We couldn’t quite rally the crowd we needed for volunteering with Growing Gardens this weekend. Keep checking in – we’ll get something else on the calendar soon.

Thanks!

Can you spend a Saturday morning sharing your professional experience and business insights with a nonprofit organization that is striving for greater revenue diversity, financial sustainability, and social impact?  Social Venture Partners (SVP) is hosting a new program called the Social Enterprise Scrimmage on April 27, 2013.  We are looking for 30 volunteer mentors to pitch in from 9:00am-12:00pm in Boulder.

Please join us and invite other community members that you think would be a good fit to serve as a volunteer mentor.  A short online application is due on April 5, 2013.  Volunteer mentors will be provided with more detailed information about the nonprofit social enterprise they are assigned to advise.

We are looking for mentors with experience in refining business concepts, start-ups, business planning, marketing, fund development, securing working capital, research, financial modeling/management, human resources, organizational development, intellectual property, legal business structures, other Legal advice, nonprofit leadership, and merchandizing/retail.

Thank you,

Jennie Arbogash

SVP Executive Director

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/scrimmageapp

Event Info.

Join EFCO and Silicon Flatirons for ‘Crash Course: Corporate Social Responsibility and the Startup Community’ on Wed. April 3rd at 5:15. Panelists include EFCO Board Chair and Rally Founder, Ryan Martens; Former Polycom Director of Philanthropy and Community Relations, Geri Mitchell Brown; and Mark Lowenstein, CU Law Professor.

EFCO’s partnering with Rally Software to help Growing Gardens prep for their Spring Plant Sale. We’re looking for volunteers (families welcome!) for Sat. April 6th. Details (including time) to come.

If you’re interested, shoot Morgan an email: morgan@commfound.org.

The Rockies Venture Club’s 6th Annual Angel Capital Summit for angel and venture capital investors and companies looking for funding to launch or expand their businesses will be held March 19-20 on the University of Denver campus.

One of the largest private-investment conferences in the Rocky Mountain Region, this year’s Summit is expected to draw more than 400 attendees, including both investors and companies looking for funding.

The conference will be in the Davis Auditorium of the University of Denver’s Sturm Hall, 2000 E. Asbury Avenue. The cost is $199 for full members of Rockies Venture Club, $249 for basic members, $299 for non-members and $49 for students with a valid ID. Register online http://rockiesventureclub.wildapricot.org

Companies seeking an opportunity to pitch at the event can apply at www.rockiesventureclub.org/pitch. There is a rolling deadline through February 22, with the best companies being selected early. Each company is assigned to a pitch coach who helps them through the process.  There is no cost other than admission to apply or to pitch at the Angel Capital Summit.

Thanks to those who braved the snow storm to make it to RAFT on Feb. 20th. We had a great time and built a ton of classroom kits for teachers. Building up a thirst, we retired to Galvanize for some happy hour beers and networking.

Great work all and if you missed it, don’t worry – there will be more volunteer opportunities soon!

Please join the Knight Foundation for an Inspirational Happy Hour on Open Government

When: This upcoming Tuesday, Feb. 19^th from 5:30-7pm

Where: Hub Boulder – 1877 Broadway, Suite 100 in Boulder

There will be light food and drinks – and an opportunity to visit with the Knight Foundation on their newest initiative to connect citizens and local government…more information below.

Thank you!

Knight News Challenge of 2013 on Open Gov:

We’re looking for answers to one central question: “How might we improve the way citizens and governments interact?” We think that new tools and approaches are giving citizens to drive change, and we’ve crafted a News Challenge to help deliver on that potential.

To get there, we are partnering with OpenIDEO, a division of the design and innovation firm IDEO, on a new platform we hope will not only improve the challenge application process but also open the conversation to more people while pushing creative thinking.

The first difference you’ll notice is the introduction of contest stages – the Inspiration phase starts now. We are looking for a range of people – innovators, community leaders, government officials – to share their ideas, hopes and needs for improving civic life.

We’ll be featuring these inspirations throughout the challenge to help spur more ideas. When that stage ends on Feb. 19, we’ll open the contest to submissions. (A full list and timeline of the stages follows.)

In the end, we hope to find and fund ideas – big and small – that rethink the relationship between people and governments. Our definition for Open Gov is broad, and includes innovative ideas for anything from data transparency to citizen participation.

We’re looking forward to this, and hope you’ll join us on this journey.

Here’s the timeline for the Knight News Challenge on Open Gov.

Inspiration: (Feb. 12 – Feb. 19)
At the beginning of the challenge we invite everyone to post obstacles, solutions and existing projects. These ‘thought starters’ help us gain a better understanding of the problem area and potentially form the basis for the ideas that others propose. You can post an inspiration whether or not you have a project idea.

Submission: (Feb. 19 – Mar. 18)
This is where you submit your idea. The best entries are concise, clear and visual – you can easily upload images and videos. To maximize the benefit of feedback, apply early, as submissions can be edited at any point. (For more submission tips, read Kio Stark’s blog post from last year on how to make your News Challenge application stand out.

Feedback: (Mar. 18 – Mar. 29)
After submissions close, we’ll keep the conversation going by keeping the site open for comments. We invite everyone to ask questions and connect with the community.

Refinement: (Mar. 29 – Apr. 5)
The refinement phase allows semifinalists to utilize feedback, edit entries and clarify questions that may have come up in the comments.

Evaluation: (Apr. 5 – June 10)
During the closed evaluation we’ll seek advice from outside advisors, conduct due diligence, interview the finalists face-to-face and recommend to our trustees which projects to fund.

Winners: (June 24-25)
We’ll announce winners at the Civic Media Conference at MIT!

EFCO members are invited to our upcoming hands-on volunteering event at RAFT  on Wednesday, Feb. 20th from 3:30-5pm, followed by a happy hour to celebrate our 13 new members from 5-7pm at Galvanize. Come put in a little community-minded sweat-equity and wash it down with a beer! We’d love for you to come for the whole afternoon but partial attendance is welcome, too.

At October’s Denver Startup Week we announced a ‘New Member Challenge’ to recuit 10 new EFCO members…with your support we surpassed that goal with 13:

• AppIt Ventures
• Arcstone Partners
• Ascend ERP Cloud
• Choozle
• Galvanize
• Infinite Buyer
• Mobiplug
• PivotDesk
• Prediculous
• Sport Bumper
• Vokl
• Radish Systems LLC
• Technical Integrity

We’ll also celebrate our new Board Members – 5 stellar community leaders committed to EFCO’s growth:

• Emily Berry, TriNet
• Jim Deters, Galvanize
• Mike Devery, Silicon Valley Bank
• Nicole Glaros, TechStars
• Shawn Stigler, Stigler-Wussow, LTD

Check out the full report and help us kick-off 2013!

Thanks to all who have turned out already for Denver Startup Week (http://denverstartupweek.com/). It’s been a jam-packed couple of days full of sessions, connections, ideas, happy hours, and more. It started Monday mid-day with a kick-off lunch at the Performing Arts Center that hosted 600 people. Our own Seth Levine gave a pitch for joining EFCO and announced our New Member Challenge – trying to get 10 new companies to join EFCO from the Denver community by the end of the year.

We then joined with our friends at Startup Colorado  to host breakfast at Mapquest on Tuesday morning for a crowd of more than 100. Moderated by Phil Weiser (Silicon Flatirons), panelists included EFCO’s Ryan Martens and Morgan Rogers, Startup Colorado’s Erik Metisik and Dan Caruso, Jan Horsfall from Colorado Springs, Christine Hudson from Fort Collins, Catherine Merigold, and others. Discussion was inspired by Brad Feld’s new book, Startup Communities, about how to build a vibrant entrepreneuial network up and down the Front Range, including giving back through programs like EFCO.

Tuesday wrapped with the Pay it Forward Happy Hour, hosted at Square 1 Bank’s new digs near Coors Field – thanks to EFCO Board Member, Ken Fugate.

Thanks to all who have turned out in support – we’re looking forward to the rest of the week, including Wednesday’s Startup Crawl through LoDo!

If you’ve heard about EFCO during Startup Week and you want to learn more, contact Morgan Rogers at morgan@commfound.org or 303-442-0436.

EFCO is a sponsor of Denver Startup Week, kicking off Oct. 22nd at 11am at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts. Most events are free – including the 2 EFCO is hosting. Registration is available online – please join us and register ahead of time because each event has limited space. We would love a good turnout from EFCO members – and are announcing a New Member Challenge for Denver companies. We hope to get 10 new EFCO members signed up from Denver in the month coming out of Startup Week.

EFCO is co-hosting a breakfast on Oct. 23rd with Startup Colorado about ‘Startup Communities’ – how we can build a vibrant, thriving entrepreneurial community along the Front Range.

We’re also pysched that Square 1 Bank is hosting a ‘Pay it Forward’ happy hour at their new LoDo office the afternoon of Oct. 23rd.

Sign up – tell your employees – tell your friends – tell your mom. Let’s get a great turnout!