UNO MBA Capstone Projects

Clients (many have multiple projects)1. Andy’s Appliance Repair...................................22. Bloom Companion Care......................................33. Country Tire..............................................44. Dynamo....................................................55. Elevate Cycling & Fitness.................................66. FinTech...................................................77. FirstStar Recycling.......................................88. Gift Card Karma...........................................99. Girl Scouts Spirit of Nebraska...........................1110...................................NBDC Sustainability Projects

.........................................................1211..............................................No More Empty Pots

.........................................................1412.................................................Pettit's Pastry

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UNOMBA

Capstone

Projects

13...............................Posh Peacock Consignment Gallery.........................................................16

14........................................................VoterSnap.........................................................17

15..........................................................VPA-UNO.........................................................19

16.............................................Year of the Startup.........................................................20

Andy’s Appliance RepairMy project is this: I want to grow my business where does it go from here? How to leverage Andy’s good name and use it to expand into something else?

Given: Andy’s Appliance Repair has enough technicians to cover Lincoln market.  Andy’s in process of adding techs to the Omaha market.

Question, where does the business go from here? Leverage Andy’s name, stay in the same geographical area and expand into something else? Should Andy’s open new stores in new cities?

There are some ideas of expansion that leverage what Andy’s already does, but may or may not make sense.

1. Expand into another city / market and continue our core competency of in home repair service, repairing residential appliances.

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2. Leverage Andy’s good name in the community since 1971 and expand into duct cleaning. Customers often ask if we clean dryer ducts and also HVAC ducts. This seems like a natural progression but unsure of risk / reward and market saturation?

3. Sell appliance warrantee / maintenance contracts. Currently several companies sell home warranty services and I don’t know if this is a good opportunity or not.

4. Open appliance repair training school. Currently a company in Ohio offers 3 week training with a price of $4K per student.

5. How to leverage Andy’s long standing good name and expand into what?  What do customers want from an appliance repair business? Should Andy’s expand into something else and not grow into a new location?

Growing into areas that do not require a year or more of training, like appliance repair technicians require, would allow the business to expand into other areas that would be easier to find employees.

What is the opportunity, barriers to entry, revenue and margin growth, competition / market saturation in these areas. Are there other areas to consider?  Something unrelated to appliance repair?  

Tim BrockhouseAndy’s Appliance RepairLincoln:  402 423-2382

Omaha: 402 614-8131http://andysappliance.net/[email protected]

Bloom Companion CareBloom provides companion care to help connect aging parents and loved ones to the outside world as their abilities shift. We want

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to help them prioritize what they need, help them be independent in spirit even if it isn’t always possible in body. At Bloom, we understand that when you need to seek assistance, you want someone who understands and appreciates your parents. Our interview process helps us to better understand your parent’s contributions, curiosities and legacy. We then match CNAs and Companions who have the most potential to appreciate and contribute to your parents’ well-being to help them stay connected to the outside world.

Exercise, new activities, eating well and socializing are essential to keeping the brain and the body healthy. We present new activities via a broad community calendar to help your parents stay connected. Our Louise loves to socialize—jokes are her usual form of entry. Getting her out often, so she isn’t telling the same jokes to the same people, is important. This is just one small thing that adds to her overall happiness.

Bloom Companion Care offers concierge companion care of all levels. Whether your loved ones are dependent, on bed rest, recuperating from surgery or simply need an extra hand, we specialize in concierge companion care that is unique to you, your needs and your schedule.

Project:

Bloom would like to receive more feedback from customer’s regarding to what degree the service is meeting their needs. Currently, feedback trickles in from nurses, but that is already filtered by the individual perspective of the employee. Bloom would like an MBA student to consult with them, their nurses, andclients to develop a system for consistently collection, analyzing and acting upon customer concerns.

Gretchen Radler

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9290 West Dodge Rd. Suite 102Omaha, NE. 68144 [email protected]

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“Service For Everyone, UnlikeAnyone”

Country TireCountry Tire is a family owned company that has been in business for 30 years. Country Tire is a full automotive repair business where our core focus is on Preventative Care, Tires, Brakes, and Steering and Suspension. We also have Master ASE technicians at all of our stores so that we can specialize in Engine, Transmission, and Diesel Repair. Our Tire sales range from lawn and garden tires to production agriculture. When we say service for everyone, we mean it.

With four locations, Blair, NE, Atlantic, IA, Glenwood, IA, and Shenandoah, IA, we have a large footprint to cover the needs of alarge group of customers.

Over the course of the last 6 years we have faced an ugly partnerbuyout, three natural disasters, employee dishonesty, and a sluggish economy. Through all of these challenges we have weathered the storms and made it through. We are in a process ofrestructuring our company to last another 30 years to become moreautomotive focused with an attitude of preventative care rather than waiting for it to break to fix it.

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Project: With that comes challenges of getting everyone on boardwith the vision of the future. We have had some staff changeovers within the company due to these differences of opinions. We would like an MBA student to interview and/or survey our employees and recommend a process to increase engagement with the new vision and business model of the company.

With all of these changes and challenges one thing holds true, our core principal from the beginning is that everyone is treatedwith the same respect you would give your mother.

Eric Howland, PresidentCountry Tire, INC.Blair, NE 68008402.426.4924 ext. 19

402.250.3390 [email protected]

Dynamo

Dynamo is a startup IT Consultingand Recruiting Services company,founded in 2014. We helpcompanies fill gaps in theirtechnical capacity or capability.Our founders are former executives of a Global Fortune 500 human capital consulting company who desired an opportunity to impact significant change in an industry that has historically high levels of spend, but low levels of consumer and stakeholder satisfaction. Dynamo was created as a company centered on helpingour stakeholders get it right the first time. We are generating the change that we wish to see, and that our stakeholders deserve. We are looking for smart, driven, approachable, and personal people who want to help us in this exciting journey! Potential Projects: 

1)    As Dynamo continues to develop its client base, we need help in developing a client satisfaction assessment. Your role would involve working with the co-founders to create anassessment that will help us measure the impact and efficacy

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of our consulting services, capture any issues or concerns that may exist, and lead to an action plan for next steps. 

2)    As Dynamo continues to expand its consultant base, we need help in developing a consultant engagement survey/assessment. The project would involve working with the co-founders of Dynamo to create an assessment that wouldgauge consultant engagement with Dynamo, measure their progress on their assigned project, and capture any wants orneeds as it relates to Dynamo or their ability to be successful in their role.

3)    In an effort to be certain that we are culturally authentic to our brand, help us design metrics and develop tools that measure presence and effect of brand attributes amongst our daily operations and internal team. After gathering input and understanding from the co-founders, you would develop tools that may include team member interviews,an attributes survey, and/or leadership touchpoints.

4)    Develop a social media strategy and execute a campaign, including content development and tool selection for assisting with administration and measuring impact (e.g. HootSuite).

Brody Deren President/Co-Founder [email protected]/o) 402.884.3983c) 402.206.3089

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Elevate Cycling & Fitness

Elevate Cycling & Fitness is a boutique spin, and yoga studio located in Papillion, NE that transforms bodies, inspires the soul, and elevates the mind. Elevate will be more than a gym. Itwill be an environment infused with energy and positivity. When aperson enters the studio they are joining a community where self-betterment and positivity are just as important as physical gains. From the moment you walk in the door; you’ll be greeted with enthusiasm, you’ll be inspired to work hard, and you’ll leave feeling accomplished and ready to take on the world!

Working with the local businesses to help create a corporate wellness program for employees whether it is a lunchtime yoga class or other classes which can be provided onsite or at the studio. Corporate wellness programs are a great way to help reduce employee stress, help build a sense of camaraderie with co-workers, and many more benefits.

1. Being able to identify key community partners that will helpwith building relationships and marketing to give back to nonprofits throughout the Omaha metro area through fundraising, free classes, donations, etc.

2. When opening up my studio I would like to leverage relationships with other organizations to help build a stronger knowledge of how important maintaining a healthy and active lifestyle is within the community.

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Sarah Skarda9645 Giles StPapillion, Nebraska(402) 639-2004www.elevatefitstudios.com/www.facebook.com/[email protected]

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FinTech Development of a Financial TechnologyCommunity in the Midwest.

SynopsisFinancial technology (Fintech) innovation isdisrupting the traditional banking industry, andhas garnered a lot of press and venture capital over the past several years. VC investment was up 300% in 2014 to $12 billion dollars. Most of this is going to the major exchange cities - Chicago and New York as well as Silicon Valley. Omaha is one of the largest international payment processing hubs, with billions passing through it in traditional transactions, and yet has not taken its place as a Fintech leader. In Omaha and throughout the Midwest there are quite a few startups and entrepreneurs contributing to the Fintech industry, if concentrated geographically it would be a sizeable influence and yet because it is spread out each company is essentially left to fend for itself. This report is meant to synthesize the work being done togain more attention for the region as a whole.

Project1. What qualifies as “Fintech?” Working with stakeholders in

the industry, Working with stakeholders in the industry, come up with

a working definition and criteria to identify and differentiate a Fintech company from a traditional financial services firm or major institution.o We hypothesize the concept of “disruption” should be

inherent in this definition.o Is this arbitrary or is there an existing definition

that should or could be adopted from an industry institution or association?

Build a comprehensive list of Fintech products and services in the Midwest after defining the geographic boundaries. A basic inventory has already been gathered and will be provided as a starting point.

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Working with providers of Fintech, key stakeholders and end-users, develop an index or rating system to measure Fintech penetration.

o Develop criteria such as number of companies per capita for example.

o Compare the Midwest as a whole to the major urban centers.

Edward [email protected]@fintechmidwest

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FirstStar Recycling

FirstStar Recycling is the recycler of waste for the city of Omaha. They serve a wide array of clients who desire to reduce the amount of waste sent to landfills. The owner, Dale Gubbels is considering a significant expansion of the operations and is preparing to write a business plan to assist in acquiring the financial resources to do so.

To ensure that he addresses the concerns and gains support of keystakeholders, he is seeking a MBA capstone project that would interview sets of stakeholders and survey key groups of customers. The information would then be analyzed, backed up with research, and reported as a set of recommendations for him to incorporate into his operations and expansion plans

Stakeholders: State Senators League of Nebraska Municipalities and their members 150 mile

radius of Omaha Trash Haulers Distribution Centers, Businesses with waste streams Cafeterias, restaurants, grocery stores

Key Questions: What approach would bring material that otherwise would go to a landfill? How to justify expansion given current commodity situation

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First Star Recycling • 10330 I Street Suite 100 • Omaha, NE 68127Dale Gubbels, OwnerDirect Line: (402) 894-0403Office Phone (402) 894-0003 • Fax (402) 894-0018 • Email [email protected]://firststarrecycling.com/

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Gift Card Karma

Gift cards are the #1 gift given in the United States. Over $124 Billion was loaded onto gift cards in 2014 alone. Since 2005, over $42 Billion in gift cards have gone unused or partially redeemed…and they never expire!

The mission of Gift Card Karma is to improve local communities byconnecting donated gift cards with small charities working to advance the common good.

Project 1To determine whether small charities would be interested in conducting their own gift card donation campaigns.

Questions to be answered include:

What type of charity? Geographic coverage area? Annual Budget? What are your primary sources of donations? What problems do you encounter in securing donations? Would you consider gift card donations?

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What kind of gift cards would you most be most beneficial toyour organization?

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Project 2To determine if companies who issue gift cards would be interested in collecting their unused or partially redeemed cardsand giving them to small, local charities.

Questions to be answered include: What is your slippage rate (difference between $ of cards

issued versus $ of cards redeemed)? How is this a problem for your company? What, if anything, do you currently do to decrease your

slippage rate? Would you consider collecting donated gift cards and giving

them to charity? FDR's subsidiary Gyft. Someone associated with Gyft would

be an excellent resource/contact for this project.

Project 3To determine the socio-economic and psychographic characteristicsof potential gift card donors so as to create targeted donation campaigns.

Potential survey questions include:Age?

Sex? Household income? Number of gift cards received in the last 12 months? Gift card issuer (e.g. Big Box Discounter, Department Store,

Small Retailer, Restaurant, Coffee Shop) Did you fully redeem your gift cards?

If no, why not? Have you ever donated to a charity? If so, which ones? What motivates you to donate? Would you be willing to donate your unused or partially

redeemed gift cards to charity? What would get you to donate? If you could donate by taking a photo of the back of the

gift card, would you do so?

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Susan Pedersensusan.pedersen@cox.net402-215-1936www.giftcardkarma.orgwww.facebook.com/giftcardkarma

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Girl Scouts Spirit of Nebraska

1. Create an effective plan to market our camps to non-Girl Scoutentities. Council Contact: Mike Davis, Property Director [email protected]

2. How do we more successfully recruit nonmember girls and their families to become members/volunteers with Girl Scouts. Reviewcurrent recruiting techniques and research new/different ways of reaching out to non-members. Council Contact: Lisa Hiatt, Chief Operations Officer [email protected]

3. Assist in the creation of a survey process to measure the girlexperience in Girl Scouts. Review current program experiences and research and develop a tool/method of measuring the experience girls have in Girl Scouts. Council Contact: Lisa Hiatt, Chief Operations Officer [email protected]

4. Create RFP (request for proposal) for computer/IT support/technology. Council Contact: Jodi Prewitt, Chief Financial and Administrative Officer [email protected]

5. Conduct research on the latest technologies available to conduct an all staff meeting with staff located across the state. Council Contact: Kelly Buchanan, HR Director [email protected]

6. Girl Scouts has a democratic process involving representation by delegates from our constituency areas. Review this and other processes for member representation and recommend a replacement process or improvements. Council Contact: Fran Marshall CEO [email protected] Kelly Buchanan, HR Director [email protected]

7. Plan and execute the evaluation process for the 2015 Girl Scout Cookie program to include the following items: create anon-line survey, send emails, make phone calls, attend troop meetings, and conduct focus groups. Make contact with all

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stakeholders to include: troop leaders, parents, volunteers, staff and consumers. Council Contact: Denise Moore, Product Program Director [email protected]

8. Create marketing plan and donor materials to solicit donor support to sponsor/fund/support our annual program theme. In 2015/2016 our program theme is Careers. Council Contacts: FranMarshall, CEO [email protected] or Wendy Hamilton, Fund Development Director [email protected]

Fran Marshall, Chief Executive OfficerGreat Plains Service Center2121 S. 44th Street, Omaha, NE 68105T (402) 779-8208 F (402) 558-8060 [email protected]

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NBDC Sustainability Projects

P2RIC customer satisfaction problem

Businesses need technical information as well as management commitment and staffcapacity in order to improve their operations, be more

efficient, save money, reduce environmental impact, and move toward sustainability. UNO has a Pollution Prevention Regional Information Center (P2RIC) within CBA that helps the businesses in Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri, and Kansas achieve sustainability. P2RIC works directly with businesses and also with each state’s Technical Assistance Providers (TAPs). The TAPs come together annually for a Region 7 Pollution Prevention (R7 P2) Roundtable meeting in Kansas City. The R7 P2 Roundtable also has bimonthly conference calls. Some TAPs do not say anything on these calls. We don’t know why they are not engaged.

P2RIC needs to know – Are we serving the needs of the TAPs?

Proposed project:Interview up to eight TAPs in the region (we have the contact information) to determine

1) What kinds of information and resources do they need from P2RIC?

P2RIC is currently providingi. Calendar of webinars and training events

http://p2ric.org/calendar/; newsletter – A Look Ahead – delivered via email listing the calendar items upcoming in the next two weeks – to help TAPs keep their technical knowledge sharp

ii. Library of publications specific to pollution prevention (P2 Infohouse, http://infohouse.p2ric.org/) – publications from other TAPs which allow people to find fact sheets

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or projects that have been done in the past, get information on successful strategies

iii. Environmental/Pollution Prevention/Sustainability news and headlines from the region, http://p2ric.org/newsstand/ - curated social mediaposts from the region, to help TAPs keep abreast of environmental/sustainability news

iv. Listserv for the region ([email protected]) –provides a forum for TAPs to ask questions or receive information and updates of interest

v. Directory of programs in the region, http://p2ric.org/support/stateservices/ - to help TAPs know their peers in other states and how to contact them

vi. Blog, http://p2ric.org/blog/ - articles of interest to TAPs

vii. Region 7 P2 Roundtable information and minutes, http://roundtable.p2ric.org/ - historical record of past Roundtable calls and meetings or other Roundtable business

2) What other information products or assistance do they need?3) Where do they get the information they need to assist

businesses?4) What specific business sectors are they targeting for the

next year?5) What specific pollutants are they trying to reduce for the

next year?6) Do they participate in the Region 7 P2 Roundtable calls or

meetings?a. What do they like?b. What don’t they like? (why aren’t they engaged?)c. How can these calls and meeting be more useful?d. What topics would they like to see covered?

7) Would they participate in a triple regional P2 Roundtable inMinneapolis in 2017?

a. What topics would they like to see?

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b. What speakers do they suggest?c. How important is networking at a meeting like this?

Following the interviews, a survey can be created and sent out onthe R7 P2 listserv, if desired.

Problem #2Businesses do not adopt technologies and practices that would save money and make them more sustainable. For example, energy efficiency paybacks typically occur in fewer than two years and many utility companies offer financial incentives to help companies install more efficient equipment, yet companies are slow to adopt these technologies.

Currently, EPA has a national focus on helping food processing companies reduce the amount of pollution they generate. The project is to work with some food processors and identify what would motivate them and their potential barriers to adopting green technologies and practices at their facility, then to design a survey to quantify the motivations and the barriers. Ultimately, we want to provide the information, assistance, and encouragement to get these companies to make changes.Food processing sectors of interest:

Craft breweries Dairies Bakeries

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No More Empty Pots Our Mission: No More Empty Pots’ mission is toserve as a conduit connecting individuals andgroups to improve self-sufficiency of localurban and rural communities.Our Vision: No More Empty Pots’ vision is tosupport communities in becoming self-sufficient and food secure through collaboration and adhering to our core values.

Characteristics of successful initiatives: strengthen relationships with urban and rural consumers and producers, develop closed loop food systems processes, and support sustainable local urban and regional food systems. Elements of the shared commercial kitchen include small food business incubator, food service and job readiness training, kitchen rental service, and nutrition education program.

Truck Farm Omaha The Community Market Basket Project (link updated March

2014) No More Empty Pots Shared Commercial Kitchen Initial Survey Potential Shared Commercial Kitchen Sites Teen Market Garden Entrepreneurship Curriculum (May 2014)

1. Determine five barriers and solutions to participants enrolling in a post-secondary education culinary training program

2. Determine five barriers and solutions to participants enrolling in a community based training program

3. Determine five barriers and solutions for startups in lower resourced urban and rural communities

4. Determine the potential economic benefit of a local foods purchasing requirement to small rural and urban farmers within 50 miles of Omaha

5. Determine the potential economic benefit of a local foods purchasing requirement to small businesses within 50 miles of Omaha

6. Develop a resource kit for rural and urban small businesses and micro-enterprises to maximize economic potential of local foods initiative within 50 miles of Omaha

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7. What is the market demand for local foods and value added products within 100 miles of Omaha

8. What technologies and systems can be leveraged to improve efficiency and effectiveness of emerging enterprises in urban and rural communities cultivating a local foods initiative?

9. What is the potential market demand of value added products developed from perceived food waste? Which products would sell best in urban and rural markets within 100 miles of Omaha?

10.What are the most effective resources for entrepreneurs in urban and rural communities engaged in local foods initiatives?

Nancy Williams8511 North 30th Street, Omaha,NE 68112Local: 402.502.1642 Google Voice: 347.762.7687

Fax: 367.695.5445Nancy Williams [email protected]://nomoreemptypots.org/

Pettit's Pastry Delicious Memories Since 1954

Pettit's Pastry has a long history of making customers happy. Founded in 1954 by Richard Pettit, the downtown Omaha pastry shopgained a loyal following along with a reputation for quality and service. Since then, several generations have passed. Mr. Pettit handed down the family business to his sons, Bret and Mark. The wide-eyed children who gazed in awe at the cases of sweet pastries have grown up. Today, they bring their own children and grandchildren to share in the traditions and memories of Pettit'sPastry.

Project:

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We are the third generation in the business and need to make decisions regarding our retail and wholesale operations.

1. In particular, we are looking for solutions to ourwholesale pricing and vendor selection.

2. For retail, we have five locations and need to consider if we should make changes there as well.

MarkPettitPettit's Pastry502 N 16th St.Omaha, NE 68102http://pettitspastry.com/[email protected] -345-1111

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Posh Peacock Consignment GalleryFurniture & Home Décor

Posh Peacock Consignment Gallery is an upscale furniture and homedécor consignment store located in the Bel Air Plaza at 120th & Center in Omaha. We specialize in high quality, gently used furniture and accessories to decorate the home or office at affordable prices. We get our merchandise from estate liquidations; people who are downsizing, moving out of state or remodeling and from businesses that are closing. We provide excellent customer service to both our buyers and sellers in a clean, pleasant environment that is visually stimulating and yet warm and inviting.

A large part of our clientele is the baby boomer that is selling their large home and downsizing to a condo or assisted living apartment. They are often at a loss as to how to part with theirlifetime collection of “stuff”. Our goal is to provide clients with an easy way to dispose of items they no longer need while getting them the most money possible. Posh Peacock not only handles their “good stuff” but will also sell their vintage pieces that can be upcycled and/or repurposed thus keeping them out of landfills.

Many of this generation rely on their realtors and care givers toprovide resources and services to help them transition to their new lifestyle. We want to be the “Go To” business with a heart that will help them in what can be a stressful time of change.

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Project:Posh Peacock would like to better understand the needs of potential clients and retail customers. Key stakeholders could include retirement villages, realtors, recyclers and antique shopper. By creating a better understanding of their needs and communicating the benefits to the community that Posh Peacock provides, this project will bring benefit to the elderly, consumers, and the environment.

Pauline UhingPosh Peacock Consignment Galleryhttp://poshpeacock.net/[email protected]

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VoterSnap

First, I’ll give you a little info aboutVoterSnap:

VoterSnap will change the way the world votes.We asked ourselves what will voting look like in the future. We asked what if voting and election politics didn’t suck. Think about it… What if VoterSnap helped increased voter turn out? Whatif most people started voting with confidence all over the world?What if there a high percentage of citizen engagement because they knew their vote mattered and they made a difference in the outcomes? What if there were alternative voting systems that truly makes your vote more important. What if you could vote fromyour smartphone? What if there was a level candidate playing field and where winning the fundraising battle wasn’t the main variable to win an election? What if you personally wanted to runfor office and actually stood a fighters chance against career politicians? What if you were provided everything you needed to run a good campaign and were provided simple and actionable insights about the citizens in your area? 

I founded VoterSnap to solve two big problems that occur during elections all over the world. #1. The majority of voters experience the same problem over and over again every time they go vote... they get half way down the ballot and they don’t have a clue who the person is behind the name, what they look like, what they believe in, or what the job is that they are running for. Typically, this person votes uninformed or doesn’t vote at all. #2. The majority of candidates and their campaign managers are not very effective at informing voters. Simply, they stink at marketing. The main culprits are a lack of knowledge and a lack of resources.  

VoterSnap’s technology solves these problems and more, in a fast,simple, and beautifully intuitive way. Here is what we need your help with: 

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We want to help the younger generation become informed and engaged in politics. Voting sucks right now and getting informed quickly is impossible. We want you to develop an effective, efficient, and easily duplicatable plan to marketVoterSnap on any given college campus in the 3 months leading up to an election. 

We want to build a world class team and give our interns an amazing experience they can use to propel them towards theirlife goals. We want you to create a replicatable recruiting program designed specifically for interns attending a university in a city where VoterSnap has expanded to. It would likely be a 3 month paid internship leading up to the election in the city they are in. 

We want to create an automated lead capture engine that captures, cultivates, and engages voters to not only vote, but vote informed and engage in politics. We want you to create a comprehensive automated communication plan for users/voters who show interest in VoterSnap by providing their contact info on one of our landing pages or signing upon our web site.  

Our vision for solving some of the major voting problems experienced by most voters in the world today come with manylarge challenges, especially as we enter more markets and expand internationally. We want you to create an actionable plan to solve the following challenges we are facing in scaling VoterSnap:

o Getting the full list and contact info (Phone and Email) of candidates and/or their campaign manager 90 days prior to the election. 

o Connecting with each of the candidates or their campaign managers to complete their public VoterSnap profile and learn about the value added products, services, and partnerships that we are selling to them. 

o We have learned Judges on the ballot are not interestedin providing their information to VoterSnap or really any organization working to inform potential voters andcitizens who they are. What information do people want

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to know about the judges they vote to retain or not andwhat’s a good way of gathering that information. 

o We want to pull, clean, and visualize public campaign finance data for every candidate. That information is public in the USA. In Nebraska it’s accessible on a website. However, the process of doing that is very time consuming. Create a plan to this without a lot of human capital expense.

Campaigning and marketing has been a big challenge. We have learned a lot about reaching potential voters but we need help to really make a difference. We want you to ask questions to candidates and campaign managers about campaigning and marketing to learn the most effective and efficient ways to find and market to the most likely voters.Then, your task would be to put a campaign and marketing plan together based upon your research. 

The VoterSnap platform will be beta tested in a local high school in 2015-2016. It will be used as a voting and election platform. Students will be able to use VoterSnap for anything the students need to vote on. From student council, class president, homecoming king/queen, etc… Teachers will use VoterSnap as part of their curriculum, fora hands on experience of getting informed about the people and things they can vote on and actually doing it. All from the students smartphone or any table/computer. Create a marketing plan to reach students. Create a marketing plan toreach the schools and the teachers who will utilize it. 

There are several potentially amazing partnership ideas we’ve come across. We’d like you to do market research and present your recommendations for VoterSnap partners. In order for VoterSnap to agree to a partnership it must be what I call a “Triple Win”. A win for VoterSnap. A win for the Partner. And most importantly, a win for the customer/user. Here are some ideas to get you started: 

o Free Uber & Lyft rides to go vote and take you home from your polling place. 

o Quality-customized campaign signs and swag at discount prices. 

o Vetted Campaign Mangers for hire (Remote/Virtual)

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o http://nationbuilder.com/ o http://www.rockthevote.com/

Patrick John Stevens, Founder & CEO [email protected] @VoterSnapCEOwww.VoterSnap.com , VoterSnap Facebook Page

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VPA-UNO:

The purpose of Volunteer Program Assessmentat UNO (VPA-UNO) is to provide freeconsulting to NPOs to improve volunteerprograms and volunteer satisfaction andretention in addition to enhancing studentlearning and engagement. Since June of2013, two faculty directors along withseveral undergraduate and graduate studentshave served over 70 organizations, impactedover 33,000 volunteers, and donated over 3,300 service hours. Yet, scarce human capital and disconnected infrastructure across rural communities compromises the effectiveness of under-resourced NPOs. In addition to serving NPOs in urban areas acrossthe country, VPA-UNO priority is to serve the people of Nebraska and strives to improve NPO’s outcomes by expanding their work to rural communities in Nebraska.

Volunteers deliver economic benefits to nonprofit organizations (NPO) by generating resources through fundraising efforts (Bowman, 2009) and by providing organizations with additional manpower to offer more services without additional cost to the organization (Brudney & Kellough, 2000). In 2012 alone, volunteers contributed 15.2 billion hours of work and saved $296.2 billion to nonprofits (Blackwood, Roeger, & Pettijohn, 2012).

Project:

How can we expand our capacity and financial stability given thatour seed money from the Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences will run out in July of 2016. We are not able to charge for our free assessment and consultation per our agreement with other VPA-USA chapters. We are capable of charging NPOs for customizingsurveys with additional analyses and reports as well as providingtraining and volunteer management consultations but we need time and money to further develop these pay-for-service programs. How

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do we market this to increase our chances of being funded by foundations or state or federal agencies?

Lisa Leahy Scherer, Ph.DIndustrial-Organizational PsychologistDepartment of PsychologyArts & Sciences Hall, Rm. 347-JUniversity of Nebraska at [email protected]

http://www.unomaha.edu/unopsychvpa/ http://www.unomaha.edu/college-of-arts-and-sciences/psychology/

community-engagement/vpa/index.php https://www.facebook.com/vpauno

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Year of the Startup

Omaha Startup Village (OSV) is a community development project headed by Year of the StartUp, a residency-based business incubator. OSV will consist of several houses and auxiliary infrastructure (community center, cafe, etc),

occupied by both for-profit and non-profit founders/teams. Students will present their results at ‘Cornstalks on Tour’, an event hosted by the Omaha Chamber of Commerce.stakeholders include; entrepreneurs, property owners, neighborhood associations, city planning, community philanthropists & investors. Consulting options include:

1. The startup community is a fragmented population of individuals considering a becoming an entrepreneur. Many are unaware of the number of organizations, including YOTS who are here to assist them. YOTS unique housing and financing program is a good fit for a certain segment of thepopulation, but often it is these very individuals who know the least about opportunities such as YOTS. We would like you to assess how these nascent entrepreneurs search for assistance, what their primary needs are and then to developa campaign that addresses these search patterns and needs toattract founders/teams to occupy the houses.

2. Working with all relevant stakeholders (banks, investors, philanthropists, economic development officers, service providers and the startup community, develop a sponsorship campaign to generate support for the project.

3. Work with stakeholders in the community including economic development experts, realtors, service providers and the members of the startup community to determine which neighborhood(s) in Omaha would be best suited for the project.

Jason Feldman V.P. Program Management

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402.429.7646 (c)[email protected]

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