Learn how you chart the strategic path for a Bay Area non-profit:

• Meet representatives from the non-profits we will be consulting in the coming months
• Hear about the accomplishments of past Service Corps team members
• Get to know your fellow Net Impact members

Info Session and Projects Open to ALL Bay Area Net Impact members!

When? Tuesday, February 2nd, 6:30 – 8pm
Where? Cafe International, 508 Haight St.
(5 minute walk north of Church & Market MUNI – www.511.org)

RSVP below or at http://servicecorpsfebruary.eventbrite.com

The Projects — Resume and Letter of Interest Due Feb. 7:

Spring 2010 Project Summaries (for more details, please see www.netimpactsf.org/service-corps/2010-projects)

Springworks: Springworks helps provide access to capital for women and minority entrepreneurs. The SpringWorks planning committee is interested in developing a fundraising strategy that will secure the ongoing financial health of Springworks. (Fundraising expertise required)
Application Deadline: End of January
Project Duration: Beginning of February – end of April

Rising Sun Energy Center: Runs the Community Youth Energy Services (CYES), a summer youth employment and community efficiency retrofit program in the Bay Area. CYES hires young people (15-22 years of age) and trains them to become Energy Specialists, serving their communities with a FREE ‘Green House Call’. This project will involve scaling this program nationally.
Application deadline: February 7th at 11:59pm
Project duration: February 22nd, 2010 – end of August (6 months)

One Percent Foundation: A non-profit organization dedicated to creating a new generation of philanthropists by engaging young adults in sustained and thoughtful giving. OPF’s core program is the One Percent Giving Circle, through which young adults pool a portion of their giving and make grants to non-profit organizations. The goal of this project is to modify the One Percent Giving Circle to package and sell to for-profit companies looking to develop corporate giving programs that engage their employees in philanthropy.
Application deadline: February 7th at 11:59pm
Project duration: February 22 – May 31, 2010 (3 months)

* NEW * Project addition: Strategic Financing Plan for Business Council on Climate Change (Please see Service Corps tab – 2010 Projects)

Date: Early January 2010 (Kickoff date T.B.D.)
Time: T.B.D.
Place: San Francisco, CA
RSVP: By 12/21/09 – E-mail jsideus[at]gmail.com and volunteer[at]springworks.org – Subject=Springworks SC project

As you are likely aware, there are a disproportionately low number of women and minorities in leading or supporting roles within venture investment sized start-ups. Historically, companies owned by women and minorities have received less than 5% of total venture capital investments over the past 40 years and minorities have only accounted for 3.7% of entrepreneurs in venture scale start-ups. Springworks is working to change these numbers.

Our planning committee is interested in developing a fundraising strategy that will secure the ongoing financial health of Springworks.

More information on the project and how to apply in this PDF.

Application Process:

1. Submit resume and paragraph on what our mission means to you (volunteer[at]springworks.org)
   • To gauge interest in the project and help select a venue for our early – January meeting, please indicate your interest by 12/21/09.
2. Follow-up 30-minute phone conversation
   • likely to occur in late December or early January, depending on your schedule.
3. In person meeting
   • location & date TBD

Project Managers:

Jorge Calderon, founder – Springworks
Jeremy Ideus, Service Corps Leader, Net Impact-SF

About the projects:

Project A: Business Planning for the East Palo Alto Community Farmers’ Market
Project B: Emerge Loan Employer Survey and Interview Project for Rubicon National Social Innovations (RNSI)
See more details below.

Number of Volunteers
Each project needs 3 -4 volunteers. Please indicate in your application if you would like to be the team lead.

Eligibility
Volunteers must be Net Impact members (www.netimpact.org)

Time Commitment
Volunteers must be able to devote 4 to 5 hours per week of work in the duration of the projects.

How to apply

Please submit your resume with a brief statement of interest in the indicated project to usfservicecorps@gmail.com by Sunday, October 11th.

Contact Ling Huang @ usfservicecorps@gmail.com with any question about the projects

Project A

Business Planning for the East Palo Alto Community Farmers’ Market

The East Palo Alto Community Farmers’ Market is a community-based and youth-focused Certified Farmers’ Market.  Before its founding in June 2008, the Market engaged a group of students to create a two-year business plan.  Since then, a number of factors have changed, resulting in that business plan being obsolete. Our team of volunteers will develop a new business plan for the famers’ market working closely with Collective Roots, a nonprofit which provides financial and logistics supports to the East Palo Alto Community Farmers’ Market.

The mission of Collective Roots is to educate and engage youth and communities in food system change through sustainable programs that impact health, education, and the environment. Collective Roots achieves its mission through the innovative integration and implementation of two key program areas: garden-based education and food systems change.

Project Objectives: The goal is to develop a new business plan that will help the market to stabilize and continue to operate in East Palo Alto. The business plan will determine the number of   vendors, stall fees, customers and other variables required for a financially sustainable market (including some consistent yearly private funding).

Project Duration: 5 months starting from October 2009

Valuable Skills and Knowledge:

· Business planning
· Marketing
· Community programs
· Nonprofit Management

Project B

Emerge Loan Employer Survey and Interview Project for Rubicon National Social Innovations (RNSI)

The Emerge Loan product is a social innovation that Rubicon National created in response to predatory payday loans.  The Pay Day Loan industry in the United States has grown into a multi-billion dollar business, primarily at the expense of hard working lower income workers who are forced to pay what amounts to 400% interest rates to borrow money in emergencies. The Emerge Loan is marketed as employer benefit program through payroll service providers. Using a voluntary payroll deduction, loans can be originated and underwritten at reasonable interest rates and at faster speeds than payday advance alternatives. Borrowers also build credit through using this product. Emerge Loan will significantly replace predatory payday loans and solve the severe liquidity problem faced by borrowers of small dollar loans.

Our team of volunteers will work with Rubicon National to assess the feasibility of large employers offering the Emerge Loan product as an employee benefit. The team will create a survey tool and distribute it to a list of large Northern California employers that Rubicon National has compiled. The team would additionally interview employers to gain additional insight. Based on the results of the survey and interviews the team would make recommendations about adjustments that would make the Emerge Loan program more attractive to employers and form a marketing strategy to gain adoption by employers.

Rubicon National Social Innovations is a San Francisco-based non-profit organization that aims at creating nationally-scaled social enterprises that have the primary purpose of improving the economic well being of low income people and communities. These social businesses achieve its mission by creating jobs for the “hardest to employ”, and by creating businesses that provide better value and thus help low income people save money compared to current predatory business practices in low income communities. Rubicon National Social Innovations believes that for social enterprise to have a significant impact on poverty and jobs in America; it must be re-imagined on a much greater scale.

Project Objectives: The goal is to make recommendations that would make the Emerge Loan product appealing for large employer adoptions according to the results of the survey and interviews.

Project Duration: 4 months starting from October 2009

Valuable Skills and Knowledge:

· Survey Instruments
· Marketing
· Strategic Analysis
· Interpersonal skills

More information about the program: http://rubiconnational.org/our-projects/emerge-loan-program/

INFO SESSION:::

Learn More About the Chapter’s 2 NEW

Service Corps Pro Bono Consulting Projects

for Summer 2009!

—————————————————————————————–

What: Learn about the chapter’s 2nd and 3rd Service Corps projects of 2009, with:

- Clean Tech Open (sustainable business advising to cleantech startups). Applications due July 3rd, project starts July 7th.

- Foundation for Self-Sufficiency in Central America (non-profit supporting sustainable development in El Salvador). Applications due July 10th, project starts July 21st.

When: Thursday, June 25, 7-9pm

Where: Cafe International, 508 Haight St. (btwn Fillmore & Steiner)

Directions: www.511.org (5 min walk north from Church MUNI/Castro Safeway)

MORE INFO: “Service Corps” tab above

What: Service Corps Program Launch 2009!

When: Wed, April 22 (Earth Day), 6:30 – 8pm

Where: Cafe International, 508 Haight St. at Fillmore

Why: All local Net Impact members (professionals & MBA’s) eligible to participate in pro bono consulting projects through the chapter. Come to learn more about the program and the first project with Rubicon National Social Innovations — a feasibility study for a national energy retrofit enterprise. Study to be carried out in conjunction with Green For All and Bain & Company consultants.

[Please note: CV and brief statement of interest in first project are due this Friday, April 24th -- See Below.]

See you Wednesday!

Your SF chapter leaders

* Come Celebrate the Launch of Service Corps *

6:30 – 7:30pm at Cafe International, 508 Haight St. (between Fillmore St. & Steiner St.)

This Earth Day, join fellow Net Impact SF Professional Chapter members to celebrate the launch of our chapter’s 2009 Service Corps program; the opportunity to engage in pro bono consulting for local non-profit organizations through Net Impact!

Take this opportunity to meet Rubicon National Social Innovations (http://rubiconnsi.blogspot.com) Director Jonathan Harrison and Senior Business Analyst Katherine Daniel, and to express your interest in the Energy Retrofit Enterprise Feasibility Study that our chapter is carrying out for Rubicon this spring, in partnership with Green For All (www.greenforall.org) and a team of Bain & Company (www.bain.com) pro bono consultants.

SF Pro Chapter members are encouraged to submit an application (CV and statement of interest) to join our team of Rubicon consultants prior to this meeting, as applications are due on April 24th (see posting below for details).

First Consulting Project of 2009

for Net Impact SF Professional Chapter

Apply by Friday, April 24th to join the team of Net Impact SF professionals participating in a nationally scalable green consulting project!

Rubicon National Social Innovations (RNSI) (http://rubiconnsi.blogspot.com) is a recent offshoot of 35-year old Rubicon Programs (www.rubiconprograms.org), a social services agency that runs two social enterprises, including a bakery and a landscaping firm, in Richmond, CA. The goal of the San Francisco-based non-profit organization is to launch nationally-scaled social enterprises that have a positive and lasting impact on individuals living in poverty and are financially sustainable in the long-term from the revenues they generate.

Rubicon’s Director Jonathan Harrison would like to recruit a team of Net Impact SF Professional Chapter members as pro bono consultants to carry out a feasibility study for a national energy retrofit enterprise. Green for All (www.greenforall.org), a team of part-time pro bono consultants from Bain & Company (www.bain.com), and three business school interns will partner with our team to carry out this study. In addition to earning revenue, the social enterprise must achieve three social objectives:

· To employ hard to employ groups and create an enterprise which will help facilitate disenfranchised populations to tap into the burgeoning green jobs that will form the apex of the new economy.

· To increase the value of low- and middle income homes by making them more energy efficient.

· To increase the ability of low and middle income households to invest in deep efficiency measures by increasing their access to financing tools that increase the affordability of these measures.

RNSI is looking for our team of consultants to conduct research and analysis into several areas upon which the success of this business is contingent. Please contact us if you have an interest or knowledge these areas and would like to be involved:

• Energy retrofitting/weatherization
• Market analysis
• Strategic analysis
• City level energy efficiency incentives/programs
• New technology for efficiency
• Financing tools for efficiency
• Community impact of green jobs

Pro bono consultants will each be expected to devote 5-6 hours per week to this effort, for a total of about 4 months (during evenings/weekends).

This is a unique opportunity and spots for this project will fill up quickly.

By Friday, April 24, 2009, please send your CV and a brief statement of interest in the Rubicon project to:

Sarah Miller, Project Lead for Rubicon Study at sarita.miller@gmail.com

Please send any questions about the Service Corps program offered by the Net Impact SF Professional Chapter to:

Sarah Rea, Service Corps Program Coordinator at rea.sarah@gmail.com