This Friday, Aggieland Pregnancy Outreach received a $5,000 prize after winning the first Nonprofit Pitch Competition hosted by 180 Degrees Consulting and the Center for Nonprofits and Philanthropy.
Big Brothers Big Sisters, Mission Reclaimed, Aggieland Pregnancy Outreach and Northway Farms were the four non-profits that pitched their ideas in the Shark Tank-style competition. Representatives from the companies of Accenture, JCPenney and the Center for Nonprofits and Philanthropy judged the presentations to award the prize that 180 Degrees Consulting raised through donations.
Executive Director Kim Schams of Aggieland Pregnancy Outreach (APO) shared the organization’s current expansion project, which will allow the nonprofit to have its own location on Texas Avenue. APO is an adoption agency in Brazos County that has placed 107 babies with homes and has several other outreach programs to support young mothers. Schams said the $5,000 prize will allow APO to complete their new location without going into debt.
“I’m so grateful that all of these students worked so hard to raise money, number one,” Schams said. “And for the sponsors- that they would sponsor such a thing and care about it enough to host something like this.”
Big Brothers Big Sisters, represented by branch coordinator Terry Dougherty, pairs children involved in their afterschool program with an older mentor from Texas A&M or Blinn College. According to Dougherty, the nonprofit would use the prize to create a web portal that provides resources for their volunteers.
“Our goal is to offer our mentors the training they need to increase the time they are matched with their little brothers or sisters,” Dougherty said.
Erik and Melissa Darst pitched new project ideas from their nonprofit, Mission Reclaimed, which operates in Anderson, Texas. The nonprofit aims to expand its current Anderson Food Pantry into a Feed Store, adding a mixed-use retail space with operations such as a coffee shop and cafe, gift shop and event venue space.
“This will be a gift to the entire community,” Darst said. “What we want to do is provide an experience that brings all people together through food, not just those that we typically serve through our food pantry.”
Northway Farms serves the Brazos Valley by providing affordable housing, employment and a loving family to homeless women and children, according to founder Kasey Van Norman. She said the nonprofit’s next goal is to expand their tiny house community in order to accept more homeless women.
“We equip them with resources and relationships, a budget, a savings account, all the things that are basic and tangible so that they can go into our community and be leaders in our community,” Van Norman said.
According to business management junior and 180 Degrees Consulting member Lily Tunnell, the event went extraordinarily well — even when the location was moved last minute from the Bush Library to the Memorial Student Center, as the library prepared for former first lady Barbara Bush’s burial ceremony.
“It really couldn’t have turned out any better, especially with the nonprofits that showed up,” Tunnel said. “The caliber of their pitches and their programs was great.”