2019 Community Grant Program recipient Is Announced
CO+HOOTS Foundation
CO+HOOTS Foundation connects people through entrepreneurship, innovation and collaboration to build an equitable future. We exist to ensure that all Arizonans, regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, zip code, and any other limiting factor are able to chase their dream of creating a business. We provide educational programs to ensure that underrepresented entrepreneurs have all the tools necessary to pursue their goals.
Opportunities
Youth entrepreneurship programs have been cut at the state level, and while more and more jobs require that students have an entrepreneurial mindset (one that is flexible, curious, thinks critically, collaborates within diversity, and believes that continuous practice breeds success), fewer and fewer school programs provide this support. Phoenix is quickly becoming a mecca for corporate headquarters and startups. And while organizations need more flexible, highly-skilled talent, Arizona schools are having difficulty keeping the lights on, let alone supporting students to become entrepreneurial thinkers. In fact, there is no funding allocated, a a state level, for entrepreneurship programming in Arizona schools. We have more and more students who are prepared for the workforce of twenty years ago–who are prepared to follow rules set by others, carry out discrete, non-creative tasks, and operate on paper, but what our economy demands is a talent pool that is prepared for the fast-paced, digitally-based and diverse jobs we haven’t even imagined yet.
Competitive Advantages
There are a few other high school entrepreneurship programs in Arizona: SEED SPOT Next, YEA!, and Rising Tycoons. Two of these programs offer only school-embedded program while another offers workshops throughout the Valley. CO+HOOTS Foundation has been presenting Youth ChangeMaker Summit for four years now. We have practiced the agenda and adjusted the content to particularly support high schoolers. While we see the value in school-embedded programs, we believe (and student feedback suggests) that part of the magic of Youth ChangeMaker Summit is that students are taken out of the school context and are challenged to work collaboratively with peers they may not have formerly known as well as mentors who are not teachers. Additionally, we have created a mentor training program which differentiates our program from others that simply provide curriculum to untrained volunteers
Financial Projections/Needs
Until last year, we had kept Youth ChangeMaker Summit inexpensive by loaning ourselves space at our midtown location and working with community partners in trade agreements for food, photography and more. While this model was inexpensive, it was not scalable, and so we put forward the following plan for scalability. Last year, during this first year of pilot, we applied for 88% of funds through the Scottsdale IDA. The remaining 12% of cost (which was dedicated to student scholarships) was covered by student entrance fees to the event for students who were able to pay to attend. The funding model allowed us to develop partnerships in the Scottsdale community and to demonstrate the value of Youth ChangeMaker Summit to Scottsdale businesses and students. Having proved the impact of YCMS to the Scottsdale community, we now plan to adapt the funding model to a more sustainable shared-revenue model in 2019. We are requesting 50%funding through the Scottsdale IDA,projecting10% of funding again from student fees and seeking the remaining40% from Scottsdale-based partners identified and engaged last year. By year three (2020), we believe that we will be able to cover75% of the program cost through business partnerships(50%)and earned revenue from the event(25%).
2019 grant application summary
CO+HOOTS Foundation is excited to continue last year’s expansion of Youth ChangeMaker Summit (YCMS) in partnership with the Scottsdale IDA and ASU Sky Song. Each year, YCMS brings together valley high school students to imagine, plan, and pitch business ideas to area entrepreneurs. YCMS allows students to meet and learn from actual entrepreneurs and to see what it takes to launch a business. This grant request would sustain the Scottsdale cohorts of YCMS, serving Scottsdale high school students. In acknowledgment of the barrier created by only hosting YCMS at the CO+HOOTS Foundation offices in central Phoenix, last year we partnered with Scottsdale IDA to launch the first pilot YCMS targeting students in a specific geography. We believed by creating satellite events throughout Maricopa County, we would be able to capture more student interest and ensure YCMS served a broader audience of young entrepreneurs. We were right. The Scottsdale Youth ChangeMaker Summit engaged three new companies, all Scottsdale judges, and 45 new students (55% LMI). We also built relationships with the city of Scottsdale Economic Development Department, the Scottsdale Chamber of Commerce, and the Scottsdale City Council.