BEND, OR --  Small, local non-profit organizations are invited to compete for a cash prize and help from non-profit experts. The Bend Chamber of Commerce’s “Leadership Bend” program will soon kick off its second annual Central Oregon Impact Summit. 

Rachel Rees Vanden Burg of the Bend Chamber tells KBND News, “Small to medium sized non profits that don’t have the resources that the bigger non profits do maybe don’t have the strongest strategic business plan so our goal through the Impact Summit is to help educate and assist these non profits through a series of workshops.” Those workshops include business planning, board management, marketing, fundraising and coaching.

“After going through the workshops, we narrow it down,” says Rees Vanden Burg. “The selection of non-profits will take the stage for a community event and they get to pitch their strategic business plan that they’ve created, to the public.” Those five non-profits will compete for a $10,000 cash prize in May.