DePaul Industries is a 501(c)3 organization that aims to create employment opportunities for people with disabilities to close the gap in employment rates between those with and without disabilities. It has grown in recent years to serve diverse customers across multiple states in industries like food processing, security, and packaging. DePaul utilizes the skills of its workforce of people with disabilities to meet customer demands in a competitive business environment. It seeks funding to further expand its operations and replicate its model of leveraging an overlooked workforce to solve business problems and fulfill its social mission.

1. DEPAUL INDUSTRIES
DePaul Industries 2

2. I. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
People with disabilities are employed at less than half the rate of people without
disabilities and, distressingly, participate in the workforce at less than one third the rate
of people without disabilities. These facts pose a significant social problem. Beyond the
economic and personal toll taken on individuals and families, there is a significant fiscal
burden placed on local, state, and national governments.
DePaul Industries, a 501(c)3 organization headquartered in Portland, Oregon, is an
established and growing integrated social enterprise working to create employment
opportunities for people with disabilities in order to close this employment gap. DePaul
works with private and public customers to solve their business problems by leveraging
an overlooked and undervalued workforce, operating on the premise that providing
services in demand is the most effective way of eliminating barriers to employment.
In its 41-year history, DePaul Industries has evolved into a full-fledged entrepreneurial
organization with revenue and employment growth purposefully interconnected. Over
the past five years, it has increased its annual revenue from $20.9 million to $36.0
million and increased hours worked by people with disabilities from 622,500 to nearly
one million. Its Staffing, Security, and Packaging business divisions operate in four
states in eight locations and serve diverse customers like Frito-Lay, Starbucks, Port of
Portland, Con Agra, and the U.S. Army. These divisions generate more than 97% of
revenue and employ more than 2,000 people with disabilities each year.
DePaul’s model has been proven in practice. Beyond direct employees, each year,
hundreds of DePaul employees go on to work for DePaul customers—over 700 in the
past two years. Customers work with and hire DePaul’s employees because of their
skills, work ethic, and track record of success—not simply to fulfill a diversity quota.
DePaul provides practical training and real jobs in the business world, where the vast
majority of jobs are available. With the contingent labor market to double its volume
over the next decade, DePaul is perfectly positioned to fulfill its social mission in the
commercial marketplace.
Having honed its entrepreneurial focus over the past five years and focused on
changing the national landscape of employment for people with disabilities, DePaul is
poised for tremendous growth. By building upon business currently in its pipeline and
by scaling its proven model, DePaul plans to grow revenue by $40 million and grow
hours worked by people with disabilities by 950,000 over the next five years. During this
period, DePaul will leverage its relationships with existing customers, strategic
partnerships with associations and organizations, and stature as a disability employer to
scale impact and allow for replication of its demand-driven model.
To reach its ambitious growth goals, DePaul Industries seeks $3.5 million in growth
capital in the form of both grants and debt in order to allow DePaul to expand and
reinforce its infrastructure. This growth capital will contribute to enhancing information
technology and human capital, allowing for replication strategy, improving impact
measurement, and bolstering working capital standings. With this investment of growth
capital, DePaul Industries will significantly advance its ability to close the gap of
unemployment between people with disabilities and people without disabilities.
DePaul Industries 4

3. VI. DEPAUL INDUSTRIES: THE ORGANIZATION
THE BUSINESS ADVANTAGETHE DISABILITY ADVANTAGE
DePaul Industries solves its customers’
outsourcing needs through Staffing,
Security, and Contract Packaging &
Manufacturing—business divisions
which earn the vast majority of its
revenue and provide employment
opportunities for the vast majority of its
employees. Its focus is on responding
to demand from the private sector,
ensuring that as earned revenue
increases, the employment of people
with disabilities increases.
Having one or more disabilities greatly
impacts an individual’s ability to obtain
successful employment. According to
the National Council on Disability,
barriers to employment include
employer misconceptions about
accommodations that may be required,
education or training gaps, and the
need for flexible work assignments. 3
In fact, given the opportunity and often
with only modest accommodations,
people with disabilities have
consistently proven themselves to be
among the most dedicated and
successful employees within the
marketplace. Several studies have
demonstrated that hiring people with
disabilities maintains or even increases
performance standards, creates value,
and reduces employee turnover—
sometimes to as much as one-fifth of
the rate of non-disabled peers. 4
This is
a key advantage that DePaul Industries
maintains over its competitors—
disability is seen and leveraged as a
strategic advantage, rather than an
impediment, to business success.
In contrast to most other nonprofit
organizations focused on disability
employment, this methodology allows
DePaul Industries to employ the
maximum number of people with
disabilities while leveraging the skills of
those individuals to drive bottom-line
success for its customers. Moreover, a
growing sense of social responsibility in
21st
century companies is driving a
trend to employ disadvantaged workers
in far greater numbers—and DePaul is
able to facilitate exactly that.
DePaul Industries 11
CATEGORICAL DISABILITIES
DEPAUL INDUSTRIES EMPLOYEES WITH DISABILITIES (2012)
Hearing 2.95% MR/Developmental 3.61%
Learning 11.95% Physical 55.90%
Mental 14.53% Recovery 8.92%
Vision 2.14%
3
Empowerment for Americans with Disabilities: Breaking Barriers to Careers and Full Employment; National Council
on Disability (2007)
4
Exploring the Bottom Line: A Study of the Costs and Benefits of Workers with Disabilities; DePaul University (2007);
http://www.barrierfreecareers.net/topics/depend.html

4. STAFFING SERVICES
DePaul Industries’ Temporary Staffing division provides
efficient, reliable and thoroughly trained workers to help
businesses of all kinds deal with unanticipated work increases
peak season staffing needs. Temporary Staffing Services is
DePaul’s largest business unit and employs individuals
variety of disabilities, leveraging specialized training that
specifically responds to customer demand. Staffing has a
clerical and light industrial focus—specifically in food packagi
and contract manufacturing, which has grown in conjunction
with DePaul’s Packaging division—but also includes positions as diverse as CNC
Machine Operators, Landscape Architects, Office Specialists, Call Center Associa
Forklift Drivers, Production Line Operators, and War
or
with a
ng
tes,
ehouse Clerks.
to
Methodologies: Using specialized training for its employees provides DePaul
with a competitive advantage in the staffing industry. A notable example is the
Heart of the Workforce (HOW) program, a demand-based workforce
development program designed to provide a training boost to any industry with
a large number of entry-level workers, is DePaul’s most prominent and
successful example of this. To date, DePaul has developed the HOW curriculum
for the food processing, hospitality, restaurant & food service, and metalworking
industries—and has the ability to develop the curriculum for any industry,
particularly those with high labor needs. The HOW Program provides benefits to
customers by capitalizing on and leveraging the relationship between DePaul
Packaging and DePaul Staffing, bringing a work-ready, flexible, skilled workforce
to its customers.
Prominent Customers: Precision Cast Parts Corporation, Reser’s Fine Foods,
Port of Portland, Columbia Distributing Company, RainSweet, Inc.
PACKAGING SERVICES
DePaul’s Packaging operation provides contract
packaging & manufacturing solutions to customers
including some of the world’s largest food and
consumer goods manufacturers, who require that jobs
be completed on time and correctly—in other words,
market standards. DePaul meets and exceeds their
demands by employing a fully-trained workforce of
people with disabilities, who utilize state-of-the-art
equipment to keep track of daily progress. DePaul’s
abilities include food dry fill, stand-up pouch filling and sealing, club store
packaging, display pallet assembly, kit assembly, shrink banding and wrapping,
collating, procurement and sourcing, and electronics assembly and testing—and
continue to evolve with customer need. DePaul leverages a powerful knowledge
of the industry with an array of flexible options on how to get the job done.
DePaul Industries 13

5. Methodologies: The ‘Our Place or Yours’ program offers DePaul’s customers
the option of using outsourced temporary or seasonal workers at DePaul’s
facility, or at their own. Whether due to economic constraints or concern for
inventory control, this accommodation gives DePaul’s customers the ability to
outsource what makes sense for them. Our Place or Yours allows the customer
to focus on their core business while being assured that their outsourced
packaging and manufacturing work is done by trained, competent workers.
Prominent Customers: Pepsico/Frito-Lay, Starbucks Coffee Company, ConAgra
Foods, Sharp Microelectronics America, U.S. Foods, Pacific Foods Traeger Pellet
Grills, LLC.
SECURITY SERVICES
DePaul’s Security division delivers highly-trained
unarmed security personnel to private and public
customers to protect people and property from theft,
intrusion, or other unlawful acts. By offering custom-
tailored security solutions, including a specialized Fire
Watch subdivision for fire protection, DePaul security
customers have access to an efficient and reliable force
24/7. DePaul security officers protect settings as diverse
as courthouses, hospitals, schools, parking lots, financial
institutions, construction sites, industrial and welding sites, shopping centers,
and public and private businesses. Setting DePaul Security apart is a customer-
service focus and officer training that is significantly higher than state
requirements and other staffing agencies, with a turnover rate much lower than
the industry average.
Methodologies: DePaul’s in-house officer training program has a course
exceeding state requirements for the Department of Public Safety Standards &
Training (DPSST) unarmed Security Professional certification. Its training team
has extensive security and law enforcement experience, guaranteeing that
DePaul Security Officers exhibit the professionalism and customer-service
orientation its customers require.
Prominent Customers: City of Portland, OR; Multnomah County, OR; United
States Coast Guard; Washington County, OR; Oregon Department of
Transportation; Rosboro LLC; McKenzie-Willamette Medical Center; City of
Eugene, OR
DePaul Industries 14

6. GENERATING DEMAND
In addition to the methodologies outlined above that drive its business divisions,
DePaul also leverages the following demand creators to generate future
expansion and growth:
Strategic Partnerships assist with identifying business demands and leveraging
current methodologies, both nationally and internationally. Strategic
partnerships—including those with existing partners: NISH, Alternative Staffing
Alliance, Northwest Food Processors Association (NWFPA), Foundation 4
Strategic Sourcing (F4SS), and others—will facilitate DePaul’s reach into new
market clusters, help to drive the creation of additional scalable methodologies,
and may develop new consulting opportunities.
Consulting Opportunities allow DePaul to promote its unique business model
of employing people with disabilities to other organizations, with the intention
of generating opportunities for its business divisions and/or to create additional
employment opportunities for people with disabilities. Consulting opportunities
may lead to replication of DePaul’s business model by other organizations in
new markets.
Corporate Shared Values are the basis of DePaul’s integrated model. With
more and more companies embracing Corporate Social Responsibility as a part
of their business, DePaul is set apart from other outsourcing companies as the
perfect intersection of business success and social good. Partnering with DePaul
Industries allows companies to enhance their shared social values and set
themselves apart from their competitors, while still meeting their bottom line.
DePaul Industries
Revenue by Business Division
FY 2012
Staffing
57%
Collaborative
fees
0%
Packaging
20%
Fundraising
2%
Security
19%
Others
2%
DePaul Industries
Revenue by Business Division
FY 2015
Staffing
53%
Collaborative
fees
1%
Packaging
31%
Fundraising
1%
Security
12%
Others
2%
DePaul Industries 15

7. VII. THE PROBLEM
People with disabilities have been referred to as the world’s largest minority
population.1
They are certainly the most underutilized workforce in the United States:
Across the country, the rate of unemployment for people with disabilities is twice that
of people without disabilities.
But the situation is actually worse than that: Of the total number of working-age people
with disabilities in the U.S., only one-third are even participating in the workforce—i.e.
either having a job or actively looking for one. By way of contrast, three-quarters of
working-age people without disabilities are participating in the workforce.
The net impact of these statistics tell us that nationwide, approximately 6.4 million
jobs will need to be filled by people with disabilities in order to close the existing
employment gap between people with disabilities and people without disabilities.
1
As referenced by the United Nations Council on Disabilities: http://www.un.org/disabilities/convention/facts.shtml
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8. VIII. DEPAUL’S EMPLOYMENT SOLUTION
There are thousands of organizations that employ people with disabilities, but none that
approach employment quite like DePaul Industries.
Traditionally, nonprofits employing people with disabilities have utilized an “in-house”
strategy—that is, running either sheltered workshops or supported employment
enclaves and creating jobs for people with disabilities within those organizations. This
approach is limited by the number of jobs available for people with disabilities within
these organizations and by their capacity to grow.
Additionally, certain state and federal government contracts are ‘set aside’ for
organizations that employ a percentage threshold of people with disabilities. While
these contracts often allow nonprofits to establish business in a particular geographic
area or industry, they are too often relied on as an end in and of themselves, and do
not solve the larger problem of lack of employment for people with disabilities. Further,
they rely upon highly volatile and unpredictable government funding. While important,
there is simply not the capacity within the government sector make a material impact on
the problem.
In contrast, DePaul Industries’ outsourcing model leverages the growth potential of its
commercial clients’ businesses, where the vast majority of jobs reside. Beneficially, this
staffing model has been used in the commercial sector for years as an onboarding tool
for new hires: From 2009-2011 in the years following the “Great Recession,” U.S.
staffing firms created more new jobs than any other industry, accounting for 91% of
nonfarm job growth.2
DePaul Industries uses this model to solve legitimate business
problems for its customers, while simultaneously employing the maximum number of
people with disabilities possible within those customers’ companies. Even beyond the
recession, the contingent labor force is expected to constitute half of the new source of
workers to whom employers will turn—resulting in approximately 15% to 25% of the
total workforce being contingent by 2020, up from 10% currently.3
While it is important to work to continue efforts to create jobs for people with
disabilities within the nonprofit and governmental sectors, neither of these sectors
either individually or together have the numerical capacity to create the total of 6.4
million jobs needed to close the gap. The only sector with the realistic capacity to
create those jobs is the commercial sector. Accordingly, DePaul Industries has
developed and demonstrated a solution that utilizes all three but makes maximum use
of the commercial sector and the growing contingent labor market for addressing this
national problem.
2
Leading U.S. Job Growth in American Staffing Association’s Staffing Success Magazine Special Issue (2011)
3
Staffing Industry Analysts Review: The Future of Staffing: Where Will You Be? (January 2011)
DePaul Industries 17

9. With widespread adoption of this model by social enterprises across the U.S., this
employment approach has the potential to catalyze sweeping change in both the way
we think about disability employment and the way that disability employment can
improve the bottom line. In its fullest evolution, people with disabilities will be
recognized, valued, and employed at rates equal to people without disabilities across
society.
Figures from Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Persons with a Disability: Labor Force Characteristics 2011 Report
& the National Center for Charitable Statistics (NCCS)
DePaul Industries’ methodologies for employing people with disabilities does include
employing individuals in-house, leveraging set-aside opportunities and follow-along
funding for supported employment, and developing opportunities within the public
sector. Still, DePaul Industries believes that leveraging private business via the
contingent labor market is the most effective method to reach the largest population of
people with disabilities—in fact, set-aside opportunities are leveraged as a competitive
advantage and pathway to private business opportunities, and DePaul’s success in
obtaining set-aside contracts is enhanced by its track record of meeting the demands of
the private marketplace. Through this model, DePaul Industries and associated
organizations can harness the creativity and growth potential of businesses of all
kinds—by allowing businesses to harness the creativity and growth potential of people
with disabilities. The combination of DePaul’s internal growth and the replication of this
model by others will be the key to realizing this scenario.
DePaul Industries 18

10. ECONOMIC BENEFITS TO SOCIETY
The economic contributions to society when a person with disabilities is employed are
tremendous. A 2012 report by The Philanthropic Collaborative measured the impact
that $527,000 in grant contributions had on DePaul Industries’ economic output to
society. The analysis, conducted using an IMPLAN model and representing results from
only this portion of contributions, found that DePaul’s work contributes $295.97 million
in economic transactions, adds $194.80 million to Gross Domestic Product, and is
responsible for almost 4,000 jobs and $165 million in annual payroll. For each $1 of
foundation giving, DePaul generates a total of $33 in economic activity. 4
DePaul’s
earned revenue structure and efficiency focus ensures its ability to considerably
leverage contributions for the greatest impact on society.
Transactions GDP
Total
Compensation
Jobs Indirect Taxes
Short-term direct $27,244,768 $26,992,865 $25,449,295 710 $20,424
Medium-term direct $84,561,945 $55,656,435 $47,026,030 1,130 $2,235,236
Long-term direct $95,356,688 $94,475,026 $89,072,533 2,486 $275,720
Long-term total $295,966,808 $194,797,523 $164,591,105 3,954 $7,823,326
Economic Impacts of DePaul Industries
“DePaul Industries is an
extraordinary entrepreneurial
not-for-profit organization in our
community. Its demand-driven
employment model has made a
huge impact for thousands of
people with disabilities and, as
they scale their efforts, is
steadily closing the gap of
employment between people
with and without disabilities.”
- Jeff Cogen
Multnomah County Chairman
According to a 2004 study of
Qualified Rehabilitation Facilities in
the state of Oregon—organizations
like DePaul Industries that qualify for
state set-aside contracts to employ
people with disabilities—the net
public benefit per individual
employed is $4,858. This takes into
account two key facets of economic
benefit: both the removal of public
support and addition of money paid
back into society through increased
incidence of taxpayer status. Today,
accounting for inflation and other
adjustments, the net public benefit
per individual with disabilities
employed is in excess of $8,000. 5
4
Economic Impacts of 2010 Foundation Grantmaking on the U.S. Economy by The Philanthropic Collaborative
(December 2012)
5
The Products of Individuals with Disabilities Law: Creating Jobs for Oregonians with Disabilities by Oregon
Rehabilitation Association (2004)
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