The more you know...
Colorado Nonprofit Social Enterprise Exchange
The Colorado Nonprofit Social Enterprise Exchange (The Exchange) was founded by Caryn Capriccioso and Rick Zwetsch of interSector Partners, L3C, and Julie Voyles of JVoyles Nonprofit Consulting, Inc. in the winter of 2013. After working with nonprofits one-on-one to create social ventures, the trio saw the opportunity to bring together multiple nonprofits to develop new businesses in support of their missions via a cohort model. This idea coincided with an uptick in interest by Denver metro area funders to help nonprofits realize sustainable income sources, and The Exchange was born.
​The traditional path to social enterprise had included basic trainings and do-it yourself processes, or expensive, lengthy engagements with expert consultants. By shifting to a comprehensive year-long model working the groups of nonprofits, participants in The Exchange were likely to have greater success in developing, launching, and running their businesses. Nonprofits in The Exchange not only built businesses, they also learned ideas for how to innovate within their existing programs, made important community connections, and developed their teams along the way.
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​A robust community of funders supported The Exchange over its first five years including: Anschutz Family Foundation, Hunt Alternatives Fund/NowHere Fund, The Bright Mountain Foundation, Colorado Nonprofit Association, The Denver Foundation, Gary Community Investments, Longmont Community Foundation, Rose Community Foundation, Jay and Rose Philips Foundation of Colorado, Syntrinsic Investment Counsel, and Vectra Bank.
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COHORT 1: Graduated April 2014
Program Highlights:
Training & Capacity Building: Our Program
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Developed and conducted seven 101-level workshops in Denver, Pueblo, Loveland and Longmont, Colorado and one 201-level workshop. Over 150 people attended these workshops.
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Provided customized workshops with groups focused on international development, social justice, urban Indian issues, women’s reproductive health, and education to more than 80 participants.
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Held monthly, full-day meetings of the cohorts building from ideation to feasibility studies, and from business planning to pitching. Monthly sessions featured education/training, guest speakers, panels, focused work-time, and space for networking.
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Graduated three cohorts with community-wide pitch days in April of 2014, September of 2015, and September of 2016. Second year programming allowed the cohorts to continue meeting and supporting each other as their businesses launched and grew. Approximately 200 individuals representing the 21 participating nonprofits attended all or part of the programming.
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Developed, utilized, and annually updated/refreshed the comprehensive curriculum for The Exchange.
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Assisted 17 nonprofits in launch of their social ventures.
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Program graduates created over 40 jobs in the community and raised over $2.5M in start-up and initial operating capital with support from The Exchange programming and networking.
Developing the Ecosystem: Our Vision
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Engaged funders in The Exchange beyond funding support as several served as panelists, mentors, pitch judges, topic-specific advisors, sounding boards, and helped to select cohort participants.
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Led the development of Colorado’s social enterprise ecosystem by participating in related initiatives such as serving on the steering committee for Colorado Impact Day and the 2015 Social Enterprise Alliance Summit.
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Presented on The Exchange and its graduates through panels and speaking engagements such as the 2015 inaugural SOCAPTV, Two World Collide, and the Social Enterprise World Forum (Scotland, 2018).
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Participated in The Denver Foundation’s learning and evaluation cohort to support our learning and the foundation’s efforts to improve economic opportunity in the communities it serves.
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Conducted a study of Social Enterprise Financing in Colorado to better understand how nonprofits utilize philanthropic, traditional, and impact investment tools to launch and scale social ventures.
COHORT 2: Graduated September 2015
Building Our Community: Making Connections
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Developed, launched, and managed The Exchange Web site.
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Secured and manage a LinkedIn group, Facebook account, and Twitter handle; defined the focus and purpose of each to support The Exchange.
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Developed processes for and grew The Exchange Network through cohort applications, the cohort selection team, business mentor recruitment and engagement, and field trips/tours to existing social enterprises, incubators, and co-working communities.
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Supported graduates and cohort participants through active marketing of their needs, businesses, and successes through press releases and our social media presence.
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Created an infrastructure of support for our graduates, our team, and the social enterprise community including – mentors, friends of The Exchange, funders, graduates, etc.
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Created new relationships among nonprofit leaders.
Understanding the Exchange: Our Evaluation
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​Completed three social enterprise cohort evaluations and two post-graduation evaluations. Impacts of social enterprise cohort included: a positive impact on nonprofits beyond social enterprise (innovation, creativity, nimble approaches), increased understanding of various types of financing, shifting viewpoints on debt for working capital and growth, and increased understanding of topics related to business, innovation, and sustainability.
COHORT 3: Graduated September 2016
The Next Phase: A Path to Sustainability
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In the summer of 2017, The Exchange became a part of the Denver, Colorado-based Community Resource Center (CRC), a capacity-building, support organization for nonprofits in Colorado. The idea was that CRC, with its statewide footprint and team of nonprofit experts, could build on The Exchange model, curriculum, and network to support even more nonprofits around Colorado while leveraging CRC’s robust back-end and long-term reputation in the communities it serves.