On the Radar…

On Thursday the Entrepreneurs Foundation of Colorado (EFCO) held its first recruitment party at the offices of Rally Software. The non-profit is designed as a vehicle for charitable giving by start-ups and newly formed companies, whereby the young firms give EFCO 1% of their common stock. Were an exit event to occur – usually in the form of an acquisition by a larger company – the proceeds from the equity sale are allocated to the program charities of the donors’ choosing, such as The Community Foundation Serving Boulder County, The Rose Community Foundation, and the Denver Foundation. Since EFCO was formed in 2007 twenty-seven startups have made such pledges, and to date there have been five exits resulting in over $100,000 of giving. Founding members of EFCO include OneRiot, Miragen Therapeutics, and the Foundry Group. Thursday’s event featured speaker Suzanne DiBianca, the Executive Director of the Salesforce.com Foundation. Salesforce.com has been a pioneer in the 1% corporate giving model, whereby the company provides 1% of its time, 1% of its equity, and 1% of its product to charitable pursuits. For the ten year old firm this commitment has translated into 140,000 hours of service work, $14 million in grants, and over 600,000 non-profit customers in 50 countries. Ryan Martens, Chief Technology Officer of member company Rally Software and current CEO of EFCO, ended the presentation aspect of the afternoon by speaking toward the value proposition of the organization: “It has to start with a seed. We make it easy [to give], and we make it so you don’t have to wait to have an impact.”