has launched a pioneering business plan competition to help nonprofits become more enterprising with funding from combined grants totaling $4.5 million made by The Goldman Sachs Foundation and The Pew Charitable Trusts.

The Yale SOM-Goldman Sachs Foundation Partnership on Nonprofit Ventures grew out of the three partners' growing concern that nonprofits increasingly find the need to enter the marketplace to generate new revenues beyond their philanthropic activities.

The Pew Charitable Trusts is contributing $3 million over three years for the new venture, 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," says 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, a leading authority on competitive strategy and nonprofit management, will direct the new partnership with deputy dean Stanley J. Garstka.

Beginning in May, the partnership will launch the National Business Plan Competition for Nonprofit Organizations, the first of its kind worldwide, offering stem-to-stern counseling input from a variety of experts at every stage of the business plan development. Four grand-prize winners will each receive $100,000, and four semi-finalists will receive $25,000 to launch the winning business ventures.

Through the initiative, nonprofits will benefit from the business-planning expertise of faculty, alumni leaders and current M.B.A. students at SOM, 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 viability, participating in technical assistance consultations and assisting with research and case studies. In addition, a new course on nonprofit venturing will be offered to Yale SOM students, and there will be opportunities for them to become involved in case-writing opportunities and research issues involving nonprofit institutions.

"[T]he competition catalyzed by this innovative partnership will inject the use of high-quality financial and management techniques into the nonprofit sector and thereby increase the measurable impact of outstanding organizations," says Stephanie Bell-Rose, president of The Goldman Sachs Foundation.

Don Kimelman, director of Pew's Venture Fund, said the new partnership is a way to provide targeted guidance and resources to nonprofits most capable of launching and operating revenue-generated business ventures.

"Nonprofits across the country always have had to balance their social mission and bottom line," he explains. "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."

T H I SW E E K ' SS T O R I E S

SOM competition to help nonprofits

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