EFCO member Rally Software hosted over 100 people last night for our first ever Summer Startup Happy Hour. Attendees included EFCO members and sponsors, and participants and mentors from TechStars, Unreasonable Institute, and Startup Summer. The agenda included several rounds of ‘speed-dating’ to facilitate cross-program networking and finished with recognition of our most recent member contributions – bringing our total community impact to over $500K! We also welcomed new members and heard from our community foundation partners about their latest focus areas.

Thanks to all who showed up – and if we missed you, check out the great local coverage (Daily Camera, BCBR, BCBR) we received and be sure to join us next time!

EFCO Press Release 7.11.12

Boulder July 11,2012 – Entrepreneurs Foundation of Colorado (EFCO) today announced a grant of unrestricted funds to The Community Foundation Serving Boulder County and Rose Community Foundation. The grants, totaling more than $430,000, were made possible by a contribution of profits from Foundry Group and TechStars and the recent initial public offering (IPO) of Jive.

Established in 2007, EFCO is a network of Colorado entrepreneurs whose companies have joined together to give a portion of their founding equity or a portion of their yearly profits to the community. EFCO received equity in Jive when the EFCO member company, Filtrbox, was acquired by Jive in 2010. Foundry Group, a venture capital firm focused on investing in early-stage information technology companies, has endowed EFCO with a portion of its carried interest.  Foundry is the first VC firm in the country to provide community funding through the EF Network. TechStars, an accelerator program that provides mentoring and investment to startups, also joined EFCO with a commitment of an annual percentage of profit.

“With the increasing activity in mergers and acquisitions, as well as favorable public market offerings, we’re finally witnessing the entrepreneurial seeds of giving and corporate social responsibility that we sowed in the last decade,” said Ryan Martens, Board Chair of EFCO and CTO of Rally Software. “It’s starting to bloom into real community benefits in Colorado. With Foundry and TechStars’ gifts and Jive’s IPO, the grant to EFCO will generate an incredible community benefit that will be felt both in Denver and Boulder for years to come.”

Realizing cash is limited with start-up companies, EFCO works to encourage entrepreneurs throughout the region to earmark equity for their community early in a company’s inception. Upon a private sale or initial public offering, these shares become liquid and transfer into the community. These grants are typically 1 percent of early equity or 1 percent of profits. During the past 13 years, the Entrepreneurs Foundation Network, of which EFCO is an affiliate, has partnered with more than a thousand companies across the United States and Israel.

Together, Foundry Group’s, TechStars’, and Jive’s contributions will amount to $430,073. The Foundry and TechStars gifts are part of long-term commitments to EFCO. The organizations will continue to receive a portion of proceeds from future exits in the Foundry and TechStars portfolio.

“We’re honored that our initial commitment through EFCO has allowed us to make such a significant contribution to our community,” said Seth Levine, managing director of Foundry Group. “We encourage other VC firms to consider EFCO as a way to begin their own philanthropic program.”

“It’s reassuring to know that our contribution through Filtrbox allows us to leave a permanent mark on our community,” said Ari Newman, founder of Filtrbox and former vice president at Jive.

“We’re so appreciative of Foundry Group, TechStars, Filtrbox and Jive for their support,” said Josie Heath, president, The Community Foundation Serving Boulder County. “Gifts to the unrestricted grantmaking funds of community foundations are visionary because they are invested strategically in nonprofit organizations that are making the most impact on pressing local issues.”

“We’re pleased to have been selected to receive this generous grant from Filtrbox,” says Sheila Bugdanowitz, Rose Community Foundation president and CEO. “We appreciate when businesses choose to partner with us by contributing to our unrestricted grantmaking funds. This allows Rose Community Foundation to use its local expertise to make strategic philanthropic investments in our community and demonstrate that businesses can and do play an integral part in helping solve community needs.”

The timing of these gifts is particularly sweet for The Community Foundation Serving Boulder County, as they come in the final months of a four-year campaign to double the grant-making impact of the Foundation’s unrestricted grantmaking fund, The Community Trust. With these gifts, the campaign has drawn within $250,000 of its $4 million goal.

Please join the companies and members of the Entrepreneurs Foundation of Colorado on the weekend of September 10^th and 11^th to “Honor Lives Changed” on September 11, 2001 by “Changing Lives today.”   We are working with four community organizations to support volunteering and fundraising efforts in both Boulder and Denver.

To honor the 10^th anniversary of the tragedy of September 11, 2001, the Entrepreneurs Foundation of Colorado is launching a new annual event, Changing Lives Day. As an affiliate of the Global Entrepreneurs Foundation, the Colorado Chapter is joining a growing number of EF affilates to focus our members into service around this weekend.  Like our annual volunteer events in April, with Boulder’s Volunteer Connection and Denver’s Metro Volunteers, this organized event will make it easy and fun for our member companies to get out and give back.

For our inaugural  “ Changing Lives Day” we are excited to offer two volunteer opportunities in Boulder, as well as two in Denver.

Boulder – Saturday, September 10^th:  The 22^nd annual Cause for Paws Doggie Dash

This 4K run or 3K walk at the Boulder Reservoir is the largest fundraiser for the Humane Society of Boulder County. Please consider registering to participate on your own corporate team (minimum team size is 6, maximum team size is 15) or the EFCO team.   Based on the amount of pledges you raise, you can win some very cool gifts too.

Denver – Saturday, September 10^th:  Rocky Mountain PBS’s Kids Fun Fest

Please consider volunteering in Downtown Denver to help Rocky Mountain PBS host their annual Kids Fun Fest.  Register to help between 6:30 AM and 3:30 PM on the Volunteer Match Site.

Boulder – Sunday, September 11^th- : The Buffalo Bicycle Classic

Please consider registering to participate on your own corporate team or the EFCO team for a 14, 35, 50, 70 or 100 mile bike ride for scholarship funds to CU’s Department of Arts & Science students like Cindy.  To volunteer, talk to Dennis Berry via the volunteer page.  As a team, we will compete to win the team competition.  Don’t miss the chatter on the race facebook page.  Feel free to donate to our team too.

Denver Events – Sunday, September 11^th: Extreme Community Makeover

Please consider contacting Angela to help ECM at God’s Grace Church in the Westwood part of Denver between 9:00 AM and 2:00 PM.  Extreme Community Makeover coordinates volunteer teams to partner with underserved people to improve their own homes and neighborhoods.

About the Entrepreneurs Foundation of Colorado

The Entrepreneurs Foundation of Colorado was formed in 2007 by a volunteer board and five companies:  Collective Intellect, Me.dium, Newsgator, Rally Software and Tendril.  As the Colorado affiliate of the Entrepreneurs Foundation, we are committed to building strong companies and stronger communities through 1% equity and profit endowments as well as volunteering to community non-profits.  We have approximately 25 member companies and 10 alumni who have given over $100,000 and thousands of volunteer hours to our Colorado communities.  For more information on EFCO, please visit efcolorado.org or contact our board members.

CEO – Ryan Martens, Ryan@rallydev.com

Administrator – Amanda Ford, Amanda@commfound.org

Board Members: Cindy Haag – Rally Software; Chris Barge – The Community Foundation Serving Boulder County; Josie Heath – The Community Foundation Serving Boulder County; Joshua Forman – Symplified; Karyn German – Closely; Keith Olivia – Roberts & Olivia; Ken Fugate – Square One Bank; Lee Reichert – Lathrop Gage;  Mike Platt –Cooley; Tom Keller- Serial Entrepreneur

Trustees Emeritus: Frank Amoroso, Brad Feld, Kirk Holland, Bill Roberts, Kyle Leffkoff, JB Holston, and Tim Connor

If you love entrepreneurship and supporting our community, don’t miss the final event of year 2 for Boulder’s own Unreasonable Institute – The Unreasonable Climax.

All our 26 entrepreneurs will be presenting for 5 minutes each at the Historic Boulder Theater! Our goal is to pack the Boulder Theater! Attendees are flying in from Washington, D.C., San Francisco, Austin, and even Mumbai! The audience will include venture capitalists both from Boulder and from across the US, a Time Magazine Hero of the Planet, an education pioneer recognized by Barack Obama, and the CEO of Richard Branson’s Carbon War Room. You’ll hear from entrepreneurs recognized by the World Health Organization, contracting with the US Navy, funded by the Indian Government, and partnering with WalMart. We’re biased, but we think this will be the most inspiring 5 hours of your life.

It is actually three great events that you can pick and choose from or be a VIP and go to all three:

• 26 Entrepreneurs giving you the 5 minute story of their social enterprise in the Historic Boulder Theater
• An intimate dinner with all the fellows, mentors and staff at the St. Julian
• A pajama party for VIP supporters, fellows, mentors and staff

What could be more fun and important on your Friday afternoon and evening than this?  (See the details, registrations and discount code for members of the entrepreneurship community below)

I am so fired up about this because, I have been spending my first sabbatical from Rally, as the Entrepreneur in Residence at this summer’s Unreasonable Institute.  From personal experience, I can tell you this is an unreasonable class of fellows who all can impact at least a million people in the world. These social entrepreneurs all have hugely impacting stories that fill your head and heart with the glorius feelings of joy and hope.  In addition, they all have real businesses that are working and they need your help to grow and prosper.  Please forward this to all the employees in your company.

 

Enter “CommunityDiscount” as discount code to get 40% off! - Click here to get signed up!

(please treat this discount code top secret… thanks) 

Hope to see you there – Ryan Martens

 

 

 

 

There is a great event happening in September for people interested in serving on a non-profit board. It is also a great place for non-profit employees to get some professional development. It is being put on by an EFCO sister organization – Social Venture Partners. More info at this link:

Boulder County Board Match is Boulder County’s premier event strengthening non-profit boards and the dedicated volunteers serving our community.  This evening conference will provide residents with education on non-profit board service, current board members with growth opportunities, and non-profit staff with professional development.  Residents and non-profits will make connections during workshop sessions and at a table fair/networking hour.  This event is being reasonably priced at $30 per person to encourage broad community participation.

We had over 75 people show up and help Growing Gardens get ready for their annual fund raising sale. Employees from Rally, Application Experts, Tensegrity, and Symplfied were there. As well as representatives from Roberts & Olivia LLC, Intel Capital, and Boulder Community Foundation. All in all the event was a huge success.
It’s not too late to help out Growing Gardens – if you need a plant or seedlings for your garden this year, come to their annual sale on May 14/15, May 21/23, or May 28.

In previous years, we have partnered with the Volunteer Connection’s I Volunteer! day to promote volunteering in our member communities. This year, Volunteer Connection did not organize Volunteer Day. We have reached out to Growing Gardens and have started a volunteer day of our own. Growing Gardens had relied on Volunteer Day to help prepare for their annual seedling sale. They are a community-based garden organization that helps people from all walks of life learn about growing your own food.

This years event will be from 3PM-6PM on Friday, April 15th. Beer and snacks will be provided, either by EFCO or Rally, a major EFCO sponsor. Come join in what we think will be the most fun volunteer EFCO event ever. Contact Claire Young, cyoung@symplified.com, for more information.

Hope to see you there!

Are you a woman entrepreneur and/or do you know women entrepreneurs who are striving to take their business to the next level?  Do you want to learn more about Make Mine a Million $ Business (M3), a program the helps women entrepreneurs grow and build sustainable enterprises, create jobs, and develop innovative programs and services?  Are you thinking of attending the M3 1000 event taking place in Denver on April 4^th, 2011?

The Women’s College (TWC)  and The Women’s Foundation of Colorado (WFCO) are co-sponsoring a Make Mine a Million $ Business Pitch Party. Come and see for yourself what the M3 buzz is all about!

• March 15, 2011
• 5:30-7:30 pm
• Garden Room of the Chambers Center, 1901 E Asbury Ave, Denver, CO 80208
• Please RSVP to Ashley Beaudry at Ashley.Beaudry@du.edu or 303-871-6068 by Tuesday, March 8^th

If you are interested in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), Integrated Philanthropy or the Entrepreneur’s Foundation, Don’t miss this event in Austin at the end of March.

Let’s Play Conference Brochure

I attended the last event in San Jose, California in May of 2009 and it was fantastic.  Very practical session and experienced folks teaching you and your team how to be great at CSR.  Two of our board members are going, please let Amanda or I know if you plan to attend.

Next week is the Rocky Mountain Venture Capital Association’s annual pitch event in the Beaver Creek, Colorado, also known as VCIR Winter.  In addition to all the great pitches, and networking highlighted on the VCIR Winter blog, we will be there to introduce the Entrepreneur’s Foundation concept to all the companies, entrepreneurs and service providers.  We will introduce EFCO with a short talk early on February 9th and have a table on set up to answer questions during lunch.    In addition, we have created a special partnership with the VCIR Poker Tournament on Wednesday night with a fundraising opportunity benefiting benefit EFCO directly.

I can not thank the RMVCA board enough for helping us elevate our message to their team, sponsors and participants.  As a result of their support, we have received direct sponsorship of EFCO for this event from RMVCA itself, Silicon Valley Bank, KPMG, Square 1 Bank, Cooley Godward, Holmes, Roberts and Owens LLP and Holland and Hart.

If you are interested in the Entrepreneur’s Foundation, please make sure to stop by our table or track down one of board members or company members.  They will be waring these badges.