May 14, 2009 4:05 PM
Even through the rain and cold, EFCO member companies and their employees came through to support I Volunteer! day to the tune of 30 volunteers and $800 in pledges. EFCO won 2nd place in the largest group category and 3rd place in the largest group pledge category. Our two biggest projects were helping Growing Gardens prepare for their big seedling sale and helping a local school with their gardening and landscaping.
Many thanks to Rally, TechStars, Miragen Therapeutics, and Symplified for their participation. Rally had the largest amount of participants at 15 and Symplified had the largest percentage of employees participating at 30%.
Nice work everyone!
May 14, 2009 2:48 PM
On May 28th, the Boulder County Business Report will present its Mercury 100 awards for the fastest growing companies in Boulder County.
As part of the presentation, Tom Keller will present a quick overview of the Entrepreneur Foundation of Colorado. Tom's story is great. He is a serial entrepreneur who worked at 5 different companies in Boulder County in this decade. Tom was recently the CEO of Intense Debate that was acquired by Automatic.
Tom will tell his personal story with regards to EFCO, the story of EFCO's impact on Boulder Community in 2008 and his personal involvement with BlueSkyBridge. BlueSkyBridge works to prevent child abuse here in Boulder County and was one of the recipients of funding from Boulder Community Foundation in 2008.
Come listen, learn, get inspired and help lead Boulder County.
April 7, 2009 6:52 AM
On April 16th, our all volunteer board will be meeting to plan the year, welcome new board members and create new working groups.
Before I announce the new board members, please comment below on ideas and thoughts that you would like us to consider as we plan for 2009 and 2010. Following the meeting, I will post our notes, decisions and actions items here.
EFCO members and friends please also consider following, chatting and sending suggestions/ideas to us as a Fan on Facebook
The board members continuing from 2008 include:
Leaving the board after two great years of service where we saw EFCO go from one company to 20+ and have four of those firms contribute over $100,000 back to our local community foundations and charities. Gentlemen, thank you for your service;
I am proud to announce that we are adding four new members to our board for 2009:
Please send us comments, hopes and wishes before our planning meeting.
November 26, 2008 7:29 AM
Congratulations to my friends at Rally Software for being awarded the Affiliate Company of the Year by Entrepreneurs Foundation. This is a national honor and recognizes the excellent work that Ryan Martens and the team at Rally Software have done to support philanthropy and the Entrepreneurs Foundation concept.
October 29, 2008 12:15 PM
Here is something for those that want to help, but don't want to have to 'do' a whole lot...
In this practice exercise, Boulder County has been hit by severe weather that damages two major hospitals - victims and hospital patients need to be evacuated and transferred. Volunteer victims and patients will be staged at one of five hospitals: Avista Adventist, Boulder Community, Boulder Foothills, Exempla Good Samaritan, and Longmont United. This evacuation and surge drill will test the ability of our local hospitals to respond to naturally occurring disasters. Great project for business teams and service groups. Lunch provided. Nov. 13. 8 a.m. - noon. Groups and individuals will be assigned to locations as requests are made.
Contact: Volunteer Connection. Laura Kinder. laurak@volunteerconnection.net 303-444-4904
October 22, 2008 10:29 AM
Please take time to consider spending the evening of November 11th and 12th at this professionally developed and facilitated symposium that features work with 21 century leaders including Paul Hawkin and Van Jones. (Download the attached flyer below)
These 5 hours, spread over two nights are designed to help you expand your mental models with regards to what a sustainable society could look like and set you on a path to action. The symposium is called "Changing the Dream, Awakening the Dreamer" and it was produced by the Pachamama Alliance. (Make sure you visit the web site to understand how deep and well done this symposium will be - www.AwakeningTheDreamer.org - we hear this is the seventh iteration on this material.) It goes way beyond films like the "11th hour" and "Inconvenient Truth" to present clear mental models, patterns and actionable solutions as well as opportunities. The facilitation sessions will help you connect with other local business leaders, community leaders and residents.
The Entrepreneur Foundation of Colorado is a proud sponsor of the event with the Rally Software and Boulder County Transitions. (Boulder County Transitions includes Boulder County Going Local see their web site at http://www.bouldercountygoinglocal.com/ ) The event will take place in Rally's Rim Rock Auditorium and we encourage you to send this flier as an invitation to friends. This event is open to the public, but limited to 50 people. Funding for the event comes from a requested $25 donation.
Please RSVP to Larry Bangs via email at Larry@bangsbizcoach.com or phone 720-304-8711.
ATD_Flyer_11-12-08_Rally.pdf
October 1, 2008 9:13 AM
Please join us for an informational breakfast, hosted by Brad Feld, to learn more about Social Venture Partners Boulder County and The Entrepreneur's Foundation of Colorado on:
Friday, October 10, 2008 8:00 to 9:30 a.m.
The Community Foundation, 1123 Spruce Street, Boulder
A light breakfast will be provided.
We invite you to learn more about Social Venture Partners Boulder County and the Entrepreneurs Foundation of Colorado, both of which are philanthropic efforts under the umbrella of The Community Foundation Serving Boulder County.
Social Venture Partners is a collaborative of business professionals, community-minded individuals, and entrepreneurs, applying a venture capital approach to giving, providing cash grants coupled with investments of time and talent to local nonprofit organizations.
The Entrepreneurs Foundation of Colorado helps all entrepreneurs contribute early in the creation of their companies to the long term health and sustainability of Colorado, not waiting for their financial success to initiate philanthropic activity.
Join us to learn more. RSVPs requested by October 8th to Jennie Arbogash at jennie@svpbouldercounty.org or 303-442-0436 x114.
September 28, 2008 7:09 AM
BOULDER, Colo.--Filtrbox today announced that it has joined the Entrepreneurs Foundation of Colorado (EFCO) to support philanthropic efforts throughout the community. EFCO allows startup companies to donate a fraction of their equity to Boulder’s Community Foundation during initial stages of liquidity.
While they may want to directly support charities, most startups are not in a financial position to do so. Through EFCO, entrepreneurs can focus on building their business while meeting their philanthropic goals.
"Boulder is a very supportive community in which to start a company and EFCO gives us a great opportunity to give back through sharing our success," said Ari Newman, co-founder and President of Filtrbox. "EFCO also enables us to demonstrate our commitment to corporate responsibility and community support."
Donations from EFCO to the Community Foundation are channeled to various non-profit organizations throughout Colorado, allowing EFCO to focus on working with entrepreneurs to help them meet their philanthropic objectives. Contributing companies simply select a cause, and the Community Foundation takes care of the rest. EFCO is aligned with the Entrepreneurs Foundation, an organization formed in 1988 with affiliates in Silicon Valley, Austin, Southern California, New England, Dallas, Portland, Atlanta, Hawaii and Israel.
“Working with various local initiatives through the Community Foundation, EFCO allows entrepreneurs to support a range of causes from education to the environment,” said Brad Feld, Foundry Group managing director and one of the founding trustees of EFCO. “Filtrbox’s support helps us to achieve the critical mass of equity donations we need to truly make a difference in our community.”
About Filtrbox
Filtrbox provides timely market intelligence for discerning professionals. Powerful persistent search technology allows you to monitor your brand, your online reputation and obtain proactive market intelligence without the noise. The web-based service seamlessly integrates into your daily information digest increasing productivity and delivering the information you need to run your business. Thousands of global users rely on Filtrbox daily to gain a competitive edge. Go to www.filtrbox.com for your free trial and find what you're looking for within minutes.
September 23, 2008 2:19 PM
Want to learn more about the non-profits in your community, collaborate with good people, and serve your fellow citizens...
They the Boulder Community Trust grant selection process may be for you. The Boulder Community Trust has money to give to non-profits and they need help determining who to give it to. So, selection committees are formed in each of their seven areas of giving - Arts & Culture, Basic Needs, Education, Environment, Civic Engagement, Youth, Health & Human Services.
First, you read grant proposals from non-profits that submitted them. Then, you meet with 6-10 committee members and your facilitator to discuss the grants. From there, some on-site visits and/or follow-up questions are determined. Then, you meet one more time with your committee to determine how much money to grant to what organizations.
For more information, please contact Carly Hare at carly@commfound.org.
September 18, 2008 4:01 PM
Members of The Entrepreneur's Foundation of Colorado are invited to attend The Community Foundation's
Family Philanthropy Summit Featuring Tracy Gary
Monday, September 22, 2008
12:00 to 1:30 p.m. -- Lunch and Learn on Transformational Philanthropy
Given the times, significant social, cultural, economic, and environmental change is essential. We can not afford to waste time, talent, treasure or influence. Giving strategically and advocating for broad-based impact and large scale potential is essential for true change to manifest now.
1:45 to 2:45 p.m. -- Creating a Giving Plan
Perhaps you're new to giving, or you aren't sure you are pleased about the way you are making your giving decisions. Tracy will "begin from the beginning" in this session.
3:00 to 4:00 p.m. -- Strategic Giving
You may know what you want to do with your philanthropic dollars or have strong feelings about your philanthropic interest areas, but could use help making those dollars work more strategically.
6:00 to 9:00 p.m. Intergenerational Philanthropy: Involving Your Kids
Successfully including your children in your family's philanthropy can be both challenging and rewarding. Tracy will discuss innovative new ideas to make sure everyone is included.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
11:30 to 1:00 p.m. Lunch and Learn for SVP and EFCO - Venture & Adventure Philanthropy: "Just Do It!" Meets "How Best to Do It, and With Whom?" Would you like to hear about new trends in giving? Are you leveraging all you can and engaging at your highest level of influence? Have you considered lessons learned from "venture philanthropy" and how "adventure philanthropy" and its community-based model might provide different but equally powerful results? Will non-profit and for profit entrepreneurs team and create breakthrough results ahead? Come and dialogue about how stronger interdisciplinary partnership may evidence a great change and new potential afoot.
Employees of EFCO member companies are welcome to attend all of these sessions with Tracy Gary. Space is limited and RSVP's are required. Please contact Suzanne Barnes at suzanne@commfound.org or 303.442.0436 to sign up.
If you have questions, please feel free to contact Jennie Arbogash (jennie@svpbouldercounty.org) or Chris Barge (chris@commfound.org) at 303.442.0436.
To learn more about Tracy Gary, visit her Inspired Legacies website.
Vote YES on 1B this November to support capital investments in our human services. A penny for a worthy cause!
