Winners of Yale Business-Plan Contest for Charities

Following are winners and finalists in the business-plan competition organized by the Yale School of Management-Goldman Sachs Foundation Partnership on Nonprofit Ventures:

Top winners: $100,000 each

EcoLogic Finance (Cambridge, Mass.) To provide low-cost loans to locally owned enterprises, such as coffee cooperatives, in environmentally sensitive areas in Latin America and Africa.

First Book (Washington) For First Book Marketplace, an Internet venture that sells new children’s books at very low prices to charities that serve needy children.

NPowerNY (New York) For NPower Basic, a venture designed to meet the technology needs of small nonprofit organizations in the city by offering them a network, computers with software already installed, a helpdesk, and other services. The venture will employ graduates of the organization’s job-training program.

Points of Light Foundation (Washington) For MissionFish, a service that helps nonprofit organizations raise money through the sale of items on the online auction site eBay.

Runners-up: $25,000 each

Caroline Center (Baltimore) For Caroline Center Upholstery, a retail custom-upholstery shop that serves both residential and commercial customers and employs women who have completed the organization’s job-training program.

Ecotrust (Portland, Ore.) For Ecotrust Forests, a limited liability company that will provide capital for a $12-million fund to acquire and manage forest lands in the western United States and Canada, with a focus on forest health and long-term value. The fund expects to profit largely from the sale of timber, as well as conservation easements, recreation leases, appreciated value due to tree growth, and limited sale of real-estate parcels.

Housing Partnership Network (Boston) To provide low-cost property and liability insurance to its network of regional nonprofit housing developers.

Wai’anae Community Re-Development Corporation (Hawaii) For the MA’O Youth Organic Farm, a venture organized by local young people to make healthy fruits and vegetables available to residents of their town.

Other finalists

Amos House (Providence, R.I.) For Amos House Works, which sells meals to area schools and day care centers while providing employment opportunities for graduates of the Amos House Culinary Education Training Program.

Arena Stage (Washington) For Camp Arena Stage, a four-week summer day camp for young people ages 8 to 15, with instruction in theater, music, dance, and the visual arts.

Brooklyn Justice Counsel (New York) Created by the Brooklyn AIDS Task Force and other local organizations, Brooklyn Justice Counsel is a public-interest law firm that provides low-cost legal services to local charities that focus on HIV/AIDS, mental health, domestic violence, or substance abuse.

Haley House (Boston) To start the Haley House Bakery Café and expand its wholesale bakery business, which provides job training to men and women who face significant barriers to employment.

Lee Pesky Learning Center (Boise, Idaho) To create and sell the Every Child Ready series, a line of child-rearing books and educational materials families can use to prepare their children for school.

National Center for Family Philanthropy (Washington) For Family Philanthropy Online, a subscription service that provides articles, virtual seminars, and other information about family philanthropy that community foundations, regional associations of grant makers, and other networks of donors and foundations can offer through their own Web sites.

New England Heritage Breeds Conservancy (Great Barrington, Mass.) For the 500 Farms Alliance, which markets natural meats from animals raised without hormones and antibiotics by family farmers in the Northeast.

New Jersey Performing Arts Center (Newark) To develop a 1.2-acre site adjacent to the center’s theaters that would offer housing, retail space, cultural activities, and parking.

New Sector Alliance (Boston) To work with leading academic institutions and businesses to provide low-cost, high-quality consulting services to nonprofit organizations.

Redmoon Theater (Chicago) For Redmoon for Hire, a business that offers party entertainment for corporate events, conventions, nonprofit benefits, civic celebrations, and private parties.

Thirteen/WNET New York For EGG TV, a venture that will create and sell educational DVD’s and lesson plans based on video segments from the PBS arts series EGG.

Women’s Transition Project (Bisbee, Ariz.) For Belleza Gallery, which sells artwork by local and regional artists and Adirondack furniture crafted by residents of the Women’s Transition Project, a shelter for homeless women in rural southeastern Arizona.