An annual event is turning into a life-changing trend.

The 2015 Spark Tank Pitch Fest supported 10 new social enterprises in the Fresno area. This means products and services for the community and jobs and training for individuals with challenges to traditional employment.

“These are becoming part of a growing social enterprise movement in the Valley, which seeks to accomplish social good in a more sustainable way, reducing dependency on charity,” said Randy White, D. Min., executive director of the Center for Community Transformation at Fresno Pacific Biblical Seminary, which sponsors Spark Tank as part of its social enterprise initiative. “This brings to 19 the number of social enterprises we’ve catalyzed in the last three years,” he said.

In social enterprise churches and other faith-based agencies use the techniques of business to go beyond charity to serve their communities. They create financially self-sufficient organizations that in turn create financially self-sufficient people. “The whole community wins,” White said.

More than 125 people gathered September 25 for this year’s Spark Tank—a friendlier version of TV’s Shark Tank. Balloons, music, refreshments and the noise of a capacity crowd gave the BC Lounge on the main campus of Fresno Pacific University a celebratory air during the two-hour afternoon event.

Entries included an edible landscape/permaculture business, an art and furniture maker using reclaimed wood, a mentoring/tutoring program, a neighborhood ministry focused on better physical and mental health, a church-based micro-lending fund and a tech firm training young people to refurbish cast-off computers. “There’s as much variety in social enterprise as there is in traditional small business,” White said.

Participants had to be organized and quick on their feet since they had only four minutes to make their pitch to a panel of local business leaders and FPU business faculty. The judges then questioned the presenters before retiring to make their decisions.

When the time came to announce winners there was good news for everyone. The judges had found that all 10 organizations were deserving of a slice of the $25,000 in seed money donated by Wells Fargo.

Spark Tank winners holding giant checks

Valley Edible Landscapes

$6,000
Valley Edible Landscapes exists to transform landscapes, individuals and communities by providing alternative landscapes, reducing water usage and increasing health and sustainability. 

Constant Movement

$5,000
Constant Movement will offer affordable dance, theater and public speaking classes in the Lafayette Park Neighborhood of Central Fresno. This enterprise is aimed at addressing the physical, emotional and occupational needs of the community by developing physical health and marketable skills.

Urban Lumber

$5,000
Urban Lumber will employ people who have employment barriers due to past choice, lack of education, or mental challenges who are motivated to have a purposeful and sustainable life. Staff will be trained to procure, mill and process urban lumber into raw lumber and beautiful, one-of-a-kind wood pieces.

Community Classroom

$2,000
Community Classroom will provide low-cost homework assistance and tutoring in the underserved Madera Ranchos area while providing good jobs for high school students. The group plans to help to all students who need it, in an area with few other options.

Fishing for Life

$2,000
Fishing for Life is a micro-lending fund and business development strategy in Central Fresno, which includes individualized guided development, accountability and mentoring for people facing serious barriers to employment. 

Tree of Life Café

$2,000
Tree of Life Café will be a fresh farm-to-table, home-cooked comfort food establishment serving agricultural products raised in Fresno County while providing meaningful employment to men and women who have completed drug and alcohol rehabilitation programs in Fresno County.

Off the Hook

$1,500
Off the Hook will provide youth and adults at risk for gang and drug involvement and acts of violence with enterprise ministries including a fee-for-service fitness boxing and martial arts gym and an adult life- and job-skills training program. 

Protechnet

$1,500
Protechnet.org will link businesses with excess computers and related gear to non-profit organizations who can use this equipment. The group will also provide smaller non-profits and ministries with affordable technological services, training local, hard-to-employ individuals in essential technology skills.

H.O.P.E. Center

$500
H.O.P.E. Center is a job-training model whose mission is to rehabilitate and restore hope to the homeless, traumatized and battered. The objective is to foster a relationship with Christ while addressing employment and educational needs.

Mt. Zion Publishing

$500
Mt. Zion Publishing is a church-based Christian music publishing company that helps young artists and songwriters fulfill their goals while promoting biblical teaching. Mt. Zion wants to create a place where musicians get their fair share of song rights and revenue without compromising Christian values.

Author

Wayne Steffen
Associate Director of Publications and Media Relations

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