Indiana Social Venture

 

TPF4Y recently sat down with Pete Gall, Director of Brand & Content Strategy at KA+A, a strategic design consulting agency in Indianapolis, and one of our prized Partners in Progress. We wanted to learn their take on the importance of corporate philanthropy and involvement in the local community, so Pete gave us some introspective thoughts on why KA+A gets involved and stays involved.

As a company who has proven your commitment to corporate philanthropy, can you share with us why you feel it is important for companies to partner with nonprofit organizations?

We understand that whatever a person does with their days is what they do with their life. People want their days, and their lives, to matter. We choose to live in pursuit of identity and meaning. The more we can contribute to the community from our individual strengths, and the more room we make for our associates to pursue the sorts of things that add meaning to their lives, the happier they are, the more they love working at KA+A, and the more value they experience in their days. And a lot of the time, their efforts make an impact on other people. At the very least, we believe in living an example that's worth noticing.

There are many organizations worthy of your support. What made you decide to support TPF4Y?

We work almost exclusively with high growth, tech-enabled companies, from fresh-faced startups to dominant market leaders. That's who we choose to serve, and who we see changing the world in the most meaningful ways. Partnering with TPF4Y provides us an important opportunity to invest in tomorrow's talent - before they've even hatched their first startup idea or disrupted the industry. 

We appreciate TPF4Y's venture-led approach. They invest both human and financial resources in each of their Greenhouse Initiatives and stay in only as long as required to get things going before moving on to the next initiative. They're good stewards of their investors’ talents and funds and work hard to ensure that each is optimized. 

We also see particular value in bringing STEM opportunities into the lives of kids whose other opportunities are more limited. STEM is a fantastic social equalizer - the industries it feeds reward freshness, creativity, and the willingness to take chances. We're all about that sort of thing, and we see TPF4Y kids being tomorrow's leaders.

TPF4Y is committed to growing the next generation of science and technology leaders in Indiana. What do you feel is our state's most important workforce challenge?

Every challenge is freighted with opportunity, and that's where we focus. The state's greatest workforce opportunities belong to creative innovators who can develop skills, seize opportunities, and build businesses that scale and evolve rapidly. That's STEM. Indiana has a very long history of technical innovation that becomes leading business. From automotive to healthcare, and now to digital leaders like ExactTarget and Angie's List, today's workforce opportunities are exactly the opportunities that have always carried Indiana. All that's changed with TPF4Y is the specific technology, the target audience, and the community of support that's making success more accessible than it's ever been.

To learn more about KA+A, visit their website at www.KAplusA.com, follow them on Twitter @KAplusA, and like them on Facebook at Kristian Andersen + Associates. You can also follow Pete on Twitter @PeteGall. 

Marv Bailey is the Chairman of the Board for the Techpoint Foundation. He recently wrote this letter to supporters to give them insight into how the Techpoint Foundation is making a big impact on the Indianapolis community. We wanted to republish the letter here on the blog.

As the 2011 Board Chair, I want to take a few minutes to share just one of the many heartwarming stories from our New Tech High project, and introduce our next, equally inspiring social venture project: 

Joe Crandall, age 18

Joe Crandall has not had it easy in life, but you might not know it based on his life’s trajectory. Joe lost his mother at the age of 14, and has never had a meaningful relationship with his father who lives in another state. His maternal grandmother stepped in, though it has been tough for both of them because of limited physical and financial support. A shy, introverted youth in many ways, Joe came to believe that his education was the only way to improve their lives. He came to New Tech High in 2007, hoping for a chance to experience a new kind of learning. What he found was so much more: a family of students, teachers, staff and TechPoint Foundation mentors who supported him in ways that traditional education simply does not allow. Today, Joe attributes his academic success to constant challenges presented through rigorous coursework and dual-credit opportunities at IUPUI.  Joe will graduate in two short weeks as the Valedictorian with a 4.1 GPA beating out 2500 other Arsenal Tech High School students. Joe, a first generation high school graduate, will attend Purdue in the fall to study biology on a full ride scholarship.  He continues to work closely with the TechPoint Foundation College Coach who is helping him navigate the college enrollment and scholarship process.  

Our New Tech High project is wrapping up, as Joe and the first class of seniors start new chapters in their post-secondary lives. After four years, countless hours of staff and volunteer time, and more than $375,000 in financial support, TechPoint Foundation’s investment has paid off with 80% of our seniors graduating this spring.  New Tech High will graduate 34% more students than the IPS district average and will send more students directly into post-secondary education opportunities: 75% of New Tech graduates have already enrolled in colleges or universities across the state.  

Thank you to those of you who gave your time, talent and treasure to help make this school a success. Now, let me introduce you to our next project.


Robots and Real-World Impact

After a competitive grant process, the Foundation selected IndianaFIRST as its next multi-year venture. IndianaFIRST inspires young people to be science and technology leaders by engaging them in exciting extracurricular robotics programs that build science, engineering and technology skills. 

We are excited by the fast-paced, real-world applications of competitive robotics programs and their impact on youth. We’ll leverage TechPoint Foundation’s human and financial resources within our communities to partner with IndianaFIRST, helping this organization achieve scale in Indiana through:

• expansion of extracurricular robotics programs for K-12 youth,

• increased opportunities for mentors and volunteers to inspire students to pursue STEM careers, 

• connection of corporations and community members to STEM related philanthropic opportunities,

• establishment of competitive grants for student teams in need of initial and sustaining financial support, and

• creation of collaborative training and educational spaces to support year-round STEM programming.

Since 2001, TechPoint Foundation has served as an intermediary between the Indianapolis technology community and underserved populations. We connect people and dollars, multiplying resources to help programs such as IndianaFIRST influence youth. We need your help to build the talented, creative workforce of the future for all of our Indiana communities. 

We look forward to sharing this next chapter with you.