LEGACY STORY

Venture Allies

Foundation:

Central Minnesota Community Foundation

Fund:

The School Allies Fund

Fund Established:

January 26, 2004

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Shelly Bauerly Kopel and Rick Bauerly are siblings and business partners. Together they manage Venture Allies, a management consulting firm with a unique vision statement: “By helping build valuable business and social enterprises, we hope to be energy for our community.”

With a vision that goes beyond business, Venture Allies has established “School Allies” and “Community Allies.”

School Allies is a nonprofit organization, funded in part by the School Allies Fund at the Central Minnesota Community Foundation, whose mission is to support technology initiatives in private schools. Shelly believes that “the School Allies initiative has been a beneficial team-building process for Venture Allies.”

Community Allies is a donor advised fund at the Foundation. This fund helps Venture Allies plan and administer its corporate giving program. As a Minnesota Keystone company, Venture Allies shares a portion of its profit each year with the community.“We focus on the core institutions that support the quality of life in Central Minnesota: entrepreneurship, healthcare, higher education, foundations and human services,” Rick said.

Note: Venture Allies consolidated with Granite Equity Partners in 2012.