Entrepreneurs Foundation of Colorado: Mobile Edition
Stories - Full Edition
- Intercambio Strategic Planning and particpation results
- First Annual "Give Back" Fun Run - Wet and Wonderful
- New EF Community Launched by Bay Area Team - Give it a try!
- New West Joins Entrepreneurs Foundation of Colorado
- Volunteer List for "Give Back" event - Saturday, Aug 16th '08
- Let the competition begin for 2008 bragging rights in EFCO
- Thank You EFCO
- Save the Date of Saturday, August 16th for a celebration and volunteering event
- Symplified Supports Entrepreneurs Foundation of Colorado
- Brown Bag Lunch notes with EFCO member companies
- Foundry Group Joins the Entrepreneurs Foundation of Colorado
- Mark Kramer Keynote at Corporate Citizenship Conference
- EFBay Area Conference and State of Corportate Citizenship in US
- How to Make Boots and Save the World: Timberland
- I Volunteer! Day




Intercambio Strategic Planning and particpation results - Top

Following the Friendship Fun Run for Intercambio and KGNU, a team of folks from six of the EFCO companies gathered at Rally for a two hour Strategic Planning session.KGNU_Intercambio.jpg

Using Rally's Agile coaches, Ronica, Rachel, Hubert and Tamara, the teams broke up into four groups to help the Intercambio team and board test their thinking with regards to the national expansion plans. The groups topics included:

Given these topics groups worked through collaborative exercises to expand and challenge their thinking. Finally, they worked to converge on recommendations to move forward with in each area. In my opinion, it was amazing fast and effective session to meld these diverse groups and share insights from our local business teams with this amazing non-profit. And, as a result of the effort, there is now an on-going, skills based volunteering team, that is helping Intercambio re-host its community management database into a more effective model using the non-profit, free-edition, of Salesforce.com. It was all I could have hoped for in our first event.

Thank you to all the teams that participated during the day including members from:

Thank you Mike Platt from Cooley, Godward & Kronish LLP and Bill Roberts from Hogan & Hartson LLP. We would not have have felt comfortable taking the leap without your help!




First Annual "Give Back" Fun Run - Wet and Wonderful - Top

Intercambio fun run .jpg
As you can see from this view of the field to the 8:15 AM start, the Fun was wet. After four months with no rain in Colorado, we were greeted with a great weekend that delivered 3" of rain for the "Give Back" event. It made it wet, but for those die-hards to who made it out it was wonderful! Thank you all for your participation!

Intercambio1k.jpg
The winners of the 1K Kids Fun Run

Thanks to the great shelters at Foothills park and the great folks from Intercambio and KGNU the morning was actually very warm. Following the Fun Run a group collected at Rally for the Intercambio strategic planning event. More on that part of the day and the participation winners in the next post.




New EF Community Launched by Bay Area Team - Give it a try! - Top

According to Diane Solinger at EFBayarea.org, "We developed EFcommunity as a resource for people who share our passion for corporate philanthropy and community involvement. "

EFCommunity is a place for anyone, anywhere to connect anytime and share ideas, ask questions, find resources, and more. EFCommunity is an open network so all who are committed to positive interactions about corporate philanthropy and community involvement are welcome to join and participate. To sign-in, go to: <http://efcommunity.ning.com/>

We're excited about the information, ideas and best practices that will be shared via EFCommunity and look forward to building a movement of corporate philanthropy and community involvement with you!




New West Joins Entrepreneurs Foundation of Colorado - Top

By Jonathan Weber , 8-13-08 on the New West Blog.

Start-up companies aren't usually in a position to spend money on philanthropy, and New West is no exception. Happily, though, one of our investors, Boulder-based venture capitalist Brad Feld, has helped develop an innovative new way for companies like ours to get involved in community philanthropy even at an early stage. I'm delighted to announce today our membership in the Entrepreneurs Foundation of Colorado, which is affiliated with the national Entrepreneurs Foundation.

The concept is simple: entrepreneurial companies donate shares equal to about one percent of their equity to the Foundation. If the company is successful, those shares will have significant value and the Foundation will thus share in the success. Companies can designate preferred beneficiaries of the shares, and we've chosen the Missoula Community Foundation and the Idaho Community Foundation. We can't of course make any guarantees, but we hope our involvement with the Entrepreneurs Foundation of Colorado will eventually translate into meaningful support for these organizations.
Our thanks to Brad and everyone involved with the Entrepreneurs Foundation for their creativity and commitment in developing this concept. And please be in touch if you're interested in getting involved.




Volunteer List for "Give Back" event - Saturday, Aug 16th '08 - Top

This is a list of the folks and companies signed up for the August 16th EFCO "Give-Back" event. If you would like to get added, simply send email to ryan@rallydev.com.

Fun Run Volunteers:
As a fun run volunteer, you will arrive at the Foothills park at 7:30 AM on the 16th to help help the Intercambio and KGNU team take registrations, run water and aid stations for the run. You will be done with this effort at 10:30 AM on that Saturday. We are looking for 40 volunteers.KGNU_Intercambio.jpg

Of course, you can volunteer and run in one of the two different waves! To sign-up for the run, please visit the Friendship run page at Regonline.

  1. Ryan Martens - Rally Software
  2. Josh Forman - Symplified
  3. Craig Langenfeld - Rally Software

Intercambio Strategic Planning Volunteers - Has moved to RALLY due to Rain:
As a strategic planning volunteer, you will work with other EFCO employees and the board of Directors for Intercambio in a facilitated session to help expand ideas and concepts for Intercambio's national expansion. Your work will start with a homework review of Intercambio's National plans. At 11:00 AM sharp, four teams will work for an hour lead by a Rally Software facilitator. We will finish at Noon for the party and leave our work up for other EFCO and Intercambio folks to review. We are looking for up to 40 volunteers.

  1. Hubert Smits - Rally Software - Facilitator
  2. Ryan Martens - Rally Software- Facilitator
  3. Rachel Weston - Rally Software - Facilitator
  4. Ronica Roth - Rally Software - Facilitator
  5. Tamara Sulaiman - Applied Scrum/Rally - Facilitator
  6. Karyn German - Newsgator
  7. Jean McAuliffe - Symplified
  8. Zach Long - Rally Software
  9. Claire Young - Symplified
  10. Coby Royer - Symplified
  11. Jenny Lynne - Confluence Commons
  12. Dan Forman - Rally Software
  13. Dave Hale - Rally Software
  14. Anita Taylor - Newsgator
  15. Bryan Smith - Rally Software
  16. Jim Hooton - Salesforce.com
  17. Craig Lachman - Newsgator
  18. Cindy Hagg - Rally Software
  19. Dudley McBride - Rally Software
  20. Brad Feld - Foundry Group
  21. Dale Aychman - Rally Software
  22. Intercambio Board Members - Niraj Naik, Brad Armstrong, Kate Thomson, Robert Hutchinson, Rachel Bloombaum, Shawn Camden and Karen Bernardi
  23. Intercambio Directors - Lee Shainis, Jenna Saldaña and Shawn Camden
  24. Community Foundation Serving Boulder County - 6 people

Current Volunteer Totals
Rally Software - 12
Symplified - 4
Newsgator - 3
Salesforce - 1
Confluence Commons - 1
Foundry - 1


And a special Thanks to our volunteer from Social Venture Partners - Brendan Rattiner and Hiedi Lauterbach for their help in coordinating this event.




Let the competition begin for 2008 bragging rights in EFCO - Top

The first annual EFCO Community Give-Back event is locked in for the morning and lunch on August 16th at Foothills Park in Boulder. The member companies EFCO will be competing for four prizes based on % of employee participation:

  1. Intercambio & KGNU Friendship Fun run participants and volunteers - register via Regonline
  2. Strategic planning participants
  3. Team Spirit (Given for the highest level of team building)
  4. Total Volunteer level (including all of the above and skills-basd volunteering sign-ups)

Winning companies will be able to choose a donation of $100 to go to their favorite local non-profit. Prize winners and the sponsors will also hold a prominent position on the front of the EFCO site for the next calendar year.

Please thank our Board Members and pro-bono lawyers at EFCO for putting up the sponsorship money this year.

Thank you Mike Platt from Cooley, Godward & Kronish LLP and Bill Roberts from Hogan & Hartson LLP.

If you do not know the details or how to volunteer, please contact your HR Department or CEO.




Thank You EFCO - Top

After four years of exams, group projects, and various tedious college assignments, a graduate's final wish is the perfect job. Unfortunately, the perfect job is often times hard to come by. Looking back on my semester with EFCO, I feel extremely lucky to have worked for and learned from the brilliant minds behind such an organization. I now know the importance of a sustainable relationship between community and company.

As I explore my own options for a career, I require companies to be involved in corporate citizenship, community involvement, and philanthropy. Colorado is lucky enough to have unique start-up inhabitants in which companies are willing to give back to the communities in which they strive to survive. EFCO is the future of sustainable philanthropy 2.0, in which company and community help each other to help themselves.

EFCO allowed me to gain insight into many different businesses and corporations in the Boulder/Denver area. Whether small or large, the member companies of EFCO all emphasize the importance of teamwork and giving back to the community at large through leveraging their skills. This passion has ultimately led to an August event in which all the member companies can work towards the common goal of corporate philanthropy.

Upon my own liquidation from EFCO, I wish to thank Ryan Martens for his outstanding teaching. I have learned many unique business lessons from him and can only hope a future boss is very similar. I would also like to thank Brad Feld for giving me the opportunity to work with EFCO and among the brilliant minds that make up the Board of Directors. Thanks!




Save the Date of Saturday, August 16th for a celebration and volunteering event - Top

On August 16th, the member companies of the Entrepreneurs Foundation of Colorado (EFCO) will celebrate our success by having a family picnic, volunteering and education event.

This is our first annual "Give-Back" celebration. At this event, we will be celebrating the success of our group in catalyzing corporate citizenship, community involvement and philanthropy in our communities. Strong Communities make Stronger Companies!

This event will actually be two separate events on the same day.

At 11:45, we will do a short overview on EFCO goals and directions. At Noon, we will sponsor beverages and desserts at a family picnic and introduce folks to a specific set of high-tech skills-based volunteering opportunities available in Boulder and Denver.

We realize that people will be involved at different levels for this event. We are looking for volunteers to the two events outlined above, as well as people to participate and run in the race. We also invite all employee families to bring a picnic and attend the 11:45 AM EFCO overview and celebration over lunch.

Please look for more details on the events and volunteering opportunities coming before July 4th. Feel free to contact me for more information.

Please forward this to all employees at your company. We plan to have a fun competition between companies on participation, volunteering and spirit.
Sincerely,

Ryan Martens
Ryan(dot)Martens(at)rallydev(dot)com




Symplified Supports Entrepreneurs Foundation of Colorado - Top

BOULDER, Colo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Symplified today announced that it has joined the Entrepreneurs Foundation of Colorado (EFCO) to support philanthropic efforts throughout the community. EFCO allows startup companies to donate a fraction of their equity to Boulder’s Community Foundation during initial stages of liquidity.

While they may want to directly support charities, most startups are not in a financial position to do so. Through EFCO, entrepreneurs can focus on building their business while meeting their philanthropic goals.

“Philanthropy, volunteerism and community involvement are core values at Symplified,” said Eric Olden, founder and CEO of Symplified. “EFCO enables us to maintain our company’s commitment to giving back and supporting the local community, at a time when our financial resources are invested in building a company. We are grateful to EFCO for the opportunity to make this contribution.”

Donations from EFCO to the Community Foundation are channeled to various non-profit organizations throughout Colorado, allowing EFCO to focus on working with entrepreneurs to help them meet their philanthropic objectives. Contributing companies simply select a cause, and the Community Foundation takes care of the rest. EFCO is aligned with the Entrepreneurs Foundation, an organization formed in 1988 with affiliates in Silicon Valley, Austin, Southern California, New England, Dallas, Portland, Atlanta, Hawaii and Israel.

“Working with various local initiatives through the Community Foundation, EFCO allows entrepreneurs to support a range of causes from education to the environment,” said Brad Feld, Foundry Group managing director and one of the founding trustees of EFCO. “Symplified’s support helps us to achieve the critical mass of equity donations we need to truly make a difference in our community.”

About Symplified

Symplified’s vision is to enable Enterprise 2.0 to adopt cloud computing by providing the identity infrastructure for the On Demand world. Symplified was founded by the same management team that created Securant, which pioneered the market for Web access management software and was acquired for $140M by RSA Security. The company has developed revolutionary technology that addresses the complexity and cost associated with monolithic software approaches to Web identity management. Venture funding for the company was provided by Granite Ventures and Allegis Capital. Symplified is headquartered in Boulder, Colo., with offices in Palo Alto, Calif. Visit us on the web at www.symplified.com.




Brown Bag Lunch notes with EFCO member companies - Top

In planning for our summer event, we visited with the following member companies to survey and validate understanding and interest in EFCO. In general, we found that most employees did not know much about EFCO, but our lunch meetings drew 10 to 20 employees. These meetings provided a good platform for sharing about existing efforts and sparking other interests. Everyone sounded very interested in learning more and doing skills based volunteering, if it was well packaged.

Here is a quick summary from each of the brown bag lunches:

At GoldSystems, it was apparent their company wanted to give back. However, it was questioned whether this was an individual's or company's responsibility. The employees present decided to create a library for specific items that are needed in the community. They now have a centralized place for people to bring things, and every month captures a new need/item.

During the Brown Bag at ClickCaster, Keenan (CEO) shared his own involvement in the local community and beyond. Keenan helped start Bicycles for Humanity, through this non-profit 400 bikes have been sent to Africa to help aid workers navigate to various communities. The other employees at ClickCaster agreed that community involvement is a good idea and that working together as a team could also help them inside the office.

The folks at Lijit came up with an innovative idea to send email blasts to employees about upcoming events in the community. They also agreed that an online site/blog could be helpful if non-profits were to post what kind of help they needed in the tech department. This sort of website would help because all EFCO member companies could view who needs help with what and also leverage their skill sets. Finally, the question of quality vs. quantity was brought up. It is clear that there are many employees that make up EFCO member companies. It is important that the skills volunteered are actually helping to make a difference.

The employees at Solidware Technologies had previously tried to get involved with the community around Christmas. However, by the time they had everyone on board, all the volunteer activities they were interested in were full. They agreed that it is a struggle to find a volunteer opportunity for a large number of people in the Boulder Community. This was especially frustrating given that their time is relatively precious. This can be said for most all of the member EFCO companies and is thus an important issue to consider.

At our double show with TechStars and SocialThing, it was agreed that there needs to be a central location for what needs to be done in the community and for whom it needs to be done. It was important to the employees that a volunteer activity at the mid-year event be locally helpful and engaging. They believe it is important for a proper education of what is going on in the Boulder Community so that member companies/employees can really understand the problems and needs in order to help make a difference. The employees seemed eager to come together to do something that can make a difference.

Finally at Newsgator, we were able to rope in Phil Nash from the Rose Foundation at the first pitch in Denver. We discovered through the Rose team a much more elaborate non-profit network built up in Denver to support skills-based volunteering and community engagement. Karyn German and the Newsgator team were highly interested in applying their widget and social networking technology for use in this space.

If your firm did not do one, but you would still like to do one, please contact Ryan.

Ryan and I have taken all the feedback that has been generated from the various Brown Bag lunches we have attended and used it to help shape the mid-year event. The event is still in the preliminary planning stage, but more information will be available soon.




Foundry Group Joins the Entrepreneurs Foundation of Colorado - Top

Following is a repost of the blog titled Foundry Group Joins the Entrepreneurs Foundation of Colorado that was originally posted on the Foundry Group blog.

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All of us at Foundry Group try hard to be substantive members of our community. We have all chosen to live in Boulder, Colorado and we share the belief that giving back to the community in which we live is an important part of supporting this goal. In addition, we strongly believe in the cliché of "putting our money where our mouths are." As a result, we are proud to announce that we have recently become members of the Entrepreneurs Foundation of Colorado.

In early 2007, Brad was one of the founding members of the Entrepreneurs Foundation of Colorado (EFCO). EFCO was created to encourage the various constituencies of entrepreneurial companies in Colorado (including founders, employees, and investors) to incorporate philanthropy early in the creation of their companies and contribute to the long-term health and sustainability of our community. To date, eighteen entrepreneurial companies in Colorado have joined EFCO - Foundry Group makes nineteen.

The mechanics of EFCO are straightforward - companies contribute 1% of their post-Series A equity to EFCO. This is done in the form of a warrant that is only exercisable in a change of control so that there is no administrative overhead on the company. At the time of the grant, the company also allocates the future gift to a community foundation, a specific charity, or some combination. When the company has an exit event, the cash generated from this gift is distributed to the designated organizations.

The Entrepreneurs Foundation has chapters in eight other major cities around the country and one in Israel. To date there are approximately 700 member companies (representing over 20,000 employees) who have contributed over $15 million to support various charities. In Foundry Group's case, we are contributing 1% of our carried interest (the functional equivalent of 1% of our equity) to the Community Trust Endowed Fund of the Community Foundation Serving Boulder County.

In addition to the financial contribution, EFCO serves to engage all employees of an EFCO Member Company in the process of philanthropy - to the extent that they want to. In August EFCO will have its first major Entrepreneurs Foundation of Colorado Members event where it will gather as many members and their families together for a half day to learn more about local philanthropy, engage in a specific family friendly project that benefits our community, and have some fun together.

We are proud of how quickly the Colorado entrepreneurial community has embraced the Entrepreneurs Foundation of Colorado. Given that many well known venture capital firms participate in the Entrepreneurs Foundation program on a national basis, we hope others follow our lead and up the ante by participating financially.




Mark Kramer Keynote at Corporate Citizenship Conference - Top

At the Entrepreneur Foundation's Corporate Citizenship conference, Mark Kramer gave the keynote address to room full of Entrepreneur Foundation affiliates and corporate philanthropy folks. I was fortunate to personally met and chat with Mark at the CEO breakfast put on by Bill Campbell of Intuit and Justin Kitch of Homestead.com/Intuit at the Synopsys headquarters.

As I mentioned before, this was a great event with tons of practical advise for folks working to integrate philanthropy into their company and corporate culture. In addition, the conference could not have started at a more strategic level with Mark's talk. Mark is a co-founder of FSG with Michale Porter. Their first paper from 12/06 in HBR on the link between competitive advantage and corporate social responsibility sent me back in time to my MBA classes. It is strong paper for folks schooled in Porter competitive differentiation framework. His lecture leverage work from 2006 with his newest paper. "Changing the Game," can be found at Standford as part of their Social Innovation Review. This paper continues the discussion about the use of strategic Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) to help companies differentiate. The discussion of offensive and defensive efforts was a great model for me. I am really interested in getting EFCO companies to take a offensive approach to CSR even when they are small. What is more interesting is the implications this approach has on integrating social responsibility into the business and on mental models of non-profits who work should work with these corporations. I was floored by the BP example in the paper.

I have recommend this paper to no less than 10 people, since I returned from the conference.




EFBay Area Conference and State of Corportate Citizenship in US - Top

As one of the board of adviser members at EFColorado, I was invited to attend the EFBay Area's Corporate Citizenship conference. I have to thank the great staff at EFBay Area for putting such a great conference.

There is so much to share from this conference. As a first document, I have attached the Boston College 2007 Survey of Corporate Citizenship below.

StateofCorporateCitizenship2007Final.pdf

This document is very easy to consume and uses some great visual cues of rhetoric versus reality. I highly recommend scanning this document.




How to Make Boots and Save the World: Timberland - Top

"You think your job is to make boots and shoes and that my job is to save the world. If you are willing to invest half a day- four hours- I'll show you how the two can be one."
-Alan Khazei, cofounder of City Year

Jeff Swartz, CEO and President of Timberland, was not a social justice person but thought that the idea presented to him was intellectually too wild to pass up.

"We painted the living room of the house. It was the cheesiest kind of stuff you can do... but at the time, I thought I was Mother Theresa."

City Year opened a door for Jeff Swartz. He met a man that was much more than a title, he met a guy that could make a difference, one that could do something to be seen with his hands and feel with one's heart... "And it had nothing to do with me!" - Jeff Swartz

From: The Business of Changing the World, Marc Benioff

There are now some great You Tube Video about Timberland and City Year:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trBukCR2WrI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3WedqG78f8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yR9vl2pc2oA




I Volunteer! Day - Top

Save the Date: Saturday, April 19th is the 5th Annual I Volunteer! Day

Are you ready to make a difference in Boulder County?

Join Volunteer Connections every April for I Volunteer! Day, Volunteer Connection's annual county-wide day of service. I Volunteer! Day epitomizes what Volunteer Connection has been doing for nearly 40 years - connecting volunteers with volunteer opportunities. The first I Volunteer! Day was held on September 11, 2004 as a way for Boulder County residents to commemorate the anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks by giving back to the community. 350 volunteers completed 19 different county-wide projects. Since then, the event has been held every April in celebration of National Volunteer Week.

Service projects vary from year to year, but past projects include:
- House building with Habitat for Humanity
- Garden prep with Growing Gardens
- Building tortoise habitat with the Colorado Reptile Humane Society
- Ecosystem restoration with Boulder County Parks and Open Space
- Making blankets with Project Linus
- Spring clean-up with Boulder County Aids Project

Last year's event was a tremendous success involving 600 volunteers, 2,400 volunteer hours and the completion of 41 agency projects. That's $45,000 in service hours!

Are you a business interested in sponsoring I Volunteer! Day? Please contact vista@volunteerconnection.net for more information. Or, visit the website- http://www.volunteerconnection.net/IVolunteer/index.html