ANN ARBOR ? Funding uncertainties for the Great Lakes Entrepreneur?s Quest have left the five-year old business plan writing contest, one of the nation?s most successful, without any events scheduled this fall.

Platinum sponsors of year?s past, the Michigan Economic Development Corp. and the Samuel Zell & Robert H. Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies

at the University of Michigan Stephen M. Ross School of Business, are re-evaluating their support. GLEQ has awarded more than $600,000 in prize money since the contest began in 2000, and a large share of this purse has come from these two organizations.

?Our financial situation puts us in a position where we are not able to commit the same amount of financial support to GLEQ,?? said Jeff Mason, Senior Vice President of Technology Development for the Michigan Economic Development Corp. ?This has been a particularly difficult decision because GLEQ has been a visible way to recognize entrepreneurs in Michigan.?

Mason said GLEQ organizers are re-evaluating the GLEQ business plan, which last year expanded into fall and winter competitions for new businesses and more mature start ups.

?When they have refined it, we would be open to talking with them about the direction they are taking and given our financial position we may be in a position in fiscal 2006 (starting Oct. 1) to support something.?

Zell Lurie Executive Director Thomas Kinnear could not be reached for comment. Neither could Managing Director Tim Faley, Program Manager Paul Kirsch, or Communications Manager Mary Nickson.

GLEQ also has received hundreds of thousands of dollars from in-kind services provided by law firms, CPAs, investment bankers, and other professionals organizations. These business experts, along with venture capitalists and angel investors, have provided more than 1,000 hours of free training and coaching in the contest?s first five years. The in-kind support doesn?t appear to be in jeopardy.

Arthur DeMonte, GLEQ first executive director who assumed his duties in October 2004, said the board is reviewing the funding model and will determine the level of corporate support needed to maintain the contest.

?Therefore, no decision on a Fall cycle has been made at this point,?? DeMonte said. ?We?re questioning whether corporate sponsors can afford to sponsor so many different events around the state.?

DeMonte said GLEQ needs at least $250,000 a year in cash to keep going even at a reduced level. But to do so, GLEQ needs to land a few more major sponsors that want to support entrepreneurship not only for the next 12 months, but also for the remainder of the decade.

?A quarter million dollars is not a small funding issue,? DeMonte said. ?Most companies these days don?t have an educational, community or economic development budget. We?ve become a square peg in a round hole.?

Or perhaps a victim of the success of other entrepreneurial groups in Michigan, said GLEQ Board Chairman Rajesh Kothari, co-founder and Managing Director of Seneca Partners, a venture capital and merchant-banking firm in Birmingham.

?When GLEQ started, there weren?t many programs around to support entrepreneurs,?? Kothari said. ?The Ann Arbor IT Zone was new, Southwest Michigan First in Kalamazoo and Automation Alley in Oakland County had not taken root. One of the genesis behind this was we wanted to find a way to help entrepreneurs in Michigan.

?Since 2000 the entrepreneurial landscape has improved dramatically,?? he said. ?There have become a lot of tools developed to help entrepreneurs. The GLEQ board is now accessing what GLEQ?s role will be and how it will fund itself.?

Until the GLEQ board refines its business plan, GLEQ can?t identify which businesses, academic institutions or government agencies to approach to replace the lost sponsorship dollars. Kothari said he hopes an answer will be found by the board in the next month or so.

?I think there are a lot of very successful entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial companies that have a strong desire to see GLEQ prosper,?? Kothari said. ?It will take their support to help GLEQ enjoy the success it has in the past.?

To learn more about GLEQ, click on GLEQ.Org