The MYPros Crowdfunding Subcommittee is the most important body in the entire crowdfund process. It's the group that narrows all applicants down to three finalists — and in practice, that decision largely determines who wins. If you're not a finalist, you can't win. If you are, your odds are one in three.
So who sits on this subcommittee? Based on publicly available information, here's what we know.
Kevin LaDuke is publicly identified in multiple sources as the MYPros Crowdfund Chair and a member of the Crowdfunding Subcommittee. He is also listed as a MYPros member in the MBA's public member directory.
He is simultaneously a Communications Officer at the Midland Area Community Foundation — the organization that provides the $35,000 matching funds that make the crowdfund work.
This dual role — chairing the selection process for a program while being employed by the organization that funds it — is a structural conflict of interest that most well-governed nonprofits would address with a clear firewall policy. No such policy has been publicly disclosed.
Patrick McElgunn, currently Director of the Northwood Idea Center, is a confirmed MYPros member and a member of the Crowdfunding Subcommittee. He acknowledged both roles publicly in a March 2026 interview on Max Loves Midland: "I'm connected to the Crowdfund in two ways. I'm a member of the MYPros Crowdfunding Subcommittee because I still believe in that original intent. And I've also lived it as a past recipient."
McElgunn's business, Grove Tea Lounge, received the 2022 crowdfund. He subsequently joined the subcommittee that selects future recipients. Standard nonprofit governance practice would either prohibit past recipients from joining the selection committee, or at minimum require a defined recusal period. No such policy has been disclosed.
The full composition of the MYPros Crowdfunding Subcommittee has not been publicly disclosed by the Midland Business Alliance. Based on published check presentation photos and event coverage, other MYPros members and MBA staff are involved, but we cannot confirm their specific roles without official disclosure.
This is itself a governance question: for a program that distributes up to $60,000 of community-matched foundation money each year, why isn't the full composition of the selection body publicly available?
Well-governed grant programs typically require: full public disclosure of selection committee membership; documented conflict of interest screening before applications are reviewed; recusal procedures when committee members have relationships with applicants; and prohibition on past recipients serving on selection committees for a defined period.
None of these standards have been publicly documented for the MYPros Community Crowdfund.