Chaminade University of Honolulu’s Non-Profit Business Plan Competition will award a total of $30,000 to three Hawaii non-profit organizations with new and innovative social service programs to offer.
The contest, now in its third year, is sponsored by The Hogan Family Foundation and American Savings Bank.
The organization with the winning plan will receive $15,000 cash. The runner-up will get $10,000, and the third place winner $5,000. This year, the marketing firm Loomis-ISC is offering an additional award — 120 hours of free integrated marketing communications counseling to the non-profit with the “Most Compelling Project.”
A public awards ceremony in December will announce the winners.
Business plans must be submitted by Oct. 19. Those interested in entering the competition should submit a letter of intent no later than Sept. 21. Finalists will be required to make oral presentations before a panel of judges comprised of senior executives, consultants and members of venture capital firms. For information, contact Ann Lujan at alujan@chaminade .edu or call her at 739-4673.
The competition, the first of its kind in Hawaii, was started in 2004. Winners have included the Waianae Organic Farmers Cooperative, which went on to tie for second place in a prestigious national non-profit competition organized by Yale University, and Healthy Options – “Heat & Eat,” a project of the Lanakila Meals-on-Wheels Program.
Chamnade’s Hogan Entrepreneurial Program was created in 2002 with a grant from the Hogan Family Foundation to give Chaminade students the tools, skills and values to foster entrepreneurial thinking.
Open to juniors, seniors and graduate students with a minimum 3.0 GPA, the program connects them with Hawaii’s entrepreneurs while helping them develop their own entrepreneurial endeavors. More than 100 students have graduated from the program.