Ann Arbor Spark

“A draft of the form 990 is distributed to the finance committee and ceo prior to filing.”

“Members of the board of directors, executive committee and key staff must annually sign a statement concerning potential conflicts of interest. These statements are periodically reviewed by the conflict of interest officer to determine if further examination or action is needed. If an conflict of interest exists, ann arbor spark follows up with the executive committee, the executive committee decides if further action in necessary.”

“Compensation committee - the governance committee is responsible for evaluating and establishing the salary and benefits for the ceo and key employees. Staff prepares statistics on comparative salary data from benchmarking studies. This data, along with performance data, is used by the governance committee to determine compensation for the following fiscal year.”

“Compensation committee - the governance committee is responsible for evaluating and establishing the salary and benefits for the ceo and key employees. Staff prepares statistics on comparative salary data from similar organizations for benchmarking. This data, along with performance data, is used by the governance committee to determine compensation for the following fiscal year.”

“The organization shares information that falls within parameters agreed upon by our funders, clients and portfolio companies. Spark posts its audited financial statements on our website. The 990 is available as public information on guidestar.com. Governing documents and policies are not usually available to the general public, although the state of michigan department of licensing and regulatory affairs website provides public access to ann arbor spark's articles of incorporation.”

“Ann arbor spark advances the region by encouraging and supporting business acceleration, attraction, expansion and retention. Our organization identifies and meets the needs of companies at every stage, from start-ups to large organizations. Ann arbor spark collaborates with business, academic, government and community investment partners to position the region as a destination for innovation.”

“The organization uses volunteers for certain events and utilizes a volunteer board of directors.”

“Business incubator/accelerator services spark creates long-term regional prosperity by accelerating the growth of start-ups and early-stage companies through support by offering direct and consultant services. Spark creates a place where early-stage companies can conduct business at affordable rates and can co-locate with other entrepreneurs and in the eco-system. Spark offers those companies educational and networking events in the incubator space. We create an ecosystem whereby start-ups can connect easily with resources they need at early stages to launch and establish, thus attracting start-ups to this region. This supports growth in the companies themselves, the direct support services, and the region's economy, creating a virtuous cycle of economic growth. Spark is part of the award-winning global epicenter of mobility (gem) program, administering the entrepreneur-in-residence (eir) component of the program. Spark's east office led a federal grant for the county to support covid impact, historically underserved companies. In 2023 spark assisted 400 innovation start-ups which currently employ 1,046 fte. Spark nurtured 102 incubator tenants. Spark east provided 112.9k in grants to covid impacted, historically underserved small businesses.”

“Business development (expansion, attraction, retention) spark maximizes potential jobs and capital investment in the region and helps grow the region's gdp through the retention and expansion of established driving industry companies and the targeted attraction domestically and internationally of similar companies that fit the region's identified clusters. This is done by regular communication with local businesses to determine their needs, making key business introductions, assisting with site selection, collaborating with local municipalities, and assisting companies in working with local academic partners to communicate talent needs. This year the major companies spark supported are: - mi-hq: (downtown redevelopment) - acquired and renovated the eastern michigan college of business building with the university of michigan medicine as an anchor tenant - toyota: (international r&d facility) to establish a 48m battery lab, which will aid the development of batteries for electric vehicles in the us. - mi fame michigan chapter: (federation for advanced manufacturing education) - provides an opportunity for students to graduate debt free and filling in a skills gap in the manufacturing sector. In 2023, with 23 successful company growth projects, the team facilitated new investment commitments totaling more than 208 million. These projects led to the creation of 516 new jobs and the retention of over 363 existing ones, thereby strengthening the local workforce.”

“Capital funding: michigan angel fund & spark capital (formerly michigan pre-seed fund). The mission of our funding programs is to support high-tech companies throughout the state at their earliest stages of development and position these high-growth companies to be able to raise additional capital and investments. Capital programs are an intentional economic development tool that pays itself back, allowing the funds to be redeployed for future reinvestment into more companies. With 155 members, the michigan angel fund (maf) is the largest angel organization in michigan. The group has 40 companies, filling an important funding gap by investing in very early-stage companies across the state that are not yet primed for venture and other sources of capital. Maf is managed by ann arbor spark and invested 739k into 4 companies. Spark capital fund is designed to retain entrepreneurial companies. These are high-risk investments with a forecast of about 65% projected to reach the next level of funding. In 2023, spark capital invested 1m in 13 companies.”

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