By Billy Huang and Erin Han, May 16, 2023
The Cal Poly Pomona Foundation is changing its public name to CPP Enterprises to better reflect its overall mission and what it offers for the campus community.
The new name will help students differentiate them from the CPP Philanthropic Foundation, but the organization’s legal name will remain the same.
“I would imagine some of them and even some of our staff aren’t necessarily sure where the line is between the Philanthropic Foundation and us, so this will help them as well,” said Jared Ceja, executive director and CEO of CPP Enterprises.
Ceja said both organizations were once a single organization before the philanthropic sector split into a separate organization and having two foundation names caused confusion.
As a non-profit organization, CPP Enterprises wants to break its original stereotype of only offering financial aid and scholarships. According to Associate Director of Marketing and Webmaster, Alex Hernandez, they do much more than that.
“We still exist to serve students in this university, and faculty and staff, but we do it through a number of enterprises,” said Hernandez. “You know, Bookstore, dining, Village housing, commercial real estate, affordable faculty and staff housing and Farm Store.”
Examples of CPP Enterprise’s work can be seen on campus, but many students do not realize who’s really working behind the scenes.
For instance, the organization is responsible for investing in the self-checkout system which was integrated at the Poly Fresh Market. The new technology was first presented in 2020 and now continues to provide a convenient way for students to make quick purchases.
CPP Enterprises also recently invested in working with Starbucks Connect, making CPP one of the first California State University schools to allow the use of mobile ordering and the rewards systems so students can earn stars and save time waiting in line.
“We did that with no expectation for increased profitability, we did that because we wanted to increase your experience,” said Thomas Sekayan, associate executive director and COO of CPP Enterprises. “New things are very risky because you don’t know how it’s going to work, but we’ll take upon the risk and we’ll go ahead and make investments.”
Sekayan also explains through the revenue generated by on-campus enterprises, they will be able to provide more opportunities to enhance students’ overall college experience. “We need to make sure whatever is spent on campus stays on campus, gets reinvested into campus, reinvested into the facilities, reinvested into anything that the students need,” said Sekayan.
CPP Enterprises also provides resources and donated products for student clubs, organizations and events through its various partnerships with well-known brands.
“We’ll ask the student club or organization saying, ‘hey, do you want PepsiCo to be at your event?’ and we’ll come in and we’ll enhance that,” said Sekayan. “Then Pepsi will come in, set up a tent. It basically helps draw more people and supports that club or organization to get the attention that they need, and they deserve.”
Sekayan emphasized CPP students are basically at the forefront alongside the Enterprises’ decision-making process as the “shareholders” of the school because ultimately, it’s all for the students.
Changes will roll out gradually over the course of the next school year starting out with its soft branding, logos and all things digital.
“We’re not a for-profit that’s going to come out and rip out all the foundation branding overnight and then put brand new signage everywhere. That’s not the best use of our resources. We’re going to do it through attrition,” said Ceja.
