A plan to fund the Americans All public-private partnership pilot program, and to ensure that
Howard County has the option to become the program's successor.
The current political environment in our increasingly diverse society is highly polarized and socially segregated, the economic forecast is uncertain, and consumer confidence is low.
- Community members, including high school students, want to find discounts when they shop.
- Businesses and professional service providers need to expand traffic and look for affordable and effective ways to do this.
- Public and private schools need more noncurricular resources to help produce a well-rounded education for their students.
- Homeschool families need access to inexpensive, non-political resources and a revenue-generating tool.
- All schools need an unrestricted stream of annual revenue that requires minimal staff to administer.
- Fewer than half of high school students nationwide believe they are adequately prepared for college and careers.
- Mental health professionals say many students need help to develop a positive sense of self.
- The nation needs a vehicle to help appreciate and reinforce the commonalities that unite, rather than divide, the American people.
To help address these issues, we created a community outreach and empowerment program. Our revenue-generating, multipurpose storytelling tool helps leaders, at all levels, improve the mental, social, and economic health of their constituents. Extensive research confirms that life stories are central to people’s sense of self and the social world they inhabit. It also asserts that intergenerational knowledge of one’s family history is associated with positive mental health, wholeness, well-being, and a sense of belonging. When people belong, they feel emotionally connected and welcomed. Moreover, businesses benefit because stories directly impact emotions, and emotions rather than data change behavior and frequently determine decisions to buy.
Our ideal lender, individual or group, has both financial and philanthropic interests. We seek a $250,000 convertible loan to support a fully developed pilot project for one year. The funds will cover the program’s overhead costs, including rebuilding the existing website. There are no organizations that offer the same set of benefits as Americans All.
The convertible loan will be repaid using 2 percent of the program’s annual gross revenue (which represents 22 percent of the non-school distribution), plus the 7 percent allocated to the program’s non-profit developers/managers. After the loan has been repaid:
(a) The lender will receive two successive $250,000 balloon payments, to be repaid
using 2 percent of the program’s annual gross revenue, and
(b) Once the lender is repaid, Howard County will then receive 2 percent of the
program’s annual gross revenue, in addition to the 3 percent of the gross revenue it
annually receives from the funds generated by its county. These percentages are
not affected by any change in the program's ownership.
Either the lender or the county will have the option to acquire the program at a preset price and gain control of the foundation’s board of directors.
The sale price for the program, which can be exercised at any time, is the greater of $6,000,000 or 7 percent of the annual gross revenue at the time of the sale. If the option is never exercised, the program will be gifted to Howard County once the AABC’s after-tax income exceeds $6,000,000.
The foundation has financial obligations to the members of AABC that have accrued since it was created 36 years ago. It will be repaid using the 3 percent of the annual revenue it receives from the program. The AABC, or its successors or assigns, have no responsibility for the debts of the foundation.
We have support from the Howard County Office of Purchasing, Economic Development Authority, School Partnership Office, Historical Society, Community Service Partnership, and Office of the Local Children’s Board and Library System to start implementing the program. We are waiting for responses from other groups.
All students are free until their class graduates; community members are free for three months (both groups help create an immediate user database to attract businesses) and can opt to continue receiving discounts on goods and services from our business partners for a $4/month subscription fee. Schools and nonprofits receive a free lifetime membership. Businesses and professional service providers pay a $49 fee every 6 months. Of these fees, 77 percent is donated to a school of their choice,
3 percent is donated to the county and to the foundation. Homeschool students get our social studies resources for free (a $650 value) and their homeschool can create free landing pages to use as a revenue-generating tool. Depending on data from the pilot, we may divide the marketing into one for counties and one for large cities.
The benefit corporation will retain 80 percent of income received from future programs it develops or acquires. The balance will be shared by schools and the foundation. This includes marketing to active seniors, ethnic and cultural groups, military and domestic first responders, politicians, fraternities/sororities, pet lovers, and private schools. Nationally, there are 20,500 public and private high schools with 10,800,000 annual students; 3,143 counties and county equivalents; and 30,000,000 small businesses. In Howard County, the initial pilot site, has 14 public and 7 non-public schools, 14,600 high school students, and 9,000 small businesses.
The program’s organizations are in good standing in Maryland and Delaware, have a credit card processing company, are PCI compliant, and are current with all federal and state taxes. For additional information, including financials, view our Howard County Partnership Proposal and our Pitch Deck.