Seattle Pacific University held its 7th annual Social Venture Plan Competition on Wednesday, April 17. The SVPC was sponsored by their School of Business and Economics’ Center for Applied Learning, and was designed to encourage students who wish to develop projects that will solve social needs across the globe.
The purpose was to create a platform for students to develop their entrepreneurial skills by learning how to engage various cultures and change the world.
A social venture is an entrepreneurial activity that relates to both financial and social areas. Social ventures address a critical social need while providing sustainable funding through a business idea. In the SVPC, teams of SPU students developed a written social venture plan and businesspeople, entrepreneurs and other community partners evaluated and scored their printed product.
Competitors then presented their projects at a live display event on the SPU campus. During this showcase round, teams described their idea and pitched its value to judges, faculty, staff, students and visitors.
Nearly 30 teams presented at this year’s SVPC. The topics ranged from apparel design to engineering to music therapy. Here were some of the ideas showcased:
“Soulsnacks” is a nonprofit company that partners with elementary schools in the King County School District to deliver healthy snack food alternatives. Their vision is to increase availability of healthy vending machines to combat childhood obesity.
“Housing for Hope” aims to give low-income single women and mothers the skills to succeed in life and a place to call home. They provide employment and a sense of community for long-term assistance.
“MboTek Uganda” uses EcoSan toilets to provide healthier lifestyles for the people of Uganda and generate income through human fertilizer to promote hygiene.
“Bumble Tunes” is a company that deliberately focuses on using music as an instrument for the betterment of autistic individuals.
SOAP (“Stop Objectification, Abuse, and Prostitution”) is a line of hand sanitizers that incorporates soap into their sanitation liquid to lift and remove dirt without water. SOAP plans to donate a percentage of profits to end human trafficking.
“Treeline Skate” is a retail store that gives homeless youth an opportunity to work making handcrafted skateboards that are sold to help invest in the community.
The SVPC is scored in two parts; half of each team’s score comes from the written plan and the other half from the showcase round. The team with the highest cumulative score between the two phases of the competition wins a grand prize of $2,500, with a second place prize of $1,500 and three honorable mentions of $1,000. There is also a People’s Choice award of $500 for which visitors to the showcase round can vote.
The SVPC gives students a chance to explore their personal interests while exposing them to a multitude of social problems that would otherwise go unnoticed. Participants have enjoyed the process of taking an idea and turning it into a business proposition that also helps society.
“Participating in [SVPC] has been a great experience. The win was fun but as far as I am concerned it was just icing on the cake,” a past winner said. “I thoroughly enjoyed the interaction with the judges and coaches, and feel I gained a lot from the experience.”
“I didn’t expect to become so invested in something outside of the classroom. At first I thought it was just a project, but then I realized it was more important to me to help the women of Mexico and raise awareness,” a student competitor from this year said.
Seattle Pacific University will be holding their 8th Social Venture Plan Competition in February 2014. Puget Sound students interested in participating in a social venture competition should consider joining Tacoma Entrepreneur Network next year. Tacoma Entrepreneur Network offers opportunities for members to compete locally in business competitions and network within the surrounding community. For more information, visit www.tacomaentscollege.org.
