WESSINGTON VENTURES, LLC (Wessington) was organized in January 2009 as a community development consulting firm to provide finance and development services to mission driven organizations, primarily nonprofit enterprises. We attempt to turn our practice on two poles of action, the practical and the possible. Our approach is pragmatic, deriving operational truth from our experience, and it tries to be prophetic, imagining how things might be.

Wessington tailors its services to the varying needs of its clients. Our participation in a client’s work can be as comprehensive as complete real estate project management or complete program development of a financing tool or approach. Or the services provided can be very task specific, such as the preparation of a financing application for a state or federal program or the provision of a professional opinion on a specific valuation or financing scenario. For a more detailed description of our principles and skills, please see Capacities.

Wessington is staffed by its founder and principal, Cort Gross. Mr. Gross typically works solely with a client, but maintains close professional relationships with several experts with whom Wessington is also able to subcontract or partner, using a collaborative approach to leverage capacity to ensure Wessington’s clients get the quality and expertise they require. Wessington can be hired on an hourly, retainer, or task specific basis.

* Many have asked what’s in a name. Wessington is a town in South Dakota, where Cort Vaughn, Mr. Gross’s grandfather, was a dirt farmer, along with Martha, his wife, who kept the house, raised prize-winning turkeys, and, mostly after they retired, enjoyed fishing with her husband. The name was chosen in deference to their enterprise and spirit.