NACCE s Entrepreneurial College In Action Competition, powered by The Coleman Foundation

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1 NACCE s Entrepreneurial College In Action Competition, powered by The Coleman Foundation OVERVIEW OF THE PITCH COMPETITION The Coleman Foundation has been an active supporter of NACCE s Presidents for Entrepreneurship movement since its inception in As part of the 12 th Annual NACCE Conference, held from October 12-15, 2014 in Phoenix, Arizona, The Coleman Foundation and NACCE will conduct the NACCE Entrepreneurial College in Action (ECIA) Grant Competition, Powered by The Coleman Foundation and award up to $150,000 to competition winners. This event within the NACCE Conference will provide community colleges with the opportunity to compete for grants to implement NACCE s Presidents for Entrepreneurship (PFEP) action steps using effectuation ( the Entrepreneurial Method ) as the framework for implementation. Leveraging NACCE s work with Dr. Saras Sarasvathy in effectuation, the 2014 ECIA competition will expose college teams to a set of ideas that form the logic of entrepreneurial action. By doing so, colleges as a community of practice will share common language in entrepreneurship, processes to be more effective in implementing change, and opportunities to create greater impact at their colleges and in their communities. Colleges (including past Coleman winners) with varying levels of entrepreneurial programming (from just getting started to having well-established programs) and varying degrees of prior implementation of the Presidents for Entrepreneurship action steps (from no prior implementation of any steps to successful prior implementation of one or more of the steps) are encouraged to submit an application. BACKGROUND Imagine that you re a graphic designer teaching at a community college. You have a promising student who wants to open their own firm. How do you help them? While you have the technical knowledge, you might not have the entrepreneurial experience or skills to help them apply what they are learning in an entrepreneurial way. Even for those educators who have had entrepreneurial experience, it is often of a trial and error nature. This makes it difficult to articulate specific steps or processes that budding entrepreneurs should take to start out on the right foot. Over the years, NACCE has been partnering with community colleges nationwide to infuse entrepreneurship education throughout curricula. While significant strides have been made, there is an opportunity today to create even stronger bridges between subject knowledge and entrepreneurship. This includes connecting administrators to entrepreneurial thinking through the nature of their work as well. This is a real need for the communities served by the colleges all over the country. How can community colleges provide an environment where their students and stakeholders learn how to create their own jobs in addition to the skills needed to work in a job? How can we position our students not just to be prepared to take advantage of opportunities as they arise, but to create their own opportunities? And how can we lay the foundation for faculty and staff to view the community college and the community itself as an enterprise that can benefit from entrepreneurial thinking? 1 P a g e

2 NACCE set out to identify entrepreneurial principles that could be used by educators to guide classroom activities. Some of this teaching was already being done, but it was largely siloed in business departments. Together with the colleges, we saw value in exposing students in all subjects to entrepreneurial thinking. Doing so required training faculty who were largely unaccustomed to teaching entrepreneurship in the context of their discipline. An interesting thing began to happen. We began to recognize that the very skill set of being an entrepreneur that can be taught within the classroom was something that was sorely needed by those that ran the college. As the leadership at colleges began to see the need for they themselves to be more entrepreneurial, an interest in learning about and applying entrepreneurial principles began to grow. Thinking entrepreneurially provides a framework for dealing with resource shortages, complexities, quick time frames, and imperfect information. But what is that framework? What does it mean to think entrepreneurially? NACCE set out to define these concepts in the context of community colleges. We observed and partnered with colleges nationwide who were achieving entrepreneurial outcomes to see if there were commonalities we could identify. Our findings became our Presidents for Entrepreneurship Pledge (the full description is listed at the bottom of this document). The action steps were defined as: 1. Create or Expand Internal & External Teams Dedicated to Entrepreneurship 2. Increase Entrepreneurs' Engagement in Community Colleges 3. Engage in Industry Cluster Development 4. Leverage Both Community College and Community Assets to Spur Innovation and Job Creation 5. Create Buzz and Broad Exposure of your College's Commitment to Entrepreneurship This list was our first step in expanding entrepreneurial thinking. Colleges used it as a checklist to assess their current state, where they were strong or weak. And it provided clear direction. The Presidents for Entrepreneurship Pledge was successful in raising the awareness of entrepreneurship to the leadership level of the college. First glance numbers pointed to success. Many Presidents signed on and signaled commitment. However, we soon realized that wanting to change was easy, but making changes was more difficult. At about the same time, we discovered Dr. Saras Sarasvathy s work on effectuation or the entrepreneurial method. The entrepreneurial method supports the Presidents for Entrepreneurship Pledge by giving us how these actions can be accomplished. Sarasvathy s entrepreneurial method is made up of five principles (please note: for more background information, see NACCE s journal Community College Entrepreneurship, Winter/Spring & Spring/Summer 2014 editions): 1. The Bird in Hand principle: Work with readily available resources. Let who you are, what you know, and whom you know, dictate your next steps, not preset ideas or predictions. This asset-based thinking begins with what you have (as a college, as a community etc ) and not on seeking out what you do not have. 2. The Affordable Loss principle: What am I willing to lose? Invest only as much as you can afford to lose. This allows for experimentation and the ability for people to opt into your idea in a way that they, too, can feel ownership. 3. The Crazy Quilt principle: Form partnerships with committed stakeholders. Build a network of selfselected stakeholders and create new opportunities with committed participants. Let people join in your idea and create a role for themselves that will advance your mission and exponentially increase the potential upside. 2 P a g e

3 4. The Lemonade principle: Turn the unexpected into a positive. Embrace and leverage contingencies; interpret bad news and surprises as potential clues to new opportunities. By managing to affordable loss you maintain your ability to react to surprise in a positive way. 5. The Pilot-in-the-Plane principle: Control outcomes, don t predict them. The future is waiting to be created, not discovered. This principle unifies the others with a mindset towards creating the future. Focus on actions within your control. Don t worry about what the future may hold or what others may do, but work to create your own upside. The entrepreneurial method outlined above was derived by observing expert entrepreneurs. NACCE saw the possibilities in how it could support the efforts of community colleges. The principles were applied in the community college environment through a series of pilots that confirmed their applicability. Now, NACCE is looking to widen the adoption of these concepts and capture specific examples of what it means to act entrepreneurially as a community college. By having colleges try to apply these concepts, NACCE intends to gather stories and examples of wins and challenges that can be used to scale these learnings to the broader college community. NACCE and The Coleman Foundation are looking for a handful of committed colleges eager to begin or hone their entrepreneurial journey by implementing the pledge utilizing the entrepreneurial method. We want the colleges to document their journey, share their failures and promote their successes so that we can share this work with the greater NACCE membership and together define and grow entrepreneurial colleges. We are interested in committed colleges willing to learn, be flexible, do the work, have fun, be highlighted and share their stories. FINALIST SELECTION PROCESS Based on the outlined eligibility and proposal requirements below, NACCE and The Coleman Foundation will select the finalist college teams to pitch for funding. During the conference and after receiving the Master Class training, finalist college teams will modify their proposed plans to incorporate the entrepreneurial method. Technical assistance will be available for all college teams to aid in this modification. The competition will occur on the afternoon of Tuesday, October 14 and the colleges will pitch to a panel of judges comprised of The Coleman Foundation, NACCE, and Effectuation representatives. When the Coleman Foundation evaluates your pitch, in addition to the traditional criteria, they will be looking at it from the view of the entrepreneurial method. New this year, they will disburse funding based on their affordable loss for the concepts pitched by the colleges. The initial grant may be less than requested in the pitch. Those who are given funding will be asked to provide monthly updates on the progress of their idea. Once ideas are implemented and progress is made, approximately 6 months later (April 2015), Coleman will be willing to hear the funded teams requests for additional funding for continuation and scale up, based on the success of their application of the entrepreneurial method to that point. To prepare you for the insertion of the entrepreneurial method into your approach, you will be asked to complete pre-work as outlined in the eligibility requirements below. 3 P a g e

4 ELIGIBILITY & PARTICIPATION REQUIREMENTS College must be a NACCE member and a non-profit institution. College presidents must have signed onto NACCE s Presidents for Entrepreneurship Pledge (PFEP) prior to September 5, Team requirement to attend the Master Class on effectuation, Sunday, October 12 at the NACCE2014 Annual Conference to include at a minimum, the college president, and an entrepreneurial champion who is both willing and able to implement the method at their college. Additional team members are welcome to attend. Registration costs are $199 per person and is at the expense of the college. Integration of the entrepreneurial method into project implementation and execution of scope of work. At the conference, you will be expected to pitch your college s plan to implement one or more of the PFEP action steps utilizing the entrepreneurial method within a ten-month period (November 2014 August 2015). The pre-work and Master Class will position you to be ready to integrate the entrepreneurial method into your prepared application at the conference. Focus on the implementation of PFEP action steps towards building an entrepreneurial culture on the community college campus. SUBMISSION PROCESS SUBMISSION DEADLINE: Completed plans will be accepted by NACCE between Friday, August 1, 2014 and 12pm Eastern Time on Friday, September 5, Incomplete and late entries will not be accepted. Submissions must include five parts (see below): 1. Community College Info 2. Project Description 3. Project Budget 4. Project Resources 5. General College Readiness (Evidencing Institutional Support) Submissions must be submitted through the NACCE website at: The submission form will be available on July 31, Once the completed form has been submitted, you will receive an automatic confirmation from NACCE. PART 1: COMMUNITY COLLEGE INFO TO BE COMPLETED ON THE ONLINE FORM PART 2: PROJECT DESCRIPTION (TO BE ATTACHED AS A DOCUMENT TO YOUR ONLINE SUBMISSION) This should be no more than 3 pages and must articulate how you will do the following: You are charged with creating an action plan describing how you will implement any or all of the Presidents for Entrepreneurship action steps (see full description in appendix) at your college and in your community over a 10 month time frame beginning November 2014 to August Included in the Presidents for Entrepreneurship action steps are example activities. Please note that you are not limited to the suggested activities and are encouraged to think of what you believe will have the greatest impact for your community. 4 P a g e

5 PART 3: PROJECT BUDGET (TO BE ATTACHED AS A DOCUMENT TO YOUR ONLINE SUBMISSION) Project Budget Grant Request Other Funding Sources Total Funds (Request + Other) Coleman Foundation (up to $15,000) Institutional Support Other Funders Total Revenue $ $ $ Total Expense $ $ $ PART 4: PROJECT RESOURCES Identifying assets and stakeholders are two components of the entrepreneurial method. We ask that you complete these exercises as preparation for the Master Class. ASSET INVENTORY List the assets your college has on hand and how they can be used to move your project forward. Consider the following possibilities: Physical assets (land, buildings, equipment, etc.) Human assets (students, faculty, administrators, staff, etc.) Intangible assets (brand, intellectual property, culture, curriculum, etc.) Relationship assets (community, agencies, businesses, government, etc.) Others? 5 P a g e

6 STAKEHOLDER INVENTORY Consider who you can engage to strengthen the success of your idea. List here who will be a part of the project and what they have committed to it. When identifying stakeholders, consider all possible options available to you: community, local businesses, students, faculty, staff, administration, alumni, etc. PART 5: GENERAL COLLEGE READINESS (Evidencing Institutional Support) 1. A one page list of your community colleges 5 biggest problems / challenges 2. A one page narrative of the success story at your community college that you re most proud of within the past 12 months. Identify who came together to make this success happen and how they did it. 3. Evidence President has signed the pledge 4. College wide dissemination of the PFEP Baseline Assessment to be completed by diverse stakeholders at the college, with a subset goal of 100 participants completed by September 30, COMPETITION REQUIREMENTS Presentation will be developed prior to NACCE2014, honed at the conference by integrating the entrepreneurial method into the plan and then delivered during the conference, (up to a 10-minute presentation). Applying the entrepreneurial method. During the Master Class you will be taught the entrepreneurial method (the 5 principles explained above). You will learn how to apply them to your proposal. You will then have two days to build on your pitch by including elements of the entrepreneurial method. College teams will present an overview of their proposed project to a panel of judges comprised of Coleman Foundation, NACCE, and Effectuation representatives. Special attention will be paid to the application of the entrepreneurial method learned during the Master Class. Questions from Coleman Foundation, NACCE, and Effectuation representatives will follow. AWARD PROCESS The Coleman Foundation, NACCE, and Effectuation representatives will select college teams as awardees. The winners will be announced at the closing general session on Wednesday, October 15. PROJECT MANAGEMENT REQUIREMENTS To ensure that the experiences of the winning colleges are shared with the entire NACCE learning community, each award recipient must agree to the following requirements during the grant funding period: Participate in a monthly call with NACCE staff. Contribute blogs, videos, or other interactive information-sharing with the NACCE community. Work with a NACCE evaluator to share progress towards proposed benchmarks. Submit a five-month progress report and an end-of-project final report (programmatic and fiscal). Winners are expected to share project outcomes at the 2015 NACCE Conference. 6 P a g e

7 TIMELINE July 9, 2014 September 5, 2014 September 19, 2014 September 30, 2014 October 12, 2014 October 12-14, 2014 October 14, 2014 October 15, 2014 November 1, 2014 March 31, 2015 August 31, 2015 September 30, 2015 RFP released Deadline to submit proposals through NACCE website & sign up for Master Class Teams notified of invitation to present overview of proposed project PFEP Baseline Assessments due College teams attend Master Class on Effectuation at NACCE2014 College teams adjust proposals to integrate entrepreneurial method into proposal Presentations at NACCE Annual Conference in Phoenix, AZ Awards announced at NACCE Annual Conference Project period begins Progress report due (5-month) Project period ends Final report due (10-month) Questions? Contact Guin Griswold, NACCE Membership Coordinator, at 7 P a g e

8 APPENDIX Presidents for Entrepreneurship Pledge: Five Action Steps for Creating Economic Vitality through Entrepreneurship Following are five action steps we believe are crucial for community colleges to advance entrepreneurship in their communities. 1. Create or Expand Internal & External Teams Dedicated to Entrepreneurship INTERNAL Establish or expand an on-campus team of administrators, faculty, and staff to meet on a regular basis and discuss all activities related to entrepreneurship. Be inclusive in including representatives from every area of campus as you will get your best ideas and entrepreneurial thinking from often overlooked places. Here are some ideas to get you started: Include individuals from academic programs, workforce development initiatives and continuing education (credit and non-credit). Working through your President, engage your Board of Trustees (many may be entrepreneurs) in your commitment to entrepreneurship by discussing these commitments in ongoing board meetings. This clear communication will unleash additional entrepreneurial potential in your community when the Trustees recognize the role of the community colleges in promoting job creation. Working with the Board determine how new relationships can support your efforts. Involve your Alumni Office and have a representative added to your internal team to ensure that you are identifying alumni involved in entrepreneurship. Initiate conversations using NACCE s Quick Start Guides and other resources to begin working through these commitments and to continue identifying ways to infuse the culture of your college with entrepreneurship. EXTERNAL Identify entrepreneurs and other groups outside of the community college (Universities, SBDC s, Women s Business Centers, Chambers, Angel Investors, Economic Development Organizations) that are interested in supporting entrepreneurship in your community. Create an easily navigated landscape of resources available to current or potential entrepreneurs in your community. The internal champion must be committed to including everyone so that all groups are invested in the process. Be sure entrepreneurs are at the table and driving these conversations to ensure relevancy of the activities and resources to the end users. By having all the players in your community identified, you will know best how to leverage each other s resources. Actively cultivate partnerships to identify ways community assets could be better used. Map the landscape and have key people from your college attend regular functions to spur startup/small business activity outside the college walls. If there is no such activity present, begin! Offer free meeting and conference space to community entrepreneurial groups outside of the school Work to identify gaps and overlaps to most efficiently serve the community. Create a community-wide triage point for entrepreneurs. With your community partners, create a Triage Team to meet with new and potential business owners for assessing their needs and identifying businesses with fast growth potential. Not all potential and current entrepreneurs know exactly what their needs are; therefore, a process of key diagnostic questions will reveal likely needs, useful resources and their most appropriate partners. 8 P a g e

9 2. Increase Entrepreneurs Engagement in Community Colleges Entrepreneurs are everywhere. You ve identified entrepreneurs as part of your external team and now you will want to engage them in your efforts so as to ensure relevancy of your work. Many successful entrepreneurs either attended a community college and/or believe that community colleges are an excellent starting point for an entrepreneur. As identified throughout these commitments, there are multiple access points for current or potential entrepreneurs to engage with the college. Identify, engage, and convene at least five entrepreneurs in your community. These entrepreneurs will then open their networks and you can begin engaging them in a variety of activities, including: Teaching Offering internships to your students Mentorship Advisory Group CEO Roundtables Invite them to provide input on others ways they may be interested in supporting the college. 3. Engage In Industry Cluster Development Industry clusters aren t just a buzzword they are living ecosystems made up of interconnected companies, specialized suppliers, service providers, and aligned institutions, all working together in a particular field in a certain region. Your robust external team must reflect your regions industry clusters, ensuring that community colleges are not only aware of local industry trends, but fueling industry development with highly trained suppliers, providers, and leaders. How can you fuel the fire of entrepreneurship in a particular industry? Many NACCE-member colleges have formed industry-specific advisory groups to ensure that they remain abreast of industry trends and can take proactive measures to remain relevant to the local entrepreneurial ecosystem. Have meaningful dialogues with your state and regional economic development groups and local, similarly aligned organizations such as the Chamber of Commerce, the Economic Development Council, and the SBDC to keep a pulse on local industry trends and use this information to grow your external team to include representatives from existing and up-and-coming fields. Create a cluster map of the suppliers, providers, leaders, companies, and aligned institutions and engage them in program development and visioning. With your internal and external teams, identify companies and entrepreneurs to ensure relevancy of your industry specific initiatives 4. Leverage Both Community College and Community Assets to Spur Innovation and Job Creation The community may view community colleges as open access institutions that are gateways for additional education (transfers to universities) and educating people for realistic businesses such as self-employment etc While this is an important role of the community college, how can their role in spurring entrepreneurial activity in their communities be expanded? What other assets or access points does the college possess that could positively impact the rate of entrepreneurship in its community? Think in terms of people (intellectual capital, human capital, skills, expertise, networks, designers, notary, architects), place (space, accelerator, incubator, meet-ups), and things (facilities, equipment, labs). ASSESS INVENTORY: Inventory potential common-use facilities, equipment or tools. (Refer to people, place, and things above for ideas). What underutilized capital infrastructure could be offered at no cost to generate good will or leased out on an hourly or daily basis? Shared resources of all kinds can fuel startups and job creations by lowering the hurdle for capital investment. 9 P a g e

10 MAKE ASSETS AVAILABLE: How can community colleges make inventoried assets available to the community and develop a system for sharing costs of those assets. Some items to consider might be liability insurance needs; review programs such as TechShop or FabLabs at community colleges to see how this might be done. LEVERAGING COMMUNITY ASSETS: Besides the community college s own assets, there may be assets in the greater community that can be leveraged. Can these be identified? Open a dialogue with supportive businesses, non-profits, entrepreneurs, and any others you have identified in your communities entrepreneurial ecosystem to determine non-cash resources that can be leveraged as services for the startup/small business community. 5. Create Buzz and Broad Exposure of your College s Commitment to Entrepreneurship Letting your community know that you are actively supporting entrepreneurial efforts will be a natural outgrowth of all of the previous commitment activities. There are many additional activities that can bring high visibility to your college so that the community knows you are a proud supporter and friend of the entrepreneurial community. Here are a few specific examples: Bring at least one community-wide event to your college this year such as Start-up Weekend. Share out your commitments to the local media and NACCE for wide-spread distribution. Use this as an opportunity to publicly journal your progress to the outside world. Find entrepreneurial success stories within your community and beyond that originated within your college through alumni tracking (this is where your alumni representative on your internal team comes in handy) then promote these stories with NACCE and other community colleges. Share outcomes and best practices from your commitments annually at the NACCE conference and/or through NACCE s journal, Community College Entrepreneurship. 10 P a g e