Community Wealth Collaborative

Greater Cincinnati / Northern Kentucky Community Wealth Collaborative

Collaborative Schedule

Program Overview

The Greater Cincinnati / Northern Kentucky Community Wealth Collaborative is a 10-month business planning process that helps high-performing nonprofit organizations develop and grow social enterprises. Nonprofits selected to participate are engaged in a rigorous business planning process and gain access to tools, frameworks and business experts to help them launch a new business or expand an existing business. Collaborative participants build social enterprises while honing business skills, empowering them to have a lasting impact on their nonprofit organizations.

The goal of the Collaborative is for all participants to complete a business plan and launch or grow a viable business. The revenue generated from the business provides the nonprofit organization with more independence in creating programs and services to fulfill its mission.

The Collaborative consists of monthly peer learning sessions and one-on-one consulting for venture management teams.

Peer Learning Sessions

Once a month, Collaborative participants gather for an interactive peer learning session. Each session focuses on an important aspect of business planning, including: market research, financial analysis, competitive analysis, pricing and capitalization. In addition, each session features a notable business expert who serves as a guest speaker, sharing his/her personal stories, successes, and challenges.

Customized Consulting

Once a month, the Community Wealth Ventures consultants conduct one-on-one consulting with participating venture management teams. The customized sessions leverage the collective potential of the team to make sound business decisions. The meetings are often working sessions whereby the consultants facilitate business strategy decision making, in addition to helping participants create data collection templates, analyze data, and edit sections of the business plan.

To assist area nonprofits with earned income, The Greater Cincinnati Foundation; The Carol Ann and Ralph V. Haile, Jr./U.S. Bank Foundation; Macy’s Inc.; Manuel D. & Rhoda Mayerson Foundation; Ohio Valley Foundation, Fifth Third Bank, Agent; and an anonymous foundation have partnered with Community Wealth Ventures to launch the Greater Cincinnati / Northern Kentucky Community Wealth Collaborative, an exciting 10-month project focused on assisting nonprofit organizations in developing and growing earned income ventures.

Benefits of participation

Participating organizations benefit from intensive, customized assistance from experienced business consultants, which results in a focused business plan to guide the growth of the enterprise. Other benefits include:

Opportunity to engage with nationally recognized business leaders
Use of a proven methodology and tools for developing a social enterprise
Access to research support
In-depth monthly interaction with peer organizations

Requirements of participating organizations

Participants are expected to make the development of a social enterprise an organizational priority and dedicate necessary staff time to support the project. Participants are required to keep up with assignments and attend all peer learning and customized consulting sessions.

Additionally, organizations are required to pay a $7,500 participation fee to help cover the project’s costs. The majority of the project is funded by the funding partners listed above.

Information Session

Community Wealth Ventures facilitated two information sessions for Greater Cincinnati / Northern Kentucky area nonprofit organizations interested in learning how to apply to the Community Wealth Initiative.

The information sessions were held on April 30th, 2008.

Application Process

The Greater Cincinnati / Northern Kentucky Community Wealth Collaborative application process consists of two rounds: Round I and Round II.

Round I. Organizations must submit a complete written application, along with all required documents. Applications are now available for download.

Click here to download the Round 1 Application

Completed applications are due to Community Wealth Ventures no later than May 28th, 2008. Applications may be submitted via email or standard mail. Handwritten applications or incomplete applications will not be accepted.

Round II. Organizations selected to proceed to Round II participate in a site visit and will present their venture concept to a panel.

Selection Criteria

Community Wealth Ventures will select 6-8 nonprofits in Greater
Cincinnati / Northern Kentucky to participate. Selected organizations will have the strongest mix of the following characteristics:

Entrepreneurial culture
Assets to be leveraged into earned income
Experience with earned income or market-based ventures
Strength of venture or venture idea
Financial stability
Operational capacity and stability
Commitment and enthusiasm for social enterprise and the Collaborative
Strong leadership that is able to make decisions and is accountable for results

Collaborative Schedule

Peer Learning Session Date	Customized Session Date	Focus
September 9, 2008	September 22 - 25, 2008	Goal Setting and Research Preparation
October 7, 2008	October 20 - 23, 2008	Market Research and Planning
November 4, 2008	November 17 - 20, 2008	Stakeholder Management and Financial Analysis
December 9, 2008	January 12 - 15, 2008	Marketing: Industry Analysis and Customer
February 3, 2009	February 17 - 20, 2009	Marketing: Competitive Analysis, Product and Positioning
March 3, 2009	March 16 - 19, 2009	Marketing: Pricing, Promotion, Placement, Measurement
April 7, 2009	April 20 -23, 2009	Operations and Management Planning
May 19, 2009	June 8 - 11, 2009	Financial Modeling and Capitalization
July 14, 2009		Business Plan Presentations
August 10, 2009		Implementation Planning

Contact Us

Tanya Smith-Evans

202.478.6524