Your Passion, Your Solution (YPYS)

Lucas Li’s 2014 business plan for YPYS (Your Passion, Your Solution), a not-for-profit designed to leverage college and high school student energy to address social issues. Piloted from Provo, UT, with plans to expand state-by-state. The plan was developed in preparation for an Oxford Social Seminar.

Key Takeaways

The core insight is alignment of passion with action. YPYS’s thesis: students want to contribute but lack know-how, resources, support, and social understanding. The program provides all four through a year-long experiential curriculum. “An individual’s ability to change the world lies in their ability to align their passions with a focused vision.”
Three-legged stool: college students, high schools, sponsors. College students direct social ventures (they are the founders); high schools provide fundraising platforms and pipeline; sponsors provide prizes for high school campaigns and brand exposure. YPYS sits at the center connecting all three.
The incubator model covers ideation through startup — not startup through expansion. Most business incubators focus on post-launch scaling. YPYS deliberately targets the earlier pre-incubation gap where motivated students have no infrastructure at all. The model is a mixed HUB/Venture incubator (primarily virtual, with a small physical facility for workshops and board meetings).
Revenue from three sources: high school fundraisers (70% to active social ventures, up to 30% covers expenses), sponsors (40% converts to tangible prizes/incentives, 25% distributed to projects, 20% to chosen projects, 15% to YPYS operations), and incubator service fees (free for 2 years, then tiered monthly fees by service).
The high school pipeline is a long-game bet. High school student committee members who graduate become the strongest college applicants for YPYS. The model is self-compounding: today’s high schooler is tomorrow’s college program director.
WOM referrals + personal networks are the growth engine. No advertising budget for year 1-2; every management team member generates a list of 100 personal contacts for sponsor outreach. Expansion to other states requires locating a local operating team and incubator facility in each state.
Pilot test built into the model from day one. 12 BYU students, 4 high schools, 12 sponsors. Full methodology with control and test groups to isolate which program elements (lectures only, workshops only, both, neither) drive social venture success.

Connections

Social Innovation and Social Entrepreneurship are the conceptual load-bearing ideas — YPYS is essentially a platform for teaching and practicing both simultaneously.
The Young Entrepreneurs Academy (documented in Appendix D) is the closest comparable — YPYS studied it as a reference model. Key difference: YEA! is school-embedded; YPYS is a standalone nonprofit that partners with schools.
The incubator model is explicitly drawn from InfoDev’s Mixed-use Incubator Handbook (Appendix F), specifically the “HUB/Venture Incubator” (mixed BAM + virtual) model.
The thesis that early engagement produces lifetime social leaders maps to what Paul Graham has written about intrinsic motivation: the sooner an identity forms around doing something meaningful, the more durable it is.
Entrepreneurship is the underlying discipline YPYS teaches in a social register — students found and run ventures, write proposals, and pitch investors, the same venture-creation arc applied to social issues rather than profit.
Experiential Learning is the program’s core pedagogy — the year-long curriculum teaches social innovation through self-directed projects rather than lectures alone, and the pilot (Appendix C) is designed to isolate how much workshops vs. lectures actually drive outcomes.
Education is the institutional substrate of the model — YPYS runs on the college-to-high-school student pipeline, partnering with schools as both a fundraising platform and a recruitment funnel where today’s high schooler becomes tomorrow’s program director.
Mentorship is one of the named incubator services — each social venture is paired with a mentor experienced in social ventures or the relevant issue, and the pilot explicitly tests whether mentorship is essential to success.
BYU is the source of the pilot cohort — 12 BYU students form the initial control/test groups, with operations based out of Provo, UT.

Full Business Plan

Executive Summary

The world around us remains saturated with both social and economical issues. The demand for necessary resources to address these social and economical challenges exceeds the supply of potential resources. Such resources include monetary resources, physiological resources, and human resources (OECD 2011). Along with a need for resources, many of these issues are very complex and intricate and require innovative and creative solutions.

YPYS’s vision and purpose is three fold:

To capture the potential of young and ambitious leaders (college and high school students) and help them leverage their passions to change the world
To foster a generation were more leaders are concerned with social issues and are willing to dedicate their resources to changing the world
To create innovative solutions that will help address the issues that our world faces

YPYS is a not-for-profit that will provide a platform for young leaders that will give them the opportunity, resources, know how, support, and network to engage in a social issue that they are passionate about and work toward creating an innovative and scalable solution.

YPYS will function as a year long developmental program for both college students and high school students, to teach them about social innovation and social entrepreneurship through experiential learning. YPYS will also function as a “HUB/Venture” business incubator that will help participating students develop their own social ventures. YPYS’s incubator model will connect students to mentors, investors, partners, and professors, as well as create a collaborative community among the students, in an effort to help students develop successful social ventures/businesses.

YPYS believes that working closely with local communities will be key to the growth and development of YPYS and the success of the social ventures that are started by students. YPYS will actively seek to work with local high schools, local sponsors, and local investors. In addition to working closely with local communities, YPYS believes that establishing a network of individuals from all professions, backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives will be essential in the development of successful social ventures.

YPYS’s revenue model is broken down into three key sources:

Revenue from Sponsors
Revenue from Collaborative Projects with High Schools
Revenue from YPYS’s Incubator Services

YPYS strongly believes that an individual’s ability to change the world lies in their ability to align their passions with a focused vision.

Problem

Our world faces a myriad of social and economic issues that are always in need of extra resources. These resources can be anything from monetary and physiological to human capital. Along with a lack of primary resources, many of these issues are very complex and intricate and require innovative and creative solutions.

As important as innovative and creative solutions are, the individuals that are creative, innovative, and passionate enough to dedicate their time to developing these solutions are just as, if not more, important. We need more leaders who will be catalysts for social innovation and other philanthropic initiatives. As the issues around us increase in size and more issues arise, a lack of human resources will greatly deter our ability to address the surmounting issues. As the problems that challenge our society continue to persist onward, we need more leaders who will seek to address the social challenges our world faces; as well as greater grassroots mobilization for a larger aggregate of individuals who are willing to volunteer their time and resources to engage in philanthropic efforts.

In order for us to increase the number of social leaders and increase the size of the aggregate who are willing to volunteer, we need to focus on introducing social innovation and social leadership development to students who are in a stage where they are most capable of making an impact.

The youth of our society remains an untapped source of potential leadership and innovation to address the social issues that our world faces, both for the short term and the long term. Many students want to contribute to society and have ideas as to how they want to help, but do not (a) have the know how, (b) have the resources, (c) have the support, or (d) have the social understanding, to actually go out into the world and translate their desires and ideas into action.

Solution

Establish a not-for-profit organization, YPYS, which stands for Your Passion Your Solution, that is created to leverage the ambition of college students and the collective force of high schools to help address the social issues our world faces.

YPYS will serve as a developmental program to teach students about social innovation through experiential learning. Through the freedom of self-directed projects and the training students will receive from the developmental program, YPYS hopes to prepare students to become future leaders that will actively seek to change the world.

YPYS believes that if students are aware of the real impact that they can make today and understand how to go about doing so, that more students will choose to be actively engaged with social issues. YPYS believes that through actively engaging as many college students and high school students as soon as possible in social innovation/social leadership, that our society will see an increase in the number of social leaders for the future as well as an increase in the aggregate who will dedicate resources in the future to serving philanthropic initiatives.

As YPYS seeks to increase the number of social leaders, providing innovative and creative solutions to the issues our world faces will also be a primary focus. YPYS will function as an incubator for the social ventures that students start under YPYS. YPYS will seek to help students produce sustainable long-term solutions from the social ventures that they develop. YPYS will provide the resources, training, and network to help students create their own solutions to the issues that they are most passionate about and then YPYS will help them implement their solutions.

Business Model

YPYS will operate as the connecting point between four different parties: College Students, Sponsors, High Schools, and Social Issues.

College Students

YPYS will have a very selective year round program for college students to participate in. We will have an intensive screening process to select students that will be truly motivated and willing to devote their time and talent to addressing a social issue that they are passionate about. College students that are selected for the program will create a not-for-profit or for-profit social venture under the wing of the parent organization (YPYS).

Through the year round program, YPYS will teach students about social innovation through select workshops and experiential learning through their projects. We will provide a platform for students to take an issue that they are passionate about and work toward alleviating that issue.

Each student that is selected to participate in the program will have the opportunity to choose their own issue/project that they would like to initially address. The year round program will consist of three phases:

Phase I (Fall semester): An 8-12 week program that will teach, train, and prepare students on how to launch a successful social venture. This is also where students will begin to participate in YPYS’s incubator, beginning with the ideation stage.

Meet once a week to hear from guest speakers and professors and hold discussions on social innovation and social entrepreneurship
Meet once a week for a collaborative workshop to develop each student’s social venture and help them create a business proposal
Help each student refine their business proposal until approved by the board before moving to Phase II

Phase II (Winter semester): Students apply what they have learned by continuing to develop their projects and collaborating with students from local high schools. Two activities per high school:

Go into individual classrooms for one class period to discuss social innovation and the impact students can make
Invite students to work with a YPYS project of their choice

Phase III (Ongoing): YPYS representatives continue forward with their social ventures and potentially create a sustainable and independent organization. Each social venture continues to operate under YPYS with access to all incubator services. YPYS permits each social venture to design their own exit strategy.

YPYS’s Incubator Model

YPYS will provide a unique “HUB/Venture incubator” model for all of the social ventures that are started under YPYS. The incubator will function primarily as a virtual incubator but will still have a physical facility for conferences and workshops, as well as house the operations of select members from the management team.

Services provided within the incubator:

Collaborative sessions: Weekly groups of four for round table discussion and questioning of one social venture at a time (in-person or virtual conference room)
Business Models/Proposals: Help each student develop their business model and write a proposal that must be board-approved before seeking investor funding
Network/Partners: Ongoing development of relationships with professionals and companies from all fields; partnering social ventures with CSR programs
Investors: Extensive network of investors that students can access after board approval of their business proposal
Human Resources: Available to each social venture for recruiting, interviewing, hiring, etc.
Strategic Consultants: External consultants from all fields (social ventures pay consultants directly)
Mentors: Pair each social venture with a mentor who has experience with social ventures or the relevant social issue
Accounting Services: Consolidated financials with separate reports per venture

YPYS’s incubation model focuses primarily on the ideation stage through start-up phase — the gap before most traditional incubators engage.

High Schools

High schools serve two functions: (1) a platform for engaging younger students with social innovation, and (2) a fundraising platform.

Seven phases for each collaborative project:

Reach out to student council and key administration to gain approval
Present in classes to generate awareness; hold after-school workshop to form a student committee and select five officers for the student board
Collaborative effort with student council and YPYS student committee to determine fundraising approach
Assembly Presentation led by student council/student leaders
Carry out school-wide project
Concluding assembly with video and prizes
Student committee members who expressed desire continue working on a YPYS social venture of their choice

Value proposition for high schools:

Students learn essential leadership skills and apply what they learn in school
Sparks creativity and motivation
Stronger graduating classes / stronger college applications
Students participate in raising funds rather than just donating
Opportunity to unify a student body
Sponsor-donated prizes for exceptional student contributors

Long-term Strategy

The long-term strategy involves establishing functioning YPYS units in each state across the United States, with lasting relationships with surrounding high schools and local sponsors and investors. The long-term strategy also involves growing the incubation model to help foster many successful social ventures that will turn into independent organizations.

Unique Factor / Innovation

YPYS is unique because it provides a platform for students to go from no prior experience or knowledge with social innovation to launching their own social venture. It provides the freedom to direct their own project, and the resources to make their project successful.

“There is no intellectual property involved and I would encourage imitation of my model. Imitation of my model by other individuals in different regions and states may prove easier to scale our purpose as opposed to YPYS trying to expand into areas.”

Competition

YPYS will see competition in four specific areas:

Soliciting donations from sponsors — all not-for-profits compete for the same sponsor pool
Recruiting exceptional college students — many organizations compete: Innovation Academy, Crocker Innovation Fellows, Social Venture Academy, Social Innovation Projects, Social Innovation Leadership Council (all in Provo)
Working with high schools for fundraisers — charities already use schools as platforms; schools run many fundraisers throughout the year
Investors and funding institutions — competing against 2.3 million nonprofits in the United States

Short-term strategy: Leverage personal networks. Management team members each create a list of 100 personal contacts for sponsor outreach. Contingency contracts with sponsors (commit to sponsor contingent on having an actionable project). WOM referrals for student recruitment.

Long-term strategy: Build a trusted brand name through successful collaborations. Establish lasting relationships with sponsors and high schools year after year. The high school pipeline becomes self-sustaining.

Marketing and Sales

Initial operations based out of Provo, UT. Geographic expansion via tiers:

Projected Geographical Tiers in Utah:

Tier 1: Utah and Salt Lake County — 8 public school districts, 47 public high schools, 30 private/charter schools
Tier 2: Tooele, Davis, Weber, Morgan, Summit, Wasatch, Cache, Rich, and Box Elder County — 13 public school districts, 44 public high schools, 6 private/charter schools
Tier 3: All other counties — 20 public school districts, 49 public schools, 7 private/charter schools

Total: 130,902 high school students in Utah

High school targeting priority: Tier 1 → Public high schools with IB programs and high AP enrollment. Tier 2 → Private/charter. Tier 3 → All other public. Within schools: target IB, AP, and Honor students.

5-year expansion states: Idaho (~171 schools, ~77K students), Nevada (~125 schools, ~118K students), Colorado (~173 schools, ~241K students), Arizona (~385 schools, ~343K students), Oregon (~360 schools, ~201K students), California (~1,232 schools, ~2.1M students).

Financial Projections

Revenue Model:

Sponsors:

25% distributed across all projects
20% funds a chosen project
40% converted to tangible incentives
15% covers YPYS expenses and growth

High school fundraisers:

70% of pooled funds redistributed to active social ventures (ideation through end of start-up stage)
Up to 30% covers remaining expenses
Any remaining fuels YPYS growth

Incubator:

Service/website revenue from social ventures
Federal and State Grants
Free for first 2 years per incubatee; then tiered monthly service fees

Initial financial goals: $5,000–$7,000 per school fundraiser. Sponsor to high school fundraiser ratio: 3:1.

YOY Growth (years 3-7):

Year 3 (2016): 24 new projects, $120,000 raised through fundraisers
Year 4 (2017): 48 new projects, $240,000 raised
Year 5 (2018): 72 new projects, $360,000 raised
Year 6 (2019): 108 new projects, $540,000 raised
Year 7 (2020): 162 new projects, $810,000 raised

(100% YOY growth for years 3-4; 50% YOY growth for years 5-7)

Cost Structure: Minimal operating costs for first 18 months — no physical facility, management team strictly voluntary until September 2015. Physical incubator facility sought near end of Year 2.

Investors: Two types — (1) investors in YPYS as a whole organization, and (2) investors who join the incubator network for individual social ventures. Board must approve every business proposal before a social venture can access the investor network. Contingency contracts for the first year: investors commit once the pilot model proves functional.

Timeline

Period	Milestone
5/1/2014–6/7/2014	Ideation stage and development of business model and business proposal
6/8/2014–6/21/2014	Seek key management personnel, mentors, investors, professors; develop 8-12 week training curriculum
6/22/2014–8/11/2014	Attend Oxford Social Seminar; refine business model
8/12/2014–9/1/2014	Register with Division of Consumer Protection / 501c registration; begin contacting local schools, sponsors, investors
9/2/2014–9/28/2014	Recruit 12 students for pilot; schedule guest lectures and collaborative workshops
9/29/2014–12/12/2014	8-12 week training program with pilot testing; help with business proposals
1/5/2015–2/1/2015	Phase 1-2 of high school collaboration at four different high schools
2/2/2015–3/27/2015	Phase 3-7 of high school collaboration; four school-wide fundraisers
3/28/2015–6/1/2015	Help each social venture prep pitch; formal investor presentations
6/2/2015–6/21/2015	Assess success of YPYS; gather surveys; consolidate data for investors’ report
6/22/2015–7/27/2015	Develop more relationships with schools, sponsors, investors; seek contingency investor funds
7/28/2015–9/2/2015	Solidify management team; locate and begin designing physical facility

Milestone goals:

5 Board Members, 5 Advisors, 4 VPs, 12 mentors by 8/11/2014
12 students selected (from 60 applicants), 9 lectures, 9 workshops scheduled by 9/28/2014
All 12 proposals board-approved, 4 high schools secured, 12 sponsors secured by 12/12/2014
4 school-wide fundraisers raising total $20,000 by 3/27/2015
All 12 social ventures pitched to at least 2 investors by 6/1/2015
$100,000 in investment secured by 7/27/2015
All management positions filled, facility design begun by 9/2/2015

Goals and Key Metrics

YPYS KPIs:

Number of YPYS social ventures started YOY
Total number of social ventures operating under YPYS
Number of college applicants for YPYS’s program YOY
Number of operating student committees
Number of social ventures operating for at least three years
Number of high schools worked with; number working with YPYS continually YOY
Average funds raised from each high school fundraiser
Average funds social ventures secure from investors under YPYS
Sponsors to social ventures ratio YOY; sponsors to school fundraisers ratio YOY
Number of high school committee graduates who apply for YPYS’s college program
Mentors to social ventures ratio; investors to social ventures ratio

Help college students and high school students foster a sense of social responsibility and function as a catalyst for their own socially innovative solutions
Long-term outcome: students engaged in social innovation from an early stage will carry that mindset into the corporations, businesses, and organizations they work for in the future
Provide a foundation for young leaders to build upon — many will continue in their social projects and expand to new ones
Provide aid to a variety of social issues, both monetary and other resources
Create more leaders who will be future key management figures in nonprofit organizations

Values

Vision · Conscientious · Passionate · Innovative · Accountability · Leadership · Excellence

References

Davies, Mark, 2009, InfoDev, Mixed-use Incubator Handbook: A Start-up Guide for Incubator Developers
InfoDev Growing Innovation, 2013, Business Incubation Toolkit
OECD, 2011, Fostering Innovation to Address Social Changes
Young Entrepreneurs Academy, 2004
High-Schools.com, 2014

Appendix A: Q&A

Q: What stops a passionate student from just googling a nonprofit and helping them directly?

Nothing. But YPYS’s primary target market is bright students who have had ideas (or haven’t yet) and need to discover what social innovation is and what they can personally do. For students already deeply engaged, YPYS serves as a platform to take action and further an existing project. The mission is to expose more future leaders to social innovation by actively engaging them in a philanthropic initiative they are personally passionate about.

Q: Have you considered a Teach for America type platform (post-graduation)?

No, for three reasons: (1) the sooner students engage, the more likely they are to carry a socially responsible mindset into their careers — waiting until graduation wastes four years of potential in-college experience; (2) students in school have immediate access to resources and networks not available post-graduation; (3) YPYS can’t offer a full-time platform right now, and what students do post-program is up to them.

Q: Do the projects have to be community specific?

The projects do not have to be community specific in regards to the issue being addressed; however, successful ventures will draw upon resources from the community and work in collaboration with leaders within the community.

Q: What are we going to do with social ventures that stay with YPYS past the start-up phase?

Charge a progressive service fee dependent on which services social ventures decide to continue using.

Q: What if graduate social ventures seek to work through high schools still?

A contract will require that if they continue to seek high school collaboration, the pitch has to be for YPYS as a whole organization and the funds follow the original fundraiser structure.

Q: What about revenue each venture generates outside of the high school platforms?

If social ventures are still operating under YPYS, 5% of any funds raised from any other platform (excluding funds from investors) are given to YPYS.

Q: What evidence do you have that your model will produce the social leaders you’re hoping for?

As of right now there is no evidence besides what other similar models have been able to produce. YPYS will be constantly measuring and gauging success, but to truly understand the impact being made will require a few years of evaluation and assessment.

Q: Will you allow for the possibility of projects being combined together?

Yes — encouraged if the strategy is synergistic.

Appendix B: High School Student Committee

YPYS representatives present to select classes, then hold an after-school workshop. Students who come have the opportunity to sign up for the student committee — a group of exceptional students committed to the vision of YPYS.

Each student committee member will:

Be assigned to work on a YPYS project
Have weekly student-directed workshops for collaboration and developing innovative skills
Work in conjunction with student council to hold the school-wide fundraising activity
Attend a YPYS lecture once a month held by YPYS college representatives

Five exceptional students from the committee are selected to form the student board, which directs all weekly workshop activities and maintains dialogue with YPYS’s Director of Client Success.

Annual model per high school:

Year 1: Teach seniors, juniors, and sophomores; recruit from all three grades; student board selected from juniors
Year 2+: Only teach incoming sophomores (prior classes already exposed); new student board from current juniors

Appendix C: Pilot Test Methodology

Pilot begins with 12 college students from BYU, organized into control and test groups to isolate which program elements drive outcomes:

Control Group (3 students): no collaborative workshops or weekly lectures
Test Group (3 students): both workshops and lectures
Test Group (3 students): only lectures
Test Group (3 students): only workshops

Key questions to be tested:

How effective are weekly collaborations for helping students develop creative and innovative social ventures?
How effective are weekly lectures from professors and guest speakers?
Is it essential for a student to have a mentor?
Is an 8-12 week program necessary?
How effective are various student fundraising platforms?
What method is most effective to motivate an entire student body?
Does this model really increase the number of students engaged in social initiatives in the future?
Does this model really produce sustainable social ventures?
Is YPYS’s revenue structure with high schools and local sponsors dependent on demographics?

Appendix D: Young Entrepreneurs Academy (Reference Model)

The Young Entrepreneurs Academy (YEA!) is a year-long class that transforms middle and high school students into entrepreneurs. Students develop business ideas, write business plans, conduct market research, pitch to investors, and launch real legal companies.

YEA! Stats:

100% of Academy graduates graduate high school on time
99% enroll in college
50% of YEA! students continue their business for more than 1 year
19% start second businesses
56% are underrepresented minorities
Operating in 168 communities in 30 states
1,394 graduates have launched over 1,000 businesses

Key difference from YPYS: YEA! is a school-embedded program (offered as an after-school program or credit-bearing elective). YPYS is a standalone nonprofit that partners with schools rather than being embedded in them. YEA! also focuses on pure entrepreneurship; YPYS focuses specifically on social entrepreneurship and social ventures.

Appendix F: Incubator Models (InfoDev)

Three operational incubator models from current literature:

Bricks and Mortar (BAM): Traditional — centered on physical facilities. Interaction and partnership formation stimulated by proximity. Limited to the building’s scope.
Virtual (Portal / “Without Walls”): No physical building — support and services offered over the internet. Entrepreneurs from different regions can be integrated.
Mixed (HUB/Venture Incubator): Offers a building for some entrepreneurs and supports development over the internet. YPYS uses this model.

Key issues for incubators: services must be adequate to area of activity and stage of development; network of relationships quality is paramount; financing alternatives must be available.

YPYS’s approach: Mixed model — virtual incubator with a small physical facility for collaborative workshops, conference rooms for lectures and board meetings, and select management services (human resources, accounting). The mixed model enables extensive network reach beyond physical location and makes geographic expansion less costly.

Entity Ideas capture (Roam) — full verbatim source

The synthesis above was distilled from Kyle’s Roam page; the complete verbatim capture is preserved below so 100% of the source text lives in the wiki (ingested 2026-07-31). Raw notes, emails, and interviews as-written.

https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/firescript-577a2.appspot.com/o/imgs%2Fapp%2Fkwharrison13%2Fp7w7IuyOxY.pdf?alt=media&token=b6e06a41-0049-4ec4-9ab2-4b4c2b045a4f (archived: ../attachments/your-passion-your-solution-ypys/your-passion-your-solution-ypys-01.pdf)
YPYS
Your Passion Your Solution
What story will you help write?
Table of Contents
Executive Summary3
Problem4
Solution5
Business Model6
College Students6
Incubator Model8
High Schools10
Sponsors11
Social Issues12
Long-term Strategy12
Unique and Innovation Factor13
Competition14
Short-term Strategy14
Long-term Strategy15
Marketing and Sales16
Projected Geographical Tiers17
High Schools17
College Recruits18
Sponsors18
Management Team19
Financial Projections21
Revenue Model21
High Schools and Local Sponsors21
YOY Growth22
Incubator23
Cost Structure23
Investors24
Timeline25
Goals and Key Metrics26
Short-term Goals26
YPYS’s KPIs27
Impact28
Values28
References29
Appendix30
Executive summary
The world around us remains saturated with both social and economical issues. The demand for necessary resources to address these social and economical challenges exceeds the supply of potential resources. Such resources include monetary resources, physiological resources, and human resources (OECD 2011). Along with a need for resources, many of these issues are very complex and intricate and require innovative and creative solutions.
YPYS’s vision and purpose is three fold:
- To capture the potential of young and ambitious leaders (college and high school students) and help them leverage their passions to change the world
- To foster a generation were more leaders are concerned with social issues and are willing to dedicate their resources to changing the world
- To create innovative solutions that will help address the issues that our world faces
YPYS is a not-for-profit that will provide a platform *(See Business Model) for young leaders that will give them the opportunity, resources, know how, support, and network to engage in a social issue that they are passionate about and work toward creating an innovative and scalable solution.
YPYS will function as a year long developmental program for both college students and high school students, to teach them about social innovation and social entrepreneurship through experiential learning *(See Business Model). YPYS will also function as a “HUB/Venture” business incubator *(See Appendix F), that will help participating students develop their own social ventures *(See Business Model “Incubator”). YPYS’s incubator model will connect students to mentors, investors, partners, and professors, as well as create a collaborative community among the students, in an effort to help students develop successful social ventures/businesses.
YPYS believes that working closely with local communities will be key to the growth and development of YPYS and the success of the social ventures that are started by students. YPYS will actively seek to work with local high schools, local sponsors, and local investors. In addition to working closely with local communities, YPYS believes that establishing a network of individuals from all professions, backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives will be essential in the development of successful social ventures.
YPYS’s revenue model is broken down into three key sources:
- Revenue from Sponsors *(see business model “sponsors” and financial projections “sponsors”)
- Revenue from Collaborative Projects with High Schools *(see business model “high schools” and financial projections “high schools”)
- Revenue from YPYS’s Incubator Services *(see business model “incubator” and financial projections “incubator”)
- We currently do not have a ROI schedule as initial outlay/costs are yet to be determined
YPYS strongly believes that an individual’s ability to change the world lies in their ability to align their passions with a focused vision.
Problem
Our world faces a myriad of social and economic issues that are always in need of extra resources. These resources can be anything from monetary and physiological to human capital. Along with a lack of primary resources, many of these issues are very complex and intricate and require innovative and creative solutions.
As important as innovative and creative solutions are, the individuals that are creative, innovative, and passionate enough to dedicate their time to developing these solutions are just as, if not more, important. We need more leaders who will be catalysts for social innovation and other philanthropic initiatives. As the issues around us increase in size and more issues arise, a lack of human resources will greatly deter our ability*(find research) to address the surmounting issues. As the problems that challenge our society continue to persist onward, we need more leaders who will seek to address the social challenges our world faces; as well as greater grassroots mobilization for a larger aggregate of individuals who are willing to volunteer their time and resources to engage in philanthropic efforts.
In order for us to increase the number of social leaders and increase the size of the aggregate who are willing to volunteer, we need to focus on introducing social innovation and social leadership development to students who are in a stage where they are most capable of making an impact *(find research).
The youth of our society remains an untapped source of potential leadership and innovation to address the social issues that our world faces, both for the short term and the long term. Many students want to contribute to society and have ideas as to how they want to help, but do not (a) have the know how, (b) have the resources, (c) have the support, or (d) have the social understanding, to actually go out into the world and translate their desires and ideas into action.
Solution
Establish a not-for-profit organization, YPYS, which stands for Your Passion Your Solution, that is created to leverage the ambition of college students and the collective force of high schools to help address the social issues our world faces.
YPYS will serve as a developmental program to teach students about social innovation through experiential learning. Through the freedom of self-directed projects and the training students will receive from the developmental program, YPYS hopes to prepare students to become future leaders that will actively seek to change the world.
YPYS’s believes that if students are aware of the real impact that they can make today and understand how to go about doing so, that more students will choose to be actively engaged with social issues. YPYS believes that through actively engaging as many college students and high school students as soon as possible in social innovation/social leadership, that our society will see an increase in the number of social leaders for the future as well as an increase in the aggregate who will dedicate resources in the future to serving philanthropic initiatives*(find research that proves this is true). YPYS believes that students who actively participate in social innovation and social responsibility will be much more likely to go on to proactively seek to create socially sustainable solutions in whatever environment that they will work in.
As YPYS seeks to increase the number of social leaders, providing innovative and creative solutions to the issues our world faces will also be a primary focus. YPYS will function as an incubator for the social ventures that students start under YPYS. YPYS will seek to help students produce sustainable long-term solutions from the social ventures that they develop. YPYS will provide the resources, training, and network to help students create their own solutions to the issues that they are most passionate about and then YPYS will help them implement their solutions.
Business Model
YPYS will operate as the connecting point between four different parties:
- College Students
- Sponsors
- High Schools
- Social Issues
College Students
High Schools
Sponsors
YPYS
Social Issues
College Students
YPYS will have a very selective year round program for college students to participate in. We will have an intensive screening process to select students that will be truly motivated and willing to devote their time and talent to addressing a social issue that they are passionate about. College students that are selected for the program will create a not-for-profit or for-profit social venture under the wing of the parent organization (YPYS).
Through the year round program, YPYS will teach students about social innovation through select workshops and experiential learning through their projects. We will provide a platform for students to take an issue that they are passionate about and work toward alleviating that issue.
Each student that is selected to participate in the program will have the opportunity to choose their own issue/project that they would like to initially address. The year round program will consist of three phases:
Phase I: (This will take place in the fall semester) During this phase, we will have each student engage in an 8-12 week program that will teach, train, and prepare them on how to launch a successful social venture. This is also where students will begin to participate in YPYS’s incubator, beginning with the ideation stage*(see incubator model).
- We will meet once a week to hear from guest speakers and professors and hold discussions on the topic of social innovation and social entrepreneurship
- We will meet once a week for a collaborative workshop to work on developing each student’s social venture and help them create a business proposal
- We will help each student refine their business proposal and make sure that the proposal is approved by our board before students move on to phase II
Phase II: (This will take place in the winter semester) During this phase, we will have each student apply what they have learned in the first semester by continuing to develop their projects and collaborate their efforts with students from local high schools. There are two things that college students will do for the local high schools they work with.
- Go into individual classrooms and for one class period, discuss the purpose of social innovation and the impact that students can make. (Expose high school students to social innovation and YPYS)
- Invite students to work with an YPYS project of their choice. This will provide an opportunity for younger students to also gain valuable leadership skills and understanding of social innovation through experiential learning.
Phase III: During this last phase, YPYS representatives (college students) will continue forward with their social ventures and potentially create a sustainable and independent organization. YPYS will help each student setup the foundation for their social venture and continue to provide the resources and network for each student to work toward their vision and goals.
During this last phase, each social venture will continue to operate under YPYS. YPYS’s goal is to help each venture be able to function independently and become operationally sustainable for the long term. Each social venture will continue to have access to all of the services provided within our incubator. YPYS will permit each social venture to design their own exit strategy—meaning that we will not restrict how long each social venture wishes to stay within our incubator.
YPYS’s Incubator Model
YPYS will provide a unique “HUB/Venture incubator” model*(See Appendix F) for all of the social ventures that are started under YPYS.
YPYS’s incubator will function primarily as a virtual incubator but will still have a physical facility for conferences and workshops; as well as, house the operations of select members from our management team. We will not house any of the social ventures in our physical facility unlike traditional HUB/Venture models. YPYS will provide the following services/functions for each social venture within our incubator:
- Collaborative sessions: Once a week, we will form into groups of four where we will take one social venture under YPYS and have a round table discussion and questioning session with other YPYS representatives (other leaders of YPYS social ventures). We will form as many groups as there are needed. These weekly collaborations can take place either at our physical facility or over a virtual conference room*(See Appendix J).
- Business Models/Proposals: ____YPYS will help each student develop their business model and write a business proposal that must be approved by our board* before they can seek any funding from our network of investors.**
- Network/Partners: YPYS will continually seek to develop relationships with professionals and companies from all fields and backgrounds. YPYS hopes to leverage this network to help each YPYS representative have easier access to resources that they may stand in need of. YPYS will also use this network to help students find potential partners who may have an interest in working on a collaborative initiative. YPYS will actively seek to work with companies that have a strong focus on CSR, and will strive to partner the right social venture with a company’s CSR program.
- ____Investors*(reference financial model):** YPYS will seek to develop an extensive network of investors that students will be able to access and present their social ventures/business proposals to. Each student must first have their business proposal approved by our board of directors before they can reach out to YPYS’s network of investors. YPYS will help each student develop their pitch to investors and presentation skills.
- Human Resources: YPYS’s human resources team will be available to each social venture as needed for recruiting, interviewing, hiring, etc.
- Strategic Consultants: YPYS will develop an extensive network of external consultants, from all fields, that students will be able to contact and seek consultation from.
- Mentors: YPYS will seek to pair each social venture with a mentor who has had experience with social ventures or business startups, or has a great understanding of the social issue that is being addressed.
- Accounting Services: All of the social ventures that remain under YPYS will have all of their financials consolidated into YPYS’s accounting services (YPYS will keep separate financial reports for each social venture).
YPYS’s incubation model will be different than most business incubator models, as our primary focus will be between the ideation stage and start-up phase of the incubation process (pg. 8-9 Davies, Mark 2009). However, we will still house and provide services for all of the ventures that are started with YPYS and remain with YPYS, as this will spread the overhead costs, provide additional resources and networks, and create a valuable collaborative community for all ventures (p.g 6 Davies, Mark 2009), from young to mature.
The majority of incubators focus on the incubation period between the start-up and expansion phases.
Post-Incubation
Incubation
Startup
Idea
Pre-Incubation
Maturity
Expansion
*YPYS will focus on the incubation period between the idea and start-up phases.
Pre-Incubation
Post-Incubation
Incubation
Idea
Startup
Expansion
Maturity
High Schools
High schools will have two functions: (1) they will serve as a platform for us to engage younger students with social innovation by generating awareness and inviting them to work with a YPYS project, as discussed earlier and (2) they will serve as a fundraising platform.
YPYS college students will work with the student body of each high school to raise monetary and other accepted resources to aid their particular social venture.
YPYS will reach out to high schools around the state of Utah (and in other states when expanding) to establish an open channel of communication, specifically with their administrative body and student council.
Our value proposition for each high school to allow us to go into individual classrooms to teach about social innovation as well as having a fundraising activity will include the following:
- The opportunity to have their students learn essential leadership skills and also apply what they learn in school
- The opportunity to spark the creativity and motivation of students
- The opportunity to create stronger graduating classes that have developed a variety of skills and gained invaluable experience—stronger college applications
- The opportunity to not only have students donate to a social cause, but actively participate in helping raise funds through creative and strategic avenues
- The opportunity to unify a student body
- The incentive of sponsor donated prizes to high school students that dedicate an exceptional amount of time and effort to helping
Our vision is to have each college student actively work with the student council of a particular high school, as well as the other students who have expressed a desire to help with a particular YPYS project, to launch a school wide competition/campaign to raise funds. These funds will not be raised through personal donations, but an activity/event that each student will participate in.
Our focus for each college student is to leverage the power that can come from a unified student body. A unified student body begins with proactive and excited student councils and other leaders within the school.
There are seven phases for each collaborative project that our participating students will undertake:
Phase 1: Reach out to the student council and key administration to present (a) social issue and (b) what the vision for YPYS, to gain approval
Phase 2: Present in classes to generate awareness on social innovation and garner support and participation from exceptional students—hold an after school workshop to form a student committee* and select five officers to work on the student board
Phase 3: Engage in collaborative effort with student council and YPYS student committee to determine how best to approach the student body about helping raise funds/ resources
Phase 4: Assembly Presentation that is led by the student council/student leaders of each high school
Phase 5: Carry out school-wide project
Phase 6: Concluding assembly with video and prizes
Phase 7: Those who expressed a desire to work with YPYS and joined the student committee*(see appendix) will continue to work on a YPYS social venture of their choice
Sponsors
Sponsors will become an integral part of YPYS as they will provide the resources we will use to provide high schools/high school students an incentive to engage in helping our social initiatives. (This will most likely be in the form of prizes that YPYS will purchase with the monetary resources and other physical resources that we receive from sponsors). Sponsors will also be a major source of support for the social ventures that YPYS will be working on. Each sponsor will have the opportunity to choose a project or projects that they would like to sponsor *(See Financial Model).
Sponsors can be corporations or individuals or anyone in between. A sponsor is not an investor, but an investor can be a sponsor. The difference between the two is that an investor will give us money with clear expectations of how they want to see YPYS as whole organization/ or individual social ventures develop *(See Financial Model) whereas sponsors give us resources with no expectations besides using their name when we distribute the prizes and pairing their brand name with specific projects that they choose to sponsor.
As YPYS seeks to develop and grow, everyone (the initial management team) that will work with YPYS will work through their personal networks to attract potential sponsors who will be willing to donate resources to our organization. As we continue to have successful projects/ventures, we hope to build a trusted brand name that will resonate with future sponsors, making it easier for us to reach out as a collective organization to potential sponsors.
Our main value proposition for sponsors will be the marketing opportunity and exposure that they will receive from working with YPYS and local high schools, as well as the opportunity to make an impact on the local community through investing in local leaders.
Social Issues
Each student will identify a social issue of their choice that they would like to address. Beginning in the ideation stage of the incubator, students will begin to develop a social venture (either not-for-profit or for profit) that will seek to alleviate the issue of their choice.
YPYS and the social ventures that are started with YPYS will not be limited to the type of social issue that are addressed. YPYS’s vision is to help foster the particular passions of each student and to help each student leverage their interests to create sustainable solutions for the challenges that our society faces.
Long-term Strategy
The long-term strategy involves establishing functioning YPYS units in each state across the United States. We will seek to establish lasting relationships with surrounding high schools within each region and local sponsors and investors in the areas that we will operate.
The long-term strategy of YPYS also involves growing the incubation model. We hope that YPYS will help foster many successful social ventures that will turn into independent organizations. As a part of the virtual incubation model, we hope to create a collaborative network that has no physical boundaries.
Unique factor/innovation
YPYS is unique because it provides a platform for students to go from no prior experience or knowledge with social innovation to launching their own social venture. YPYS provides a platform for students to discover what they are passionate about, the freedom to direct their own project, and the resources to make their project successful.
There is no intellectual property involved and I would encourage imitation of my model. Imitation of my model by other individuals in different regions and states may prove easier to scale our purpose as opposed to YPYS trying to expand into areas.
As we successfully operate and prove that our model can provide sufficient help to those in need and create leaders, we will build a trusted brand name that will make it easier for us to solicit donations from sponsors, establish relationships with different high schools, and recruit exceptional students who are motivated to contribute to society.
Competition
YPYS will see competition in four specific areas”Soliciting donations from sponsors:""Other charities and philanthropic organizations will also seek donations from sponsors, creating a competitive landscape for all not-for-profit organizations to be able to solicit an adequate amount of donations.""Recruiting exceptional college students to apply for our program:”[[“There are many organizations, programs, internships, initiatives, and clubs that seek to recruit students to learn about social innovation and provide platforms for them to learn and grow through active participation.”] [“Convincing students that are involved in other clubs and organizations, which are not related to social innovation, to commit their limited time to another project.”] [“Social innovation platforms for students that operate in Provo: Innovation Academy, Crocker Innovation Fellows, Social Venture Academy, Social Innovation Projects—On Campus Internships, Social Innovation Leadership Council”]]“Working in collaboration with high schools for school fundraisers:”[[“Charities and other philanthropic organizations currently use schools as a platform to reach students to help donate to various causes.”] [“Many schools will usually have school-wide as well as department specific fundraisers during the school year—either to raise funds for another organization or to raise funds for a school development.”]]”Investors and other funding institutions/parties:”
- Convincing investors and public and private foundations to invest in our organization as opposed to the other 2.3 million not-for-profit organizations in the United States will be a major challenge.
YPYS will accommodate for competition by the following
Short-Term Strategy
To accommodate for competition in all four areas described earlier, the management team of YPYS will have to leverage their personal network. The initial YPYS management team will consist of college students who were heavily involved in their former high school (specifically with the administration); this connection will open up the channel for communication and increase the opportunity for potential collaboration
The initial YPYS management team will also leverage their personal network to reach out to individuals and businesses for potential sponsorship donations. Each individual on the management team will create a list of 100 personal contacts that they will reach out to.
As a part of our short-term strategy, our goal is to establish a transparent relationship with each sponsor and create a contingency contract—sponsors will agree to sponsor a particular project contingent on us having an actionable project that we can work on with a high school in their community***.** We hope to have a supply of sponsors that we can access as soon as we have a project that can move forward.
Our short-term strategy for recruiting exceptional college students will be through Word-of-Mouth referrals**.** Our initial management team will actively seek to engage in conversations with their friends/peers about social innovation. We hope that these conversations will generate interest in amongst our peers and we will utilize these personal engagements to share the vision of YPYS and the opportunity to apply for the program
Long-Term Strategy
The long-term strategy of YPYS revolves around ensuring that each collaborative effort is successful and beneficial for all of the parties involved. This will help develop the brand name of our organization that people can trust and want to work with.
YPYS will seek to establish lasting relationships with sponsors and high schools—presenting an opportunity for YPYS to work with each high school and sponsor year after year.
The growth of our applicants will be self-sustaining as we continue to rely on WOM referrals. As the college program grows, we will have more YPYS representatives that will be able to actively promote and market the program to other students. Also, as high school students graduate, those who have previously worked with YPYS while in high school will also become viable candidates to direct their own projects with YPYS.
Marketing and Sales
Our initial operations will be based out of Provo, UT. Once we have completed our pilot test (with Hillcrest Highschool) we will expand to surrounding schools.
Provo, UT
Our strategy is to work with schools closest to our locus of operation and then gradually expand outwards. Our strategy is to have tiers of geographical expansion—for each state that we expand to, we will carefully select where we want our locus of operation to be and then expand in a similar fashion.
The size of each geographical tier will be different. The size of geographic tiers will be determined by (a) the estimate of number of schools that we will be able to successfully collaborate with, (b) the number of local sponsors that we can work with and (c) the available body of college students that we can recruit from.
Projected Geographical Tiers in Utah
Tier 1: Utah and Salt Lake County (Highly Concentrated tier)
- 8 public school districts (*Not including private and charter schools)
- 47 Public High Schools in Total
- 30 Private/Charter Schools
Tier 2: Tooele, Davis, Weber, Morgan, Summit, Wasatch, Cache, Rich, and Box Elder County
- 13 Public School Districts (*Not including private and charter schools)
- 44 Public High Schools
- 6 Private/Charter Schools
Tier 3: All other counties (These are primarily south from our central operations)
*Tier 3 is approximately half of the entire geographic area of Utah
- 20 Public School Districts (*Not including private and charter schools)
- 49 Public Schools
- 7 Private/Charter Schools
*In total, there are 130,902 high school students in the state of Utah
High Schools
Within each geographical tier we will also have a tiered approach to which high schools we will seek first to work with.
- Tier 1: Public high schools with IB programs and high AP enrolment
- Tier 2: Private/Charter high schools
- Tier 3: All other public high schools
Within each high school we will seek to target IB, AP, and Honor students. Classes with this classification of students will be the classes that we select to go into and teach about social innovation, as well as recruit from to form the YPYS student committee. This will be our target market to begin with because these students have a track record of academic excellence and a strong desire to excel. Our value proposition for these high school students will be (a) the opportunity to gain exceptional experience, (b) develop leadership skills, (c) build a stronger resume for their college applications, and (d) make a real difference in the world.
Aside from having some of the most driven and talented students from high schools working with YPYS, establishing high school student committees will create a pipeline for future high school graduates to join YPYS as a college student and direct their own projects. This pipeline will allow for YPYS to have more prepared students and a deeper and broader selection of students to choose from to represent YPYS and direct their own projects.
College Recruits
Our primary target market will be students who have had little experience with social innovation (in regards to actionable experience). YPYS will serve as a platform for them to discover what social innovation is and how they can personally contribute to society. We believe that we will be able to attract many talented students as we clearly communicate our value proposition for what they will learn, how they can make an impact, and what it can do for their future career. We will also maintain a very selective process.
We will also target students who have already ventured into social innovation. For these students, YPYS will serve as a platform to help them make actionable plans and further their ideas or projects that they may already be working on.
With each succeeding high school graduating class, we will be able to recruit those that have worked on projects while they were in high school to head their own social venture.
Sponsors
YPYS’s marketing strategy with sponsors will be to actively seek to work with local sponsors within each geographical tier. This marketing strategy will provide local sponsors great exposure to the local community. Another strong value proposition that we will have for sponsors is that investing in local schools and local leaders = investing in the local community.
YPYS believes that keeping sponsor engagements on a local level will be much more attractive to each sponsor. Local engagements provide sponsors with a greater chance of tangible results that they can see.
Aside from the sponsors that YPYS will seek out, YPYS will leverage the student committees of each high school to network and approach other potential sponsors. YPYS representatives will go with local YPYS high school student committee officers to present the vision of YPYS and ask for their support and collaboration.
Once we have our website developed, sponsors will be able to view profiles of the different projects and sponsor a particular project or projects of their choice. Sponsors may be more hesitant to donate to the organization as a whole, but will be more willing to donate if they know the specific cause they want to help.
Management Team
Advisory Board
Board of Directors
President
Vice President
Of Marketing
Vice President of Internal Operations
Vice President of External Operations
Vice President of Funding
Director of Sponsor Marketing
HR Director
Director of Business Development
Executive Director
Director of External Marketing
Director of Internal Success
Director of Client Success
Director of Sponsor Relations
Director of Finances
Director of Internal Development
Director of Internal Marketing
Director of Finances
- The Funding branch will specifically handle all of the engagements with potential and existing sponsors
- The External Operations branch will specifically handle all of the engagements with high schools that we will work with
- The Internal Operations branch will specifically handle the recruiting and development of the students that our selected to participate in our program as well as the development of our incubator
- The Marketing branch is responsible for developing and launching marketing campaigns for the other three branches of the organization. They are also responsible for creation and maintenance of our website
Skills/Characteristics of our management team:
- Very strong interpersonal skill, must have the ability to relate with people from all backgrounds and fields
- Diverse (e.g. Age, Background, Experience, Profession, Etc.)
- Responsive
- Each member must be passionate and driven toward helping students succeed
- Our management team must maintain an open dialogue with each other and we will establish transparency through all levels of management
- Strong observational skills and willing to do things differently
- Must have strong networking skills
- Constantly seeking criticism and outside perspectives
- Accountable
- Proactive
Financial Projections
Revenue Model
YPYS will have three primary sources of revenue (is money secured from investors considered revenue):
- Sponsors
  - 25% of all sponsor donations will be dispersed across all of the projects that work under YPYS
  - 20% of all sponsor donations will be used to fund a particular project or projects of their choice
  - 40% of all sponsor donations will be converted into tangible incentives to be given away during our collaborative projects
  - 15% of all sponsor donations will be used to cover expenses and to fuel the growth of YPYS
- Collaborative projects with high schools
  - All the funds raised from each fundraising activity will be pooled together
  - 70% of the pooled funds will be redistributed to each of the active social ventures that are still operating between the ideation stage and end of the start-up stage within our incubation model.
  - This pool of funds will be used to cover any remaining expenses not covered by the sponsor funds, up to 30% of all the pooled funds
  - Any remaining funds will be used to fuel the growth of YPYS
- Incubator
  - Service/website revenue from each of the social ventures that remain with YPYS
  - Federal and State Grants
High Schools and Local Sponsors
The funds YPYS will generate from each school and local sponsors will vary. These variations will be the result of a varying situations and circumstances related to the following:
- Different school sizes
- Different demographics in which we will operate àresulting in more affluent communities to communities close to poverty
- Different models of fundraisers, some may be more effective than others
- Different social ventures that require fundraisers to solicit resources like books or food, instead of monetary resources
- Different time frames for each fundraising project—some fundraisers will be longer than others
- Difference in activity level of each student body
School fundraising platforms have been very successful in the past—particularly when raising funds for a school development.
- The success seen from this platform has a wide range, from $1,000 to $80,000 and more in some exceptional cases.
Our initial financial goals for each school fundraiser will be to generate an average between $5,000-$7,000 in funds. For projects where we will not collect monetary funds but other physical assets, we also have a similar goal in reaching $5,000-$7,000 in value of physical resources.
These projections are subject to change as more insight regarding the potential success of high school platforms with our model is revealed through our pilot tests*.
We will seek to maintain a sponsor to high school fundraiser ratio of 3:1. Based on historical data, YPYS hopes to receive XXXX in donations from each sponsor on average.
YOY growth
Our first two years of operations will be dedicated to pilot testing our model. Our goal for the following five years after the first two years of operation is to have aggressive YOY growth in the number of projects YPYS engages in (each social venture will be associated with one school wide fundraiser) and revenue. We will seek 100% YOY growth for two years and then 50% for the following three years:
- Year 3 (2016) à 24 new projects and $120,000 in funds raised through fundraisers and XXXX amount in donations from sponsors
- Year 4 (2017) à 48 new projects and $ 240,000 in funds raised through fundraisers and XXXX amount in donations from sponsors
- Year 5 (2018) à 72 new projects and $360,000 in funds raised through fundraisers and XXXX amount in donations from sponsors
- Year 6 (2019) à 108 new projects and $540,000 in funds raised through fundraisers and XXXX amount in donations from sponsors
- Year 7 (2020) à 162 new projects and $810,000 in funds raised through fundraisers and XXXX amount in donations from sponsors
YPYS’s aggressive growth will be fuelled by successful collaborations and a proactive WOM referral system, as well as an increase in strong applicants that come through our pipeline of high schools.
YPYS’s aggressive growth is contingent on YPYS’s ability to expand their operations into other states. YPYS will seek to build operations with the following states within these five years
- Idaho à ~171 High Schools (Public/Private/Charter) & ~77,155 Students
- Nevada à ~125 High Schools (Public/Private/Charter) & ~118,383 Students
- Colorado à ~173 High Schools (Public/Private/Charter) & ~240,889 Students
- Arizona à ~385 High Schools (Public/Private/Charter) & ~343,331 Students
- Oregon à ~360 High Schools (Public/Private/Charter) & ~200,645 Students
- California à ~1232 High Schools (Public/Private/Charter) & ~2,089,678 Students
Our ability to expand our operations into other states relies heavily on the following variables:
- Establishing actionable relationships with both high schools and local sponsors
- Locating student leaders at universities who are willing to pilot YPYS’s program in their community
- Locating a local operating team who will oversee the operations in each state
- Locating an incubator facility for our operating team in each state
- Having efficient capital to expand our operations into other states
Incubator
YPYS’s incubator services will be free of charge for the first two years for each incubatee (social venture). After the first year, social ventures will be charged various service fees based on which services they choose to access:
- If a social venture wishes to have access to all of the incubator services, they will be charged a monthly service fee of XXXX
- If social ventures choose to only have access to YPYS’s network, including investors and partners, then they will be charged a monthly service fee of XXXX
- If social ventures choose to have access to YPYS’s human resources team, they will be charged a monthly service fee of XXXX
- If social ventures choose to have access to YPYS’s accounting services, they will be charged a monthly service fee of XXXX
All other services offered through YPYS’s services will be free of charge (excluding strategic consultants, social ventures must pay for consultations directly to consultants).
Cost Structure
Our operating costs will be minimal in the first year and a half of our operations because we will not seek a facility for our incubator until the last quarter of our second year of operations (September 2015) and our management team will be strictly voluntary up until the last quarter of our second year of operations as well (September 2015).
YPYS will see a dramatic increase in potential expenses related to operation beginning in year three. This will be due to the aggressive growth that we will seek, the development of our incubator facilities, and the compensation of our management/operating team.
We will have potential expenses related to the following fields:
- Wages/Salaries Expense
- Rent Expense for Facilities (We will seek to establish our first incubator facility for YPYS in Provo near the end of our second year of operations)
- Potential Advertising Expenses (If we seek do expand beyond our WOM referral initiative)
- Travel Expenses (This will increase as we seek to expand our operations to surrounding states)
- Shipping Expenses (For resources raised for social causes that aren’t monetary)
- Interest Expense (*The amount of leverage we will use is yet to be determined à this is contingent on our growth strategy)
- Other Overhead Expenses
Investors
YPYS will seek out two different types of investors—investors for YPYS as an organization as whole and investors to join our network of investors in our incubator for individual social ventures.
Investments that investors from our incubator make for individual social ventures belong solely to the invested party. YPYS does not receive any funds from these investments, as the monetary engagements are only between the network of investor and social ventures. As described in our business model, our board of directors must approve every business proposal before any social venture can have access to our network of investors.
As YPYS seeks to develop a network of investors for the incubator, YPYS will also actively seek outside investment for the entire organization. For the first year of our operations (until July 2015), we will seek to sign contingency contracts with as many investors as we can attract. Contingency contracts will be based on the terms that investors will invest in YPYS, as a whole organization, once YPYS has proven that the model established is functional and will provide the benefits declared (proven by our pilot tests).
YPYS will use the initial investments to develop the virtual incubator (e.g. develop the website and fees for virtual conference rooms), rent and remodel a physical facility, and compensate the management team.
Timeline and Use of Funds
6/8/2014à6/21/2014
6/22/2014à8/11/2014
5/1/2014à6/7/2014
3
1
2
Begin to seek out key management personnel, and all necessary personnel for YPYS’s incubator (i.e. mentors, investors, professors, etc.)
Attend Oxford Social Seminar, refine business model and business proposal/ develop 8-12 week training curriculum
Ideation stage and development of business model and business proposal
9/29/2014à12/12/2014
9/2/2014à9/28/2014
8/12/2014à9/1/2014
4
5
6
8-12 week training program with pilot testing model (see appendix)/ help with business proposals—we will make adjustments accordingly
Recruit 12 students to pilot test YPYS’s model as YPYS representatives/ schedule guest lectures and collaborative workshops
Register with the Division of Consumer Protection/501c registration/Begin contacting local schools, sponsors, and investors
3/28/2015à6/1/2015
2/2/2015à3/27/2015
1/5/2015à2/1/2015
9
8
7
Help each social venture prepare to pitch to investors and potential partners/ each social venture will make a formal pitch to investors
Carry out phase 3-phase 7 of high school collaboration *(see business model) with the four selected high schools
Carry out phase 1-phase 2 of high school collaboration *(see business model) at four different high schools
7/28/2015à9/2/2015
6/22/2015à7-27/2015
6/2/2015à6/21/2015
10
11
12
Solidify management team, locate physical facility and begin designing location, this is where investors’ money will come in to play
Seek to develop more relationships with schools, sponsors and investors/ seek funds from investors who previously signed contingency contracts
Assess the success of YPYS/ gather surveys and consolidate all data for investors’ report/ *social ventures attend Oxford seminar
Goals and Key Metrics
5/1/2014à6/7/2014
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
6/8/2014à6/21/2014
6/22/2014à8/11/2014
8/12/2014à9/1/2014
9/2/2014à9/28/2014
9/29/2014à12/12/2014
1/5/2015à2/1/2015
2/2/2015à3/27/2015
3/28/2015à6/1/2015
6/2/2015à6/21/2015
6/22/2015à7-27/2015
7/28/2015à9/2/2015
Finished core business model in preparation for Oxford seminar
Have 8-12 week training curriculum developed/ Proposal ready to be shared and presented to all parties
5 Board Members, 5 Advisors, 4 VPs, 12 mentors
Completed Registrations, Contacted 12 Investors for Incubator, Contacted 10 Investors for YPYS, Contacted 8 high schools, Contacted 12 sponsors
Scheduled 9 Lectures, Scheduled 9 collaborative workshops, Selected 12 recruits out of 60 applicants
All 12 students have had their proposals approved by our board of directors, Secured 4 high schools, Secured 12 sponsors
Established 4 students committees at 4 different high schools
Have 4 school wide fundraisers raising a total of $20,000
All 12 social ventures have pitched their proposals to at least 2 investors
Finished assessment and created report to be used in presentation for other high schools, sponsors, and investors
Secure $100,000 dollars in investment, Contacted 8 high schools, Contacted 12 sponsors, Contacted 10 new investors for YPYS, 12 investors for incubator
All positions for management team filled, Began designing rented facility
Short Term Goals
YPYS KPIs (Key Performance Indicators)
- The number of YPYS social ventures that are started YOY
- The total number of social ventures that are operating under YPYS
- The number of college applicants for YPYS’s program YOY
- The number of operating student committees
- The number of social ventures that remain operating for at least three years
- The number of high schools that we have worked with
- The number of high schools that work with us continually YOY
- The average amount of funds raised from each high school fundraiser
- The average amount of funds social ventures secure from investors under YPYS
- The average amount of funds social ventures secure in total working with YPYS
- The number of sponsors to social ventures ratio YOY
- The number of sponsors to school fundraisers ratio YOY
- The number of high school graduates that served on their student committee who apply for YPYS’s college program
- Mentors to social ventures ratio
- The number of investors to social ventures ratio (how many investors each social venture has)
Social Impact
This will help college students and high school students foster a sense of social responsibility and function as a catalyst for their own socially innovative solutions
The long term outcome à students who are engaged in social innovation from an early stage will carry that mind set into the corporations, businesses, and any organization that they will work for in the future
We will provide a foundation for young leaders to build upon à many will continue in their social projects and possibly expand to new ones
We will provide aid to a variety of social issues, both monetary and other resources that are in alignment with their mission
Create more leaders that will be future key management figures in Non-Profit Organizations
Values as An Organization
- Vision
- Conscientious
- Passionate
- Innovative
- Accountability
- Leadership
- Excellence
References
- Davies, Mark, 2009, InfoDev, Mixed-use Incubator Handbook: A Start-up Guide for
Incubator Developers, http://www.infodev.org/infodevfiles/resource/Infodev
Documents_733.pdf
- InfoDev Growing Innovation, 2013, Business Incubation Toolkit
http://www.infodev.org/business-incubation-toolkit
- OECD, 2011, Fostering Innovation to Address social Changes, http://www.oecd.org/
science/inno/47861327.pdf
- Young Entrepreneurs Academy, 2004, http://yeausa.org/introduction.php
- High-Schools.com, 2014, http://high-schools.com/
Appendix A: Q&A
Q: So question, what if there is a passionate kid about social innovation. What stops him from using your service and just googling a non-profit organization and seeing if he can go help out with them?
A: Nothing. If he wants to go directly help out charity he can. There is nothing that would stop him if he really wanted to do that and that wouldn’t detract from what we are offering. He would be able to participate in our initial 8-12 week program—> which will be a mix between what we did to prepare for Oxford, what we will do at Oxford, and a few other ideas I have, but the real value in our proposition comes from being able to direct your own project in conjunction with the training you will go through.
However, I don’t think our primary target market will be individuals like him. The fact is, if someone who is really passionate about social innovation and philanthropic work, is probably already doing something about it himself. Our platform will be catered more towards helping bright students who have had ideas, or maybe haven’t had those ideas, discover what social innovation is and what they can personally do to contribute to society. Or if we do attract individuals as the one you described, we will serve as a platform to help them take action and further their project.
Our mission is to expose more future leaders to the idea of social innovation by actively engaging them in a philanthropic initiative that they are personally passionate about.
Q: How much do you expect to raise from students? What fundraisers are most effective?
Q: How will demographics affect your fundraisers? Are there better strategies for fundraisers for different demographics?
Q: How effective are student fundraising platforms?
Q: Have you considered a Teach for America type platform? Where college students would participate in this program after graduating. Teach for America has successfully recruited many talented and accomplished graduates, which would seem to be a great asset for this venture.
A: I have decided to not use a Teach for America type platform, in regards to college students participating in the program after they have graduated, for three specific reasons.
- One of our core beliefs is that every individual has the ability to make an impact on this world. YPYS strives to help future leaders develop the social awareness and capability to address our society’s toughest issues. We believe that the sooner we engage young leaders in addressing these social issues, the more likely they are to continue with a socially responsible mindset into their future careers. This is why we believe that waiting until graduation is unnecessary when each college student could potentially have four years of experience in the social sector before they ever step foot into their first job.
- While students remain in school, they will have immediate access to a myriad of vital resources and network, outside of what YPYS will be able to offer, that they will be able to leverage and draw from as they develop their social project. Once a student has graduated, they will have limited access to these rich resources.
- Although we will offer an engaging 8-12 week training program, what students choose to do with their social initiative after their first collaborative project is solely up to the individual. Some students may continue to develop their social project, others may pursue other social ventures, or some may discontinue such intensive involvement. YPYS will continue to provide the resources for those that choose to continue, but as of right now, there is no full-time platform that YPYS can offer.
Q: How will you find your initial management team?
Q: If you are to choose to either devote your resources to a student who wants to continue developing their project or allowing a new student to join YPYS and start their own project, who do you choose and why?
Q: If a student completes one project and has another idea, would you allow him/her to do another one?
Q: Will you have to get each project approved by the state of Utah?
A: If a social venture seeks to claim independent status, YPYS will help each venture get approved and registered. However, as long as the social venture operates under YPYS, they will not need to seek any registration or approval. (not sure if this is true)
Q: So I, as a student, just go into a community with my training that I have received and prep other high school students to understand what I am doing, get them involved, raise money, give them rewards, and then give YPYS a cut?
A: Yes, in a nutshell. Read the proposal again.
Q: Do the projects have to be community specific?
A: The projects do not have to be community specific in regards to the issue that they are trying to address; however, successful ventures will draw upon resources from the community and work in collaboration with leaders within the community.
Q: Does YPYS “own” each of the projects?
Q: You can’t solve a problem in a few months; how is YPYS going to be able to help projects continue to run?
Q: Do projects need to have end goals and time limits?
Q: How will you structure the 8-12 week developmental program? What will it consist of? What will you teach? Who will teach it? How intensive will it really be?
Q: Will students have to pay for the 8-12 week developmental program?
Q: Why did you choose to work with high schools? What benefits are there to working with high schools?
Q: What exactly is a competitive applicant for the program?
Q: How sustainable do you think this model is?
Q: Are you going to limit your model to working with high schools? Or can there be other avenues that you want to incorporate? What happens when you have already worked with all the high schools in your area?
Q: What is your vision in one sentence?
Q: What do you need a facility for?
Q: How will you expand YPYS into other states? What is your main strategy?
Q: If you have a fundraiser that gathers physical assets that you intend to sell instead of monetary funds, what channels will you use to sell the items? How will you know that you are getting the most value out of what you are selling? How much will it COST you to sell the items? Will the costs of trying to sell these items outweigh the overall cost of the project?
Q: How will you measure the success of YPYS? How will you measure the success of each project?
Q: If a student decides to discontinue a project, due to graduation or other school/ career engagements, will YPYS have the choice to continue the program as an organization?
Q: Will you allow for the possibility of projects being combined together?
A: We would encourage this prospect if we believe it is a strategy that will be synergistic.
Q: Are there social or environmental factors that will influence your model?
Q: What if the project that a student wants to work on is to help a local school?
Q: How does YPYS incorporate its proclaimed values into the organization?
Q: I get the idea is to help people be social leaders but where would your precise goal be for them? Just being able to make a project? Actually Being successful? Or continuing to do it throughout their life?
Q: How will you make revenue as an incubator?
Q: For a business incubator to function properly and effectively, you will need to have multiple start-ups in the incubation process, to spread the costs of the facility, resources, and personnel. How do you plan to get to that point given the fact that many students will not want to commit to such a lengthy process?
Q: What if you changed your model to focus on creating real businesses with products and services that are socially sustainable?
Q: What if you could develop an innovations lab, like Harvard, and instead of finding your own facility, BYU would build it?
Q: How will you compete with the various fundraisers that will be taking place throughout the entire year with different clubs and teams in each high school?
Q: How can you measure if students continue it throughout their life (social responsibility) and how can you prove your success to sponsors? How do you know that students will be inspired to continue?
Q: What evidence do you have that your model will produce the social leaders that you are hoping to help develop?
A: As of right now I do not have any evidence besides what other similar models have been able to produce. We will be constantly trying to measure and gauge our success, but for us to truly understand the impact that we are making, we will need a few years of evaluation and assessment.
Q: What kind of students are you looking for specifically to participate in your program?
Q: How will you cover the initial costs of running an incubator? From running the facility to having all of the computers, printers, and other necessary resources?
Q: What will happen if a social venture that you help start commits something fraudulent?
Q: What if you signed a contract with each social venture saying dictated if they choose to continue to develop their social ventures (discontinuation coming from them graduating or not motivated to develop their venture further) that they must stay with YPYS for at least two years?
Q: What are we going to do with social ventures that stay with YPYS past the start-up phase?
A: We will charge a progressive service fee dependent on which services social ventures decided to continue to use.
Q: What if graduate social ventures seek to work through high schools still?
A: We will sign a contract with each social venture stating that if they continue to seek to work through high schools, then there pitch has to be for YPYS as a whole organization and the funds they raise will follow the original fundraiser structure*(reference structure).
Q: What about the sponsors that supported them initially? Will they stay with them?
A: Because sponsors will hopefully provide recurring donations every year, the same structure for donations*(reference structure) will follow and they can choose to donate the 20% to the same project. However, original sponsors can also become investors of individual social ventures.
Q: What about the revenue that each venture generates outside of the high school platforms?
A: If social ventures are still operating under YPYS, then 5% of any funds raised from any other platform (excluding funds from investors) are given to YPYS.
Q: What if you started chapters within Universities? So for example, you file as a club on BYU to gain access to marketing on campus—to recruit for the parent organization.
Q: How will you structure the contracts you make with each social venture? How will design their strategies so that YPYS’s name is not harmed if something goes wrong? Also how will you structure your contracts so that you can still benefit from the relationship with all the social ventures that are started under YPYS.
Q: Will you need a lawyer to help you with all of the registration and legal work that your organization will go through? You will probably also need to create contracts with sponsors, high schools, and investors right? What do these contracts need to look like? What are all the legal aspects that need to be approved for YPYS to be able to function?
Q: How do you know that “through actively engaging as many college students and high school students as possible in social innovation/social leadership, our society will see an increase in the number of social leaders for the future as well as an increase in the aggregate who will dedicate resources in the future to serving a philanthropic initiative”?
Q: Have you looked into disposable income within your graphical tiers? You should also look at the fundraising levels within various states and cities, and see what a major cause for fundraising success is. Is it based off of strategy? Or is it based entirely off disposable income? Or is it based off of frequency of fundraisers held? Or is it based on the demographics or backgrounds? What are all the variables that are obvious and not so obvious that go into successful fundraisers?
Q: What makes social ventures successful, as in what process does it have to go through? What variables determine the success of a social venture? What makes a successful social entrepreneur or a business entrepreneur in general?
Q: I understand that you are going to have weekly “collaborative workshops” to try to stimulate the innovative and creative juices of students, but is there an exact method that you will use? Do you have more structure? Is there possibly a better method than collaborative workshops? What is the optimal number of people to have in a collaborative session? What kind of people do you want in a collaborative session?
Q: What are successful leadership development models, specifically for high school and college students?
Appendix B: High School Student Committee
Student Committee
YPYS
Work on YPYS Projects
Weekly Workshops
Monthly YPYS Lectures
Help with School Fundraiser
Present in Classes
Workshop
Student Board
YPYS representatives (Participating College students) will present to select classes and then hold an after-school workshop either the same day they present in classes or a later date that is more convenient for both parties. During this after-school workshop, students that come will have the opportunity to sign up for the student committee. The student committee will be a group of exceptional students that are committed and dedicated to the vision of YPYS.
Each student on the student committee will (a) be assigned to work on a YPYS project, (b) have weekly student directed workshops where they will collaborate and share ideas on social innovation and work on developing innovative skills, (c) work in conjunction with the student council to hold the school-wide fundraising activity, and (d) attend a YPYS lecture once a month held by YPYS college representatives.
Five exceptional students from the student committee will also be selected to form the student board. The student board will direct all of the activities for the weekly workshops and maintain an open dialogue with the director of client success from YPYS.
For each high school that YPYS works with, we will seek to follow a specific model for working with the student committee and recruiting new students to join the committee.
- Year 1: Teach seniors, juniors, and sophomores classes and recruit students from all three grades to join the committee
  - Student board will be selected from the class of juniors
- Year 2 and on: Because the current seniors and juniors have already been exposed to YPYS and social innovation, we will only teach the incoming sophomore class
  - A new student board will be selected from the current class of juniors
If a high school student wishes to create and direct his own project, he will be allowed to do so under the same guidelines that we have our college students develop their projects.
Appendix C: Pilot Test/Methodology
Our pilot tests will determine whether or not our model is sustainable and if it will produce the results that we envision. We will seek to determine the following within our pilot tests:
We will begin by selecting 12 college students from BYU to participate in our YPYS program.
- How effective weekly collaborations are for helping students develop creative and innovative social ventures through the practice of core innovative thinking/associative thinking
  - Control Group (3 Students)—no collaborative workshops or weekly lectures
  - Test Group (3 Students)—will have both workshops and lectures
  - Test Group (3 Students)—will have only lectures
  - Test Group (3 Students)—will have only workshops
- How effective weekly lectures from professors and guest speakers are for helping students develop their social awareness and understanding of social innovation and social entrepreneurship
  - Control Group (3 Students)—no collaborative workshops or weekly lectures
  - Test Group (3 Students)—will have both workshops and lectures
  - Test Group (3 Students)—will have only lectures
  - Test Group (3 Students)—will have only workshops
- Whether or not it is essential for a student to have a mentor to connect with throughout the development of a social venture
- Whether or not an 8-12 week program is necessary for a student to develop the social awareness and innovative/entrepreneurship skills to start their own social venture
  - Control Group (3 Students)—no collaborative workshops or weekly lectures
  - Test Group (3 Students)—will have both workshops and lectures
  - Test Group (3 Students)—will have only lectures
  - Test Group (3 Students)—will have only workshops
- How effective an 8-12 week program that has weekly lectures and weekly collaborative workshops is in comparison to other possible weekly engagements/activities
- How effective various student fundraising platforms are
- What method is most effective to motivate an entire student body to engage in a fundraiser (e.g. assembly vs. class presentations)
- How attractive starting/joining student committees is for high school students
- Whether it is the most effective or not to have student councils run the fundraiser
- Whether establishing student committees in high schools is an effective tool for translating high school graduates, who have previously worked with YPYS, into motivated and strong applicants for YPYS in college
- How responsive sponsors are to donating to YPYS and how responsive sponsors are to the donation structure
- How effective the student committee model is to teach high school students about social innovation and generate excitement and interest that carries on into college
- Does this model really increase the number of students who will be engaged in social initiatives in the future, does this experience really change their mindset and develop future social leaders
- Does this model really produce sustainable social ventures
- Is YPYS’s revenue structure with high schools and local sponsors dependent on demographics
- How much does the type of student matter for a social venture to be successful
- What are the skills/characteristics of a strong applicant for the YPYS program
- Are projects that are focused on local communities more attractive to high schools and sponsors than projects focused on other communities, or vice versa
Appendix D: Young Entrepreneurs Academy
Introduction
The Young Entrepreneurs Academy (YEA!) is a groundbreaking and exciting year long class that transforms middle and high school students into real, confident entrepreneurs. Throughout the class, students develop business ideas, write business plans, conduct market research, pitch their plans to a panel of investors, and actually launch and run their own real, legal, fully formed companies and social movements. Complete with dynamic guest speakers from the local business community and exciting behind-the-scenes trips to local companies, the fun, projects-based YEA! approach empowers students to take charge of their futures in a profound way.
The Young Entrepreneurs Academy is not only a wonderful tool to teach students about business, but also a great way to build confident leaders with values. An excellent instrument to unify the business and educational communities, YEA! continues to expand across the country to fulfill our mission of teaching more students how to make a job, not just take a job.
Impact
The Academy has had profound positive effects on students, businesses, and communities all across the country**.** Since the program’s inception, over 1,000 businesses have been launched. Today, the program impacts 168 communities in 30 states (*Two locations in Utah, Provo and South Jordan), bringing educational and business communities together to foster the spirit of entrepreneurship and innovation among today’s youth.
YEA! Fast Fact Snapshot:
- 100% of Academy Graduates Graduate High School on Time
- 99% of Academy Graduates Enroll in College
- 19% of YEA! Students Start Second Businesses
- 50% of YEA! Students Continue Business for More Than 1 Year
- 49% of YEA! Students are Female
- 56% of YEA! Students are Underrepresented Minorities
- YEA! Students have been awarded over a half million dollars in scholarships as a result of their involvement in YEA!
- 1,394 students have graduated from YEA! and have launched over 1,000 businesses.
- 13,627 business and community leaders.
YEA! strengthens the community and the community strengthens YEA!. Students are able to network with and develop relationships with local business leaders, create jobs, and launch businesses in their own backyard. Students see that they can make a difference within the communities in which they live. The enthusiasm and success of the students are empowering for the entire community!
History
The Young Entrepreneurs Academy (YEA!) began in 2004 at the University of Rochester, with grant support from the Kauffman Foundation. This intensive entrepreneurship training program guides middle and high school students through the process of starting and running a legitimate business or social movement over the course of a full academic year. In its first four years, YEA! grew beyond the college-based setting to include public high schools. In 2008, YEA! Inc. was formed for the purpose of making the YEA! program available to the target demographic of students in grades 6 through 12 (ages 11 to 18) throughout the entire United States.
The YEA! program has grown to be offered both as an after-school program as well as a credit-bearing elective that is incorporated into a high school’s curriculum. For the 2013-2014 academic year YEA! is operating in 168 different communities across 30 states, and serves hundreds of school districts that offer the program to thousands of motivated, entrepreneurially -minded students. The after school locations range from public and private colleges and universities, public and private schools and school districts to Charter schools and the Boys and Girls Clubs, spanning rural to urban settings and impacting students from all socio-economic walks of life. Each site is staffed by an instructor and site program manager, and supported by a site support specialist through the YEA! headquarters in Rochester, NY.
Goal & Mission:
Develop and deliver experience-based entrepreneurship programs to young people to:
- Enable them to transition successfully to adulthood;
- Help them to pursue their dreams by harnessing their creativity and energy;
- Help them transform their ideas into tangible enterprises that create economic and social value for a better world;
- Develop the character of tomorrow’s leaders based on personal principles and values;
- Enable educational institutions and Chambers of Commerce to provide successful and effective entrepreneurship programs for middle and high school students;
- Create a culture of innovation in schools and communities across the nation; and
- Foster the entrepreneurial mindset in young people, educators, and community members.
YEA! Vision: To be a leader in establishing innovative, experiential entrepreneurship programs for middle and high school students, delivering these programs through colleges and universities, and in high schools and middle schools throughout the country, in close cooperation with local community and business leaders and their organizations. To partner with like minded organizations to effectively deliver entrepreneurship education to young people across our nation.
YEA! provides a focused introduction to the business world, combining a dynamic, proven curriculum with the experiences of local leaders of industry, community members, educators and entrepreneurs. The goal of all YEA! classes is for each student to successfully launch their own business.
The Young Entrepreneurs Academy, Inc. (YEA! Inc) is a charitable, tax-exempt organization under Section 501c (3) of the Internal Revenue Code.
Colleges and Universities Section
The Young Entrepreneurs Academy is a wonderful way for colleges and universities to celebrate the spirit of entrepreneurship and innovation while attracting top students and quality leaders to their campus, schools, and programs. In 2009, 42% of YEA! students matriculated to the campus that hosted their local YEA! class. The Academy is also a great tool to get alumni and the media on campus for a variety of exciting YEA! events.
Appendix E: Paper Clip for Africa
Appendix F: Incubator Models (InfoDev)
Defining the Incubator’s Operational Model
Objectives
Defining the operational model establishes how the incubator will be organized and operated. As Lavrow and Sample stress, the operational model “defines the structure of the incubator, the scope of the services offered, financing possibilities and external alliances.” The operational model is influenced by the incubator’s focus or the companies’ area of activity, and the incubator’s structure/services may vary.
The following operational models are suggested by current literature:
- Bricks and Mortar (BAM): the most traditional model of the incubator is centered on offering physical facilities to those using it. The entire incubation process and services offered are concentrated in a building. An advantage of this model is that interaction, the formation of partnerships and resolution of common problems can be stimulated by the proximity of the entrepreneurs. Depending on the incubator’s focus, this is the “natural” model and is widely used amongst traditional incubators.
- Virtual: also called a Portal or “Without walls”, this incubator model does not provide a building for the incubated businesses. Support and services are offered over the Internet. An advantage of this model is that entrepreneurs from different regions can be integrated. This model has been used to support the generation and development of “dot com” companies.
- Mixed: an incubator that offers a building to house some entrepreneurs and also supports the generation and development of companies over the Internet. Some authors designate this the “HUB/Venture Incubator” model.
Normally, definition of the operational model imposes conditions on the types of services to be offered by the incubator. The BAM model can offer the services of a virtual incubator but may choose to emphasize services offered in its own building/office. The tendency, with widespread use of the World Wide Web, is that incubators will offer many services over the Internet.
Key Issues
Significant to the definition of the operational model is:
- Services: for incubators to be successful, the services offered by the incubator must be adequate to its area of activity and to its stage of development. As already stressed, BAM incubators offer a limited quantity of services, since these are restricted to the incubator’s office/building. Virtual incubators are not limited in the same way, as they do not provide offices but center on offering services over the Internet.
- Network of Relations: a key aspect in incubator success is the quality and scope of its network of relationships. What may occur is that BAM incubators limit their networks of relationships to their physical area of activity. This can reduce the quality of the network of relationships. On the other hand, since they do not have an office/offices, virtual incubators can highlight improvements in the quality and scope of their networks of relationships.
- Financing: lack of finance may lengthen a company’s incubation period. BAM incubators generally do not offer financial support from their own resources to incubated companies. On the other hand, virtual incubators may seek to provide financing alternatives, based either on their own resources or those of third parties.
Responsible Parties
The team that is developing the incubator project must define the incubator’s operational model. At least one representative of each organization should be involved at this stage of the project. This ensures that the interests and points of view of all the institutions involved are taken into consideration.
Results
Definition of the incubator’s operational model aids in the definition of the services and support offered to incubated companies. This includes the network of relationships as well as financial options.
YPYS
YPYS will choose to provide a unique mixed operation model. We will function as a virtual incubator but have a small physical facility for collaborative workshops, conference rooms for lectures and board meetings, and house any management services that are necessary (i.e. human resources and accounting services).
A mixed operational model will provide a more extensive network for all of YPYS’s incubates, as we will not be limited to our physical location. A mixed model will also make it less costly for YPYS to expand into other regions and states, as we can continue to hold collaborative workshops and lectures virtually.
Appendix G: Incubator Phases
Appendix H: Functions of Management Personnel
Appendix I: Leadership Development
Appendix J: Virtual Conference Room
Crowd Funding—but you have to give them something
VC funding—but they would have equity
What if sponsors purchased artifacts—that companies have as a trophy to say that they support their endeavors
Bigger-or-Better is hard because of the inventory
Hillcrest, Liahona, Bingham, West
Write all the questions you want answered at Oxford