Michigan Women Forward offers $10 million to support women entrepreneurs

Mission Throttle is honored to have worked with Michigan Women Forward for the past two years to provide the research, analysis, and strategy to support the launch of  Community Impact Notes. We are thrilled to have been a part of this important program that will provide critical operational and financial resources necessary to accelerate women-owned businesses. Mission Throttle is committed to creating sustainable, replicable solutions to complex problems. It is our hope that this model will not only benefit women-owned businesses in the city of Detroit, but throughout State of Michigan. 


Detroit-based nonprofit Michigan Women Forward will offer $10 million in community impact notes to support Michigan’s women entrepreneurs. The $10 million Michigan Women Forward Community Impact Note offering is modeled after a similar program the Maryland-based Calvert Impact Capital Inc. offers to fund microloans, or make loans for buildings such as schools or affordable housing, Cassin said.

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Focus: HOPE develops half-century strategic plan

Working with nonprofit consultancy and investment firm Mission Throttle, Anthony said, Focus: Hope developed a strong strategic plan to assure it can stabilize the benefits of the restructuring process and build a future that is “measurable, impactful and consistent with its mission and new vision of empowerment and education.” While the nonprofit has been focused on programs for many years, Anthony said they also need to look at other issues that affect area residents.

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Women’s business competition EmpowerHER names its winners

Three businesses owned by women have won cash in a “Shark Tank”-style competition dubbed EmpowerHER run by the Michigan Women’s Foundation and underwritten by the Ford Motor Co. Fund. The Ford fund put up the prize money and an additional $90,000 for entrepreneur workshops and training. Motor City STEAM and Women Who Weld of Detroit each won $7,500 in services from Mission Throttle.

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Women social entrepreneurs compete for cash in ‘Shark Tank’-style competition

A dozen women-owned companies seeking investment for their business ideas and startups are vying for a slice of the $50,000 prize money in a pitch competition Wednesday night at Ford’s headquarters in Dearborn.

The “Shark Tank”-style competition — dubbed EmpowerHER — is a project run by the Michigan Women’s Foundation and underwritten by the Ford Motor Co. Fund, which put up the prize money and an additional $90,000 for entrepreneur workshops and training. The finalists —  all from metro Detroit, except one from East Lansing — will pitch their ideas  in front of a panel of judges, that include Susan Gordon, managing director at Mission Throttle and Pamela Alexander, the director of community development for the Ford Motor Co. Fund.

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As leadership shifts, Focus: Hope looks to get leaner

Anthony, a Focus: Hope board member for the past nine years and the former president and CEO of the Greater Detroit Area Health Council, was named interim CEO Friday.. “We believe … the mission of social and racial justice … is just as important today as it ever was.”In order to be true to that mission, “we know first and foremost (we) have to be financially stable,” Anthony said.

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McGregor Fund gives COTS $1.5 million for building renovation, homeless programs

The McGregor Fund in Detroit has granted the Coalition on Temporary Shelter $1.5 million to support its services for the homeless and renovation of its shelter.

COTS will use $900,000 of the grant for its Emergency Shelter and Passport to Self Sufficiency programs, while the rest will help cover the bills to repurpose the vacant Peggy’s Place building in Detroit’s Fitzgerald neighborhood, a news release said.

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Detroit Hispanic Development Corporation Design Slam!

On Thursday, February 23rd, volunteers from Quinn Evans Architects’ Detroit and Ann Arbor offices immersed themselves in a Design Slam in support of the Detroit Hispanic Development Corporation (DHDC).

This volunteer design effort for QEA has grown out of a partnership with Mission Throttle. The Mission Throttle team has been working with DHDC to research earned revenue models that would align with the goals and work of the DHDC. These revenue models, including such ideas as a café, coworking spaces, bike shops, and enlarged print facilities, would provide the DHDC with necessary capital, in addition to their existing grant work, for the organization to have larger impact and achieve their mission goals.

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The Benefits of Balancing Mission and Margin

Q&A With Marisa Nicely, VP Clinical and Youth Services, Starfish Family Services

As a leading provider of mental health services for children, youth and families, Starfish Family Services (“Starfish”) is at the forefront of a growing movement in healthcare. After decades of divide, it is now commonly accepted that behavioral health is a key component to achieving improved health outcomes. An overwhelming body of evidence supports the importance of early intervention through integrated health services, particularly in children, to develop resiliency and to mitigate the negative effect on later-life health and well-being.These initiatives can ultimately result in improved health outcomes and significant systemic cost savings.

In May 2015, Starfish and Mission Throttle embarked on a journey to create a comprehensive business strategy to scale several of its core service offerings and preventive interventions, in order to further its cohesive mission of “investing early in the lives of families to prevent problems before they escalate.”

We talked to Marisa Nicely, VP Clinical and Youth Services about the project.

Q: Tell us more about your mission and how your organization has evolved. What made you decide to start considering market-based strategies to further your mission?

Our mission at Starfish Family Services is “Strengthening Families to Create Brighter Futures for Children.” The roots of our organization were in adoption/foster care and mental health, but as we evolved, our founder, Dr. Ouida Cash recognized the importance of “working with our families upstream rather than to try to pull them out of a fast-moving river.” Over the past 15 years, our organization has shifted its focus from intervention to prevention services with a focus on young children and their families. Mental Health services are key to the mission of Starfish Family Services. Our leadership team believes that given the current competitive and unpredictable health care environment, Starfish has to be on the cutting edge of both quality and innovation to execute. We look to do this by refining our business operations. Additionally, by establishing our value proposition and examining our current operations for efficacy and relevance, we are positioning ourselves to be valuable players in the future of health care.

Q: How has thinking more like a business/social enterprise expanded solutions to our community’s problems? How has it helped your organization?

Mission Throttle helped us think not just in terms of delivering services but in meeting the needs of our customers. As a result, we are piloting several entrepreneurial ventures in the areas of trauma informed care and integrated health care in order to increase the number of people we serve in the most impactful and efficient way.

Q: Has this mindset opened you up to new forms of revenue? How will these funds help your organization in ways grants can’t?

This mindset has allowed us to recognize factors such as the cost of acquisition of clients and processes as ways to increase revenue by lowering costs and increasing efficiency. We have also developed an entrepreneurial mindset related to our program and service innovations, such as charging for technical assistance and consulting services.

Q: Do you have advice for other mission driven organizations that are looking to embrace an entrepreneurial mindset?

A barrier for nonprofits will always be staff capacity to invest time into the project. Committing to the time investment was difficult but it has proven invaluable to our organization. The professional development benefits to our leadership team have been tremendous. We are operating at a more sophisticated level and looking at things through a lens that allows us to better balance mission and margin.