Blog Release: Benedum Foundation Provides Grant to Enhance Web Portal

Pittsburgh – Help Startups

Help Startups is pleased to announce the Benedum Foundation has provided a follow on grant to enhance the capabilities of our entrepreneurs’ web portal, www.helpstartups.com. The Benedum Foundation provided initial funding last year to help launch the web portal, and is now providing funding to further improve the experience visitors encounter when visiting the web site.

“Today’s Internet users expect a ‘social networking’ type of experience like they have on sites like Facebook, LinkedIn and many others,” said Gary Rosensteel, Executive Director of Help Startups, “The Benedum grant provides the funding we need to bring this same level of interaction to our Help Startups web portal.”

Features to be added include:

• Enhanced and easily accessible User Profiles enabling users to tie in their other web presences (MySpace, Facebook, blogs, web sites, etc.) and to see the information of other users
• An ever changing RSS feed of entrepreneurial news
• A Wikipedia devoted to entrepreneurial subjects
• A centralized place for startup companies to post and disseminate Press Releases
• Highlighting Featured Companies from our roster of local companies
• Ability to link in entrepreneurial videos
• Ability for users to enter ratings on the entities listed in our Resources section

This project has been dubbed Version 2.0 to indicate the breadth of the changes that will be incorporated into the Help Startups site. Our ambitious goal is to have Version 2.0 ready to launch in early fall to coincide with the first anniversary of the web portal.

Benedum Foundation The Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation was established in 1944 and named in memory of the only child, Claude Worthington Benedum, of Michael and Sarah Benedum, natives of West Virginia. The foundation is focused on grant making in West Virginia and Southwestern Pennsylvania, the native and adopted homes of the Benedum’s. Since its inception, the Foundation has authorized grants in excess of $340,000,000. Grants are made in the areas of Education, Health and Human Services, Community Development, and Economic Development to advance specific initiatives in West Virginia and Southwestern Pennsylvania, as well as promotion of philanthropy in those regions.

Help Startups is focused on providing assistance to entrepreneurs. The primary vehicle for this is the entrepreneurs’ web portal, HelpStartups.com. Through its meetings, Help Startups provides a venue for entrepreneurs to exchange ideas with their peers and meet with leaders of the entrepreneurial community. Help Startups also works to foster collaboration between entrepreneurial support organizations to maximize the effectiveness of their programs.