By : JACOB GEIGER
Source : http://www2.timesdispatch.com
Category : Small Business Grant
New Visions, New Ventures, a Richmond-based nonprofit that helps women start businesses, will close April 1.
Christina Cain, director of the organization's The Women's Business Center, said the closing was driven by the economic downturn and an inability to secure enough private grants and donations to fund operations.
"Honestly we hit some of the same problems that have hurt our clients in the past few years," Cain said. "We weren't able to diversify our funding stream quickly enough when we lost some grants."
Some of the nonprofit's largest private donors included Capital One Financial Corp., Dominion Resources Inc. and Altria Group Inc. The group also received money from the federal Small Business Administration and state agencies, but the SBA money had to be matched by private money.
Barb Upchurch, who was director of The Women's Business Center before leaving March 1 to return to her own business, Blueberry Marketing, said New Visions looked at ways to stay afloat and at ways to keep the business center open while closing other operations. But she said legal constraints prevented that.
New Visions, New Ventures was founded by Ann Parker Maust in 1998. The nonprofit's original mission was to help women transition from prison into society.
"And one of the things she saw was that going into business was a great way to help these women," Cain said about Maust.
Maust declined to comment.
The group built a special focus on food businesses through its Breadwinners program. One notable graduate in recent years is Pizza Tonight., a company started by Victoria DeRoche.
DeRoche said she went to a friend with the idea for a company that would sell pre-packaged pizza kits people could take home and bake. The friend referred her to New Visions.
DeRoche took a six-week course on writing a business plan, as well as other financial management courses.
She launched Pizza Tonight in November 2010. Today, the company sells pizza packets and other products through its website and at Ellwood Thompson's Local Market and online grocer Relay Foods.
"I would not have been informed enough to start my business without New Visions, New Ventures," DeRoche said.
New Visions had a staff of 10 full- and part-time employees at one point, said Cain, who has worked there since 2008. She said the group currently has two employees.
And there were a legion of volunteers who helped with classes; many, like DeRoche, came back to share some of the lessons they had learned while starting their businesses.
In her new role, Upchurch said she will be working with several food businesses in the coming months, including some New Visions clients. She is working to market companies that sell their products through Relay Foods.
Cain said her sadness over the nonprofit's closing is tempered by the good news from its clients. This past weekend, one client called and said she was preparing to lease space for her company, which had previously operated out of her home.
"Barb and I aren't leaving the small-business development scene," Cain said. "We still want to help people open businesses, so we'll be back."
Source : http://www2.timesdispatch.com/business/2012/mar/20/tdbiz01-new-visions-new-ventures-nonprofit-closing-ar-1778453/
