By Emily Joy, JVA Consulting

The Kompound, a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and fitness studio in Littleton, was founded in 2010 by Amir Stephen, a former police officer and high school basketball coach. Amir was not only pursuing his passion for fitness but also saw a need in the community to develop a program for at-risk youth. The KEY program, short for Kompound Elite Youth, was developed as a nonprofit entity, housed within the studio to provide tutoring services and exercise programs to improve the academics, fitness, discipline and self-confidence of Littleton-area students.

Ken Arrington, a financial adviser and business development expert, saw the potential the Kompound had in meeting the community’s needs but also recognized the challenge the gym faced as a for-profit business managing and funding a nonprofit program. In addition to his busy day job, Ken stepped in as a volunteer to help Amir run the Kompound by night and brainstorm on a business model for the KEY program.

Without previous experience in managing nonprofits, Ken admits to picking up a copy of “Nonprofits for Dummies.” He decided that nonprofits and for-profits actually have similar models and, instead of treating the two differently, the best way to manage the KEY program was to use for-profit expertise and run the Kompound like a business. Ken developed a marketing plan, a sponsorship fund for sliding scale tuition fees and an organizational system to help the KEY program achieve its mission and vision. Ken also suggested tracking the changes in the grade point averages (GPA) of the KEY program participants—the most important metric for demonstrating the success of the program. While physical ability and self-confidence are more difficult to measure, last semester’s KEY participants increased their overall GPA by 1.25 points.

Amir and Ken are heavily invested in the students and receive phone calls and emails from teachers and parents on a regular basis. The KEY program also accepts students who are sentenced by Littleton’s juvenile courts. Most important, the KEY program provides structure for at-risk youth. Whether they are receiving tutoring and strict homework planning from Littleton teachers that volunteer their time at the Kompound, or from the discipline of martial arts classes, children in the KEY program have a chance to change the trajectory of their lives.

Today, the Kompound operates as a for-profit gym, and houses the nonprofit KEY program within the same walls. Since the marriage of the for-profit/nonprofit model has proven successful, the Kompound has incorporated another nonprofit, the Danny Dietz Leadership and Training Foundation, which aims to enrich the lives of the participants, their families and the general public through strenuous mental and physical activities designed to create better citizens and members of the community. The heroic story of Danny Dietz, a fallen Navy SEAL, was recently portrayed in the movie “Lone Survivor.”

For anyone aspiring to start a social enterprise, the Kompound’s business model demonstrates the importance of savvy creativity in generating income, while performing an invaluable community service. Whether the business model is a for-profit, a nonprofit or both, success is determined by finding the model that allows the owner to make the most of their mission.