|
Open for Business Business Plan Competition Resources |
Open for Business Conference Partners
Partners of the Open for Business Conference promote missions through for-profit businesses that produce economic opportunity and build up the local church around the world. Their booths are open to all Urbana delegates from 1:30-3:30pm on December 30 and 1:30-5:30pm on December 31.
Alabaster Enterprises is a seed stage fund that trains, finances, and provides ongoing support for entrepreneurs to create profitable, high-growth businesses in under-developed communities. We target ventures that are driven by a base of moral and ethical values in order to spur long-term sustainable economic development. Alabaster is initially focused on Southeast Asia and seeks to find opportunities that prove goods and services that meet substantial unmet market needs.
East-West Ministries International
East-West Ministries International helps indigenous church leaders in strategic locations around the world. We have provided entrepreneurial training, mentoring, and SME funding to assist the indigenous church in attaining long-term sustainability. These efforts have also been aimed at helping first-generation believers develop a sound theology of work that seeks to eliminate the false sacred-secular dichotomy common among Christians.
equip’s tagline is: Repurposing Business - Transforming SocietyTM. The entry point for equip is repurposing mid-market companies so that they become vehicles for doing God’s business or bidding. We have also expanded from the Mid-market track to include an Entrepreneur track, a Community track and an e3 track – Executive-to-executive evangelism track.
Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary
With Gordon-Conwell’s executive-style programs in Leadership and Business Ethics, you can earn your masters or doctoral degree without having to quit your job or move to campus. Classes are taught in 6 weeks of intensive “residencies” spread out over three years, plus homework and distance-learning courses called “Semlinks.” Gordon-Conwell is the only theological institution offering degree programs in Leadership and Business ethics at both the masters and doctoral levels.
HOPE International is a global, faith-based, non-profit organization focused on poverty alleviation through microenterprise development. HOPE serves people living in Afghanistan, China, the Dominican Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Haiti, Moldova, Romania, Russia, Rwanda, South Asia, Uganda, and Ukraine. HOPE’s vision is to enable sustainable economic development that results in significant and lasting change, temporal and eternal, in the lives of many people living in poverty.
Institute for Affordable Transportation (IAT)
We envision thousands of independently-owned Christian businesses in the developing world that build and profitably sell Basic Utility Vehicles (BUVs) - rugged, low-cost motor-vehicles suited for small-scale production. The BUV can also power water pumps, alternators, etc. The businesses generate a needed product, funding for ministry, and serve as a witness as they are run according to biblical principles. IAT provides vehicle design, Technology Transfer Program, and critical parts supply.
Integra’s mission is to develop businesses which will: impact society, change communities, and touch lives with the Gospel. We provide training and loans for aspiring entrepreneurs in Central and Eastern Europe and Russia. More than 70 staff work in Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, and Russia, providing business training seminars, one-on-one mentoring, and counsel on marketing, sales, inventory management, and finance.
Interserve USA is part of an international fellowship of Christians who want to be Servants for the hard places. We serve in countries across North Africa, the Middle East, and Asia and among immigrant people in the U.S. We use our professional skills to minister to the physical, emotional, and spiritual needs of the people that we serve.
The LAM was started in 1921 and is at the forefront of promoting business as mission. From its headquarters in Miami, it coordinates a growing network of resources for ministry outreach, including approximately 200 missionaries and 90 associated ministries located throughout Latin America, Spain, and the United States.
Leadership Development International (LDi)
LDi is a strategic ministry focused on reaching, equipping, and sending key influencers in China's urban centers, entrusting the message of Jesus Christ to “faithful men who will be able to teach others also.” (2 Timothy 2:2) Through both marketplace ministry and educational initiatives we seek to transform the leaders of today and tomorrow from the inside out – challenging and equipping them to impact the world with the message of the Cross.
Mennonite Economic Development Associates (MEDA)
MEDA is an association of compassionate business women and men who invest in the lives of families living in poverty around the world. Through MEDA, faith-oriented business owners, executives, and leaders are able to integrate their life values with business in practical ways to help the poor. Through training, loans and mentorship, entrepreneurs can earn a livelihood, provide for their families, and enrich their communities.
Olive Technology was founded as a Great Commission Company in 1996. It is an IT company specialized in providing offshore software development services to businesses and Christian organizations around the globe. Its focus areas are design and development of Web applications and Technology Process Management. The offshore development center is in Hyderabad, India, and the US office is based out of Colorado Springs.
Using short- and long-term teams, we do community development, distribute Christian literature and Bibles, and evangelize in a culturally sensitive manner to build up and establish the Church overseas. We embrace new ministry ideas while building on 50 years of experience. We focus on the least-reached people of the world. OM's more than 4,200 workers are from 95 nations and serve in 110 countries worldwide. We love Jesus Christ.
Opportunity International, the world's largest Christian microfinance organization, provides small business loans, training in basic business practices, counseling in personal development and other financial services to women and men living in chronic poverty. Small loans - sometimes as little as $50 - allow poor entrepreneurs to start or expand a business, develop a steady income, provide for their families and create jobs for their neighbors.
Pacific Resources International (PRI)
PRI is a Great Commission Company focusing on international business done in China. We integrate faith and work and intentionally represent God within our factories and other ventures. Present PRI ventures are in metals coating, printed circuit boards, manufacturing assembly and test equipment, electronic controls, and book publishing. We further do consulting in manufacturing start-up in China for our Western customers.
Regent University School of Global Leadership & Entrepreneurship
As the complexities of the world have increased, so have the opportunities for Christian professionals. Designed to further equip business leaders in the U.S. and overseas, the School of Global Leadership & Entrepreneurship provides a unique educational experience through its fully-accredited master’s and doctoral degree programs, blending innovation, excellence and biblical principles to positively impact the world.
Seattle Pacific University (SPU) School of Business and Economics
Founded in 1891, Seattle Pacific University is a premier Christian university that equips people to engage the culture and change the world. As an outgrowth of that mission, SPU’s AACSB-accredited School of Business and Economics encourages students to consider “another way of doing business” that redefines the purpose, role and values of business in society.
Our vision is to share Christ’s love in creative-access nations through teaching business. Started in 1985, the International Business Institute (IBI) gives Christians in business a unique opportunity to serve God overseas. IBI trains and sends professionals to teach business in China. Through the practical classes they teach and the meaningful friendships they build, IBI teachers provide an effective and credible model of Christian service.
Print
Email
