Golden Path Solutions (GPS), a young Fargo company is building an ecosystem to connect students, employers and schools in a more deliberate and collaborative way. And that has earned the attention of the Venn Foundation and the Bush Foundation.
GPS has announced a partnership with the St. Paul-based Venn Foundation to raise convertible note funding through Program Related Investments (PRIs) and is the first in ND to be part of Venn’s $1M by 2020 initiative supported by the Bush Foundation.
PRI’s are investments that private foundations and public charities can make to advance their charitable missions. To be classified as a PRI, an investment must advance a charitable purpose, and the financial terms of the investment are in some way “below-market.” All dollars committed are considered a charitable gift for tax purposes, and any financial returns from the PRI go back to participating Venn Accounts for donors to recommend redeployment into new PRIs or as grants to nonprofits with similar missions, leading to compounding charitable impact.
“We’ve secured a PRI from Venn with anchor support provided by two foundations, the ECMC Foundation and the Bush Foundation, both interested in how Golden Path can help more students find their path and drive higher success rates of getting into and graduating from higher education and finding a rewarding career,” states Patrick Mineer of GPS.
Using unique methodology, GPS provides employers deeper insights into their positions, while at the same time helping schools and students with career exploration and skills assessment through the use of an application called Compass. The company also provides the option for employers and students to find each other and create customized agreements that will help students pay for tuition and secure a job they will love, while assisting employers in creating the workforce of the future. Ultimately, GPS helps employers identify and secure talent, helps students prepare for their future and removes uncertainty and anxiety about what’s next. Finally, the company helps schools successfully 
prepare students for the future.
GFMEDC introduced GPS to Venn and worked with GPS as they obtained a microloan from GFMEDC’s Growth Initiative Fund.
“One goal of the microloan program is to provide early-stage seed funding that will ideally help startups move towards their next stages of revenue and gain access to other funding sources,” says John Machacek, GFMEDC Chief Innovation Officer. “Golden Path is doing exactly that. We couldn’t be happier on their progress and to have helped them along the way.”
You can support this PRI by helping spread the word and/or making a charitable investment through Venn to not only help GPS but to also make a positive impact for other organizations down the road.
