Crestview College Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation

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Executive Summary

Crestview College Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation is a nonprofit center at a historically Black college in Alabama that helps students, alumni and neighbors start and grow businesses. The Center offers practical courses, coaching, an alumni and community mentor for each venture, incubator space, legal and accounting clinics and a seed fund paid to vendors for approved startup costs.

Historically Black colleges produce many graduates who want to start businesses, and their campuses often lack the funding, space and networks that larger schools have. Student founders often cannot afford legal setup, equipment or first inventory.

With this grant we will serve about 80 founders in Year 1 at 1 campus site. We do not give legal, tax or investment advice, we do not take ownership in student businesses and we do not promise any business a profit. We promise honest teaching, careful use of every dollar and respect for every founder.

Our Year 1 budget is about $242,500, growing to about $298,500 by Year 5 as we add sites, coaches and participants. Each year's budget is planned to balance, with a small surplus each year. We have 4 staff in Year 1 (a Center Director, a Program Manager, a part-time entrepreneur-in-residence and a part-time student coordinator) and 8 by Year 5.

We are asking the Opportunity in Higher Education Foundation for $85,000 for the Program Manager, the seed fund and an entrepreneur-in-residence. Our other income and startup support cover the rest. These numbers are estimates based on the assumptions listed at the end of this proposal, and we do not promise any result beyond what we describe.

Company Description

Crestview College Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation is a nonprofit organization in Alabama. We are a registered charity with a volunteer board of directors, a written conflict-of-interest policy and a yearly budget the board reviews.

Our mission. To prepare students and neighbors at a historically Black college to start and grow businesses, and to keep the wealth they create in the community.

What we do.
- Run a Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation that offers courses, workshops and coaching to students, alumni and neighbors.
- Operate a student venture seed fund that pays vendors for approved startup expenses.
- Host pitch competitions, mentor nights and an annual innovation showcase.
- Provide incubator space, equipment access and legal and accounting clinics through partners.
- Match each venture with an alumni or community mentor.
- Connect student founders with lenders, investors and customers.

Our values. Respect for every participant, honesty with families and partners, safety first and a place for everyone who wants to belong.

What we do not do. We do not give legal, tax or investment advice and refer founders to licensed professionals. The seed fund pays vendors directly and is never paid as cash. We do not take ownership in student businesses. We do not promise any business a profit. We follow the rules of our partner sites and our insurer.

How we got here. A group of faculty, alumni business owners and a local banker began running a student pitch night in a lecture hall. Students filled the room and asked what came after the pitch. We kept simple records of who came and what they were building. This proposal asks for support to move from a student pitch night to a steady program with paid, trained staff and the materials to match.

Problem & Opportunity

Historically Black colleges and universities produce many graduates who want to start businesses, and their campuses often lack the funding, space and networks that larger schools take for granted.

Cost. Student founders often cannot afford legal setup, equipment, software or the first inventory, and many carry student debt.

Access. Many founders have few contacts in finance or industry, and traditional lenders and investors may not reach them.

Safety and trust. Students and funders want honest teaching and accountability for every dollar.

Missed benefits. Talented students leave without starting the ventures they imagined, and the local economy misses new businesses and jobs.

What we hear.
- A senior says she has a product and has never met an investor.
- A professor says her students are as creative as any she has taught and have fewer resources.
- An alumnus says one mentor changed how he ran his company.
- A founder says the seed fund paid for his first batch of inventory.

We do not claim that a program can solve every challenge. We believe that space, mentors and a first small fund can turn a student's idea into a lasting business.

Products & Services

Crestview College Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation gives students, alumni and neighbors who want to start businesses a safe, welcoming place to start and grow ventures.

How the program works.
1. Open house. The Center welcomes students, alumni and neighbors to open workshops and office hours.
2. Courses. Short, practical courses cover ideas, customers, pricing, finances, legal basics and selling.
3. Coaching and mentors. Each venture meets with a coach and is matched with an alumni or community mentor.
4. Incubator. Ventures use shared space and equipment at low or no cost.
5. Seed fund. Ventures with a plan may apply for a seed grant paid to vendors for approved expenses.
6. Clinics. Partner attorneys and accountants hold free clinics.
7. Showcase. An annual showcase and pitch competition connects ventures with lenders, investors and customers.

What a typical session looks like. Participants arrive and check in with a staff member, settle in together, work on the day's activity in small groups and finish with a short talk about what went well. Staff praise effort, correct mistakes kindly and make sure no one is left out.

Staff. Our coaches and mentors are faculty, business owners and advisors who complete our orientation, pass a background check and are paid or supported for their time.

Access and fairness. Programs are free. The Center's programs are free for students and offered at low or no cost to alumni and neighbors. We welcome every aspiring founder.

Market Analysis

Who we serve. Students, alumni and community members who want to start businesses and live near the college. Eligibility is a venture idea and a connection to the college or community, and no one is turned away for lack of a degree or experience.

How we estimate need. We cannot count every young person who could benefit, so we plan from what we can see. In our pitch nights we served full rooms and kept a waiting list for coaching. Faculty and local lenders told us that many more founders need help than we can provide. For Year 1 we plan to serve about 80 participants at 1 campus sites. By Year 5, with more staff and sites, we plan to serve about 240.

Where participants come from.
- Faculty and academic departments.
- Alumni and business groups.
- Lenders and chambers of commerce.
- Founders who tell a friend.

Who else benefits. Graduates gain careers and ownership. The college gains a reputation for innovation. The community gains jobs and businesses.

What the numbers mean. Every number here is a student pitching her company to a room of mentors. We keep our early counts modest and honest so we can do the work well.

Competitive Landscape

What young people can find today, and how we are different.

1. Small business development centers. Strong and general. We are on campus and focused on students.

2. Larger university incubators. Well funded and often far from our students. We offer a local, accessible option.

3. Accelerator programs. Competitive and expensive. We prepare founders to apply.

4. Online courses. Convenient and not personal.

5. Family businesses. Valuable and not available to everyone. We help everyone.

What makes us different.
- On campus and open to students, alumni and neighbors.
- A seed fund paid to vendors.
- Alumni mentors.
- Legal and accounting clinics.
- An annual showcase with lenders and investors.

Why this gap matters. Existing programs do good work, and most serve people who can already pay or who live close to them. The people we serve are the ones left over: they live in the wrong neighborhood, have the wrong schedule or have no one to ask. We are built to reach them.

We have spoken with faculty, alumni, lenders and other college entrepreneurship centers to make sure we are filling a gap and not duplicating services. Their letters of support are in the attachments.

Marketing & Sales Strategy

How young people and partners will find us.

Reaching young people.
- Faculty and departments. We will present in classes and share a simple referral form.
- Student organizations. We will hold pitch nights and workshops.
- Alumni and business groups. We will invite them to mentor and attend showcases.
- Lenders and chambers. We will share information and invitations.
- Word of mouth. Founders tell friends.
- A simple website and a phone line with a text option.

Reaching staff and sponsors.
- Recruit coaches and mentors through faculty, alumni business groups and banks.
- Offer an orientation, a background check and training in safety, privacy and respectful practice.
- Give partners a short report each quarter with counts of participants and what they said.

How we decide who joins. We use a simple sign-up form and enroll participants in the order received, with priority for those with the greatest need and for people new to the program. We keep a waiting list when the program is full.

What we watch. Sign-ups, attendance, ventures started, seed grants awarded and how many participants return for a second season.

Operations Plan

How the program will be carried out.

Timeline for Year 1:
- Months 1 and 2 (July and August): Hire the staff, buy equipment and materials, finalize the waiver, consent form and privacy policy with our attorney and sign site agreements.
- Month 3 (September): Open the Center and begin the first courses.
- Months 4 to 10: Run courses, coaching, incubator hours and the seed fund through the academic year.
- Months 11 and 12: Hold the showcase, survey founders and mentors, report to funders and plan Year 2.

Space. The Center operates in a renovated space on campus with a classroom, shared workspace and meeting rooms, provided by the college.

Safety and privacy.
- Seed grants are paid to vendors and reviewed by two people.
- Coaches follow a written conflict-of-interest policy and never take ownership in student businesses.
- Every staff member and volunteer passes a background check and completes safety training.
- Staff work in pairs or in view of others whenever participants are minors or in a vulnerable situation.
- We keep an emergency plan at every site, and participants complete an emergency contact form.
- We keep records private, share them only with a participant's permission or as the law requires and follow a written policy.

Equipment. We buy about $8,000 of equipment once at the start: laptops and shared workspace equipment ($4,000), presentation and recording equipment for pitches ($2,500), incubator furnishings and storage ($1,500). Later years replace or add a few items.

Staffing. In Year 1 I serve as Center Director. The Program Manager, paid $46,000 a year, manages courses, coaches and the seed fund. A part-time entrepreneur-in-residence, paid $36,000, coaches founders. A part-time student coordinator, paid $24,000, supports events. We add an entrepreneur-in-residence in Year 3.

Management & Organization

Dr. Marcus Reed, Center Director. I lead the Center, report to the dean and the advisory board and am responsible for budgets, partnerships and reporting. I came to this work as an alumnus who started a company and saw how much a mentor would have helped. I will take the foundational course so I understand the program from the inside. (Replace this paragraph with your own background.)

Staff. The Program Manager manages courses, coaches and the seed fund, and part-time entrepreneurs-in-residence work with founders. Each passes a background check. These positions are part of our grant request.

Board of directors. Our volunteer board includes a dean, a professor, an alumnus who owns a business, a banker who serves as treasurer, an attorney and a student founder. The board meets every other month, approves our budget and reviews our safety plan. No board member is paid, and members with a conflict of interest step out of related decisions.

Advisory partners. A small business advisor, a venture capital partner and a community lender give guidance twice a year.

Staffing and pay in this plan: Center Director, paid $62,000 a year; program Manager, paid $46,000 a year; entrepreneur-in-Residence (part-time), paid $36,000 a year; student Coordinator (part-time), paid $24,000 a year.

Milestones Narrative

Our goals, how we will measure them and when we plan to reach them.

Year 1 outcomes (July 2027 through June 2028):
- Serve about 80 participants at 1 campus sites.
- Run at least two full seasons and a summer session.
- Have at least 85 percent of participants attend most sessions.
- Have at least 80 percent of participants return for a second season.
- Receive positive feedback from at least 90 percent of families who answer our short survey.

What we count and how.
- Participants enrolled, sessions and games attended, from our records.
- Skills learned and goals met, from the coach's checklist.
- Equipment issued and returned, from our log.
- Participant and family feedback, from a short, confidential form.
We report what we find, including what did not work, and use it to improve.

Growth over five years.
- Year 2: About 120 participants at 1 campus sites.
- Year 3: About 160 participants at 1 campus sites.
- Year 4: About 200 participants at 2 campus sites.
- Year 5: About 240 participants at 2 campus sites.

Learning along the way. At the end of each quarter, the director and the board review the numbers and decide whether we are on track. If we are behind, we will adjust our outreach, our sites or our schedule before asking for more money.

After the grant. By Year 5, grants make up about 43 percent of our budget, down from about 63 percent in Year 1, as partners and donors give more. We will keep building those relationships every year.

Funding Request

What we are asking for, and how the money will be used. Our request: $85,000 from the Opportunity in Higher Education Foundation for the Program Manager, the seed fund and an entrepreneur-in-residence, for July 2027 through June 2028.

The request is spread across these budget lines:
- Personnel: Program Manager salary, $46,000.
- Other: Student venture seed fund paid to vendors, $24,000.
- Personnel: Entrepreneur-in-residence stipend, $15,000.

Other money in the program. This request is about 56% of our Year 1 grant income. Other grants and the income lines below pay for everything it does not cover.

Year 1 budget: about $242,500, planned to balance with a small surplus (about $9,900 after the yearly wear on equipment). Year 1 money coming in: Grant Revenue $152,500; college Matching Funds $50,000; corporate and Alumni Partners $30,000; individual Donors $10,000. Year 1 costs: center Director $62,000; program Manager $46,000; entrepreneur-in-Residence (part-time) $36,000; student Coordinator (part-time) $24,000; student Venture Seed Fund about $24,000; faculty and Mentor Stipends about $10,000; pitch Competitions and Events about $6,000; incubator Space and Equipment Use about $8,000; software and Legal about $5,000; administration and Insurance about $10,000; about $3,600 a year for the wear on equipment.

One-time startup costs. Startup costs of $16,000 are paid once from startup money, not from the yearly budget: $4,000 for laptops and shared workspace equipment; $2,500 for presentation and recording equipment for pitches; $1,500 for incubator furnishings and storage; $2,500 for attorney review of the venture agreement, seed fund policy and privacy policy; $1,800 for signs, flyers and a simple website; $1,700 for coach training and background checks; $2,000 for first insurance payment.

How we got our startup number. The Funding Need Calculator in this plan adds the startup costs ($16,000), the cash the program uses before it balances (about $0) and a cash cushion of about $57,800, which is about three months of Year 1 costs. In all, that comes to $74,000. We start with $8,000 from our founding board and $68,000 in startup support from an alumni association and a bank, $76,000 in all, which covers that amount with room to spare.

The next five years. Our budget grows from about $242,500 in Year 1 to about $298,500 in Year 5. Grants are planned at $152,500, $136,500, $158,500, $143,500 and $128,500 in Years 1 to 5. Other income grows: college Matching Funds from $50,000 to $82,000; corporate and Alumni Partners from $30,000 to $62,000; individual Donors from $10,000 to $26,000. Our surplus is planned at about $9,900 in Year 1, about $10,400 in Year 2, about $12,700 in Year 3, about $13,800 in Year 4 and about $14,700 in Year 5. We grow from 1 campus sites to 2 by Year 5, adding a part-time coach for each new site.

Savings. We plan to keep several months of costs in savings. The lowest year-end balance in the plan is about $69,800, at the end of Year 1. Some grant payments and partner payments arrive after we bill, so we plan for about $9,700 owed to us at the end of Year 1.

Cost per founder. In Year 1, our total costs are about $2,908 per founder served, which includes setting up the program. By Year 5, with more founder served and a trained team in place, that falls to about $1,182 per founder.

After the grant. College and institutional funding, corporate sponsors and individual donors grow every year, so grants become a smaller share of our budget. Participants and families share their stories, and businesses can sponsor a team or a season by name. We will look for partnerships with schools and the city that want a safe, free entrepreneurship education option for every child.

Risks and how we will handle them:
- An injury. Certified coaches, proper equipment, groups matched by age and skill, a written emergency plan and insurance.
- A site is no longer available. We keep agreements with more than one site and a plan for bad weather.
- A coach leaves. We keep a list of trained backup coaches and share lesson plans.
- Low attendance. We adjust sites, times and rides based on family feedback.
- A privacy problem. We follow a written policy, use secure systems and train every staff member and volunteer.
- A grant ends. We keep savings and grow partner and donor support each year.

If you are just starting. A new organization can begin before it has its own 501(c)(3) status through a fiscal sponsor: an established nonprofit that receives grants for you and passes them to your program, usually for a fee (commonly around 5% to 10% of the grant, sometimes more; ask before you agree). Another way is to start smaller: one neighborhood, a handful of founders and a small team, tracked carefully. Strong results from a small start make larger grants easier to win.

Appendix Notes

Documents to attach with this proposal:

- Your IRS 501(c)(3) determination letter, or your fiscal sponsor agreement.
- Your most recent financial statements and your current year budget.
- A list of your board members and what each one does.
- Signed letters of support from partner schools, agencies and sites.
- Your site agreements and your insurance certificate.
- Your consent, waiver and privacy policy.
- Your safety plan and background check policy.
- Your program outline and schedule.
- Quotes for equipment and materials.
- Resumes for your Executive Director and key staff.
If you don't have any of this yet, no worries - let's continue.

The assumptions behind our numbers (change them in the Financials section to match your own):
- Grant Revenue: $152,500 in Year 1, growing to $128,500 in Year 5.
- College Matching Funds: $50,000 in Year 1, growing to $82,000 in Year 5.
- Corporate and Alumni Partners: $30,000 in Year 1, growing to $62,000 in Year 5.
- Individual Donors: $10,000 in Year 1, growing to $26,000 in Year 5.
- Pay (a full year, per person, including payroll taxes and workers' compensation): center Director $62,000; program Manager $46,000; entrepreneur-in-Residence (part-time) $36,000; student Coordinator (part-time) $24,000.
- Other yearly costs in Year 1: student Venture Seed Fund $24,000; faculty and Mentor Stipends $10,000; pitch Competitions and Events $6,000; incubator Space and Equipment Use $8,000; software and Legal $5,000; administration and Insurance $10,000. These grow between 4% and 6% a year.
- Equipment: $8,000 at the start, then $2,000 to $3,000 a year.
- Startup costs: $16,000, paid once from $76,000 in startup money.
- Participants served: about 80 in Year 1, growing to about 240 in Year 5. Sites: 1 in Year 1, growing to 2 by Year 5. The Center runs through the academic year and summer, with a showcase each spring.
- About 4% of each year's income is still owed to us at year end.
- Tax: none, as a nonprofit.
- Every dollar amount is an estimate. Replace them with your own quotes and real budget.

Startup Costs