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A nonprofit organization that provides after-school art classes to children on Chicago’s South Side will receive a donation from JPMorgan, thanks to a team of first-year GSB students.
Students competing in the JPMorgan Good Venture Competition made a case for investing $25,000 in Little Black Pearl, a community-based nonprofit organization in Hyde Park that runs an after-school program teaching sculpture, painting, and business principles to neighborhood children.
The Little Black Pearl team was named a finalist but achieved its primary goal by securing a promise of a donation from the judges, said Anka Twum-Baah. The GSB team was one of 65 teams from 41 schools who submitted funding proposals for nonprofits involved in developing community assets, educating children, or supporting arts and culture. On December 1, Little Black Pearl traveled to JPMorgan’s New York offices to compete against five other finalists.
Other members of the Little Black Pearl team included Thomas Davenport, Jacob Qualls, and Roger Whitenhill. Davenport drew the members together because they had experience working with nonprofits or government organizations before attending Chicago GSB. They selected Little Black Pearl because they consider it a great example of successful social entrepreneurship in the local community, he said. The organization’s 40,000-square-foot facility even has a mosaic-decorated café that provides incremental revenue beyond philanthropic donations and grants. Little Black Pearl’s latest project is to create medallions for a project funded by the city of Chicago.
“The GSB Little Black Pearl team was runner up in the competition, but we achieved our primary goal by securing a promise of a donation,” said Whitenhill. One of the managing directors was so impressed with the case presentation that he approached the team and offered to make a donation to Little Black Pearl. Davenport said, “The team was also encouraged to use the newly developed relationship with JPMorgan to apply for a grant, which would have an even greater value than the prize from the competition.”
The team had a unique motivation to participate, said Twum-Baah. “The JPMorgan Good Venture competition was different because it wasn’t about us. It was about using the skills and talent we’ve developed to improve a community,” she said. “Seeking donations for nonprofits can be difficult because it is difficult to obtain financial information to share with potential donors. An interesting challenge that every business faces is, how do you piece together what you have to project how successful you will be in the future? No one has a crystal ball. What we’ve learned at the GSB is how to manage uncertainty and risk to make the best of the information we have.”
—Phil Rockrohr