Missouri Scholastic Esports Federation

We believe esports are life changing therefore ALL students deserve access to esports.

Columbia, MO   |  https://www.mosef.org/

Mission

The Missouri Scholastic Esports Federation (MOSEF) exists to support the growth of secondary school esports by providing schools with education about esports and equitable access for students to competitive leagues while promoting a safe and fun experience. MOSEF was built by gamers for gamers.

Ruling year info

2021

President

Dr. Tony Gragnani

Main address

1104 N Providence Rd

Columbia, MO 65203 USA

Show more contact info

EIN

86-1341435

IRS filing requirement

This organization is required to file an IRS Form 990-N.

Communication

Programs and results

What we aim to solve

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

As an organization of educators, we have witnessed the impact esports can have on students who don't fit into their school community in more traditional ways. We have seen them connect with others, take on leadership roles, prioritize their grades and attendance, and take pride in being a part of their team. We aim to connect this momentum into a future for them through college or career. There are two related issues we are also working to address. First, this is a new field for most of our coaches, and many of them lack training for coaching or for working with students; for example, there are issues of representation in gaming that need a new generation of players to make a change. Second, many of our districts serve populations in socioeconomic need, and their programs simply don't have the funding to purchase equipment to get started with a team. Not having this equipment for gaming means they are also lacking it for STEM education in the classroom.

Our programs

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?

Scholastic Esports Competition

For the 2021-22 school year, we are hosting official competitive seasons in Overwatch, Rocket League, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Crew Battles, and Valorant. Additionally, we offer unofficial competition in Super Smash Bros. Solos, Rocket League, and other titles. Our eight-week seasons culminate in professionally produced in-person state finals at prominent venues. We currently ask schools to pay what/if they can; we would like to freely offer this memorable opportunity while preparing our students with industry-comparable experiences.

Population(s) Served
Adolescents
Preteens

Students compete in scenarios related to the esports industry in areas including (but not limited to) graphic design, journalism, VOD reviews, networking and support, programming, and health and wellness. Prizes include scholarships and project reviews with industry professionals.

Population(s) Served
Adolescents
Preteens

MOSEF hosts a summer conference for educators covering topics that include coaching techniques, college recruiting tips, and curriculum options. We also plan to add a second conference on DEI in esports based on feedback from our schools. We are currently reliant on volunteer presenters and free venues. We would like to secure funding to secure a venue in a larger city and paid subject experts.

Population(s) Served
Teachers

MOSEF is actively seeking funding to provide equipment for esports labs to schools with a majority population of underprivileged and/or underrepresented students.

Population(s) Served
Preteens
Adolescents

Where we work

Affiliations & memberships

North America Scholastic Esports Federation 2020

Our results

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.

Number of students who receive scholarship funds and/or tuition assistance

This metric is no longer tracked.
Totals By Year
Population(s) Served

Adolescents, Students, Preteens

Related Program

Scholastic Esports Competition

Type of Metric

Outcome - describing the effects on people or issues

Direction of Success

Increasing

Context Notes

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, MOSEF was not in a position to provide uninterrupted opportunities to students until the 2020-2021 school year.

Number of competition entrants

This metric is no longer tracked.
Totals By Year
Population(s) Served

Adolescents, Students, Preteens

Related Program

Scholastic Esports Competition

Type of Metric

Output - describing our activities and reach

Direction of Success

Increasing

Number of competition winners declared

This metric is no longer tracked.
Totals By Year
Population(s) Served

Adolescents, Students, Preteens

Related Program

Scholastic Esports Competition

Type of Metric

Output - describing our activities and reach

Direction of Success

Increasing

Context Notes

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we were unable to complete a competitive season until Fall of 2020. Beginning in 2022, this metric will also apply to Esports CTE Challenges.

Total number of competitions held

This metric is no longer tracked.
Totals By Year
Population(s) Served

Adolescents, Students, Preteens

Related Program

Scholastic Esports Competition

Type of Metric

Output - describing our activities and reach

Direction of Success

Increasing

Number of training workshops

This metric is no longer tracked.
Totals By Year
Population(s) Served

Teachers, Students, Adolescents, Preteens

Related Program

Annual Conferences

Type of Metric

Output - describing our activities and reach

Direction of Success

Increasing

Number of participants attending course/session/workshop

This metric is no longer tracked.
Totals By Year
Population(s) Served

Teachers, Students, Adolescents, Preteens

Related Program

Annual Conferences

Type of Metric

Output - describing our activities and reach

Direction of Success

Increasing

Number of grants received

This metric is no longer tracked.
Totals By Year
Population(s) Served

Adolescents, Students, Preteens

Related Program

Esports Lab Grants

Type of Metric

Input - describing resources we use

Direction of Success

Increasing

Context Notes

We began receiving grants in 2021.

Total number of grants awarded

This metric is no longer tracked.
Totals By Year
Population(s) Served

Adolescents, Students, Preteens

Related Program

Esports Lab Grants

Type of Metric

Outcome - describing the effects on people or issues

Direction of Success

Increasing

Context Notes

Our grant work began in 2021.

Our Sustainable Development Goals

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

Learn more about Sustainable Development Goals.

Goals & Strategy

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.

Charting impact

Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.

We have four main goals for MOSEF:

1. Goal 1: Equitable opportunities for middle and high school students to compete virtually and in person. Pricing, competitive integrity, and travel should not be barriers for any Missouri student. State championships for competitive seasons will allow students to experience professional-level production standards.

2. Goal 2: Competition for students interested in the industry side of esports. These contests will be CTE-based and will offer scenarios comparable to a task that might be required in a professional environment. Prizing for these contests will include feedback from industry professionals wherever possible.

3. Goal 3: Professional development opportunities for coaches. There are two areas we would like to address. First, many coaches need assistance with the basics of both the games and coaching, working with special needs students, esports in the classroom, getting started with college recruiting, and other topics related to esports operations. Second, esports offers a chance to train young players and budding professionals in DEI and SEL. Esports and gaming are unfortunately known for their lack of diversity and inclusion; by giving our coaches the tools to teach our players how to combat this, we can impact the larger gaming community. Additionally, social-emotional learning has roots in every part of competitive play, from team communication to self-regulation. By addressing this, we are able to build life and leadership skills for these students in gaming and beyond.

4. Goal 4: Esports lab equipment for schools in financial need. Part of equitable competition is equal access to the tools required to participate. We seek support to offer labs of at least three gaming machines and peripherals to get schools started developing their teams. In addition to allowing students to play, it also gives these schools high-end computers that can be used in STEM classrooms for programs including computer science, engineering, or graphic design.

1. Goal 1: MOSEF has developed a flexible pricing program that asks schools to pledge what money they can, but does not force anyone to pay any cost to participate. Suggested pledges are $50 per Varsity team or $25 per JV/middle school team. Schools are not required to pledge any dollar amount. All collected money goes back to our students in the way of trophies, venue rental, event insurance, and other costs associated with managing a statewide league. We are actively seeking sponsors to cover these costs, thereby taking the pressure off of our schools to fund our programs.

2. Goal 2: MOSEF has developed a series of contests for 2022 comprised of CTE Challenges in the areas of health and wellness, graphic design, networking and troubleshooting, journalism, video editing, shoutcasting, VOD review, event planning, and programming. The challenges each ask the student to go through a design process to develop their product or artifact, and provide a rubric to help them improve the quality of their work. Prizing includes items related to the work, feedback sessions with related industry professionals, and a scholarship provided for one contest developed in cooperation with an interested business. We would like to be able to expand the scholarship opportunity to every contest to allow committed students to support their college or career aspirations.

3. Professional development opportunities for coaches. MOSEF has hosted workshops with collegiate coaches prior to each competitive season since the fall of 2020. We also hosted our first annual conference in the summer of 2021; this conference covered topics ranging from coaching strategies and college recruiting to diversity in esports and classroom curriculum. All of the sessions were hosted by volunteer educators and collegiate coaches. We would like to expand our offering to include a second annual conference solely devoted to DEI topics; additionally, we would like to be able to bring in paid professionals to present some of the sessions at both conferences.

4. Esports lab equipment for schools in financial need. MOSEF obtained its first grant to provide a complete setup with three machines and peripherals in the fall of 2021. To maximize the impact of the grant, we worked with our industry partners to secure the best deals and discounts for quality equipment. Going forward, we intend to continue building relationships to support the dozens of schools in Missouri in need of assistance.

Over MOSEF's two years of existence, we have worked to develop relationships with a number of industry professionals and organizations, and with collegiate programs in Missouri and beyond. We have converted our mutual goals into opportunities for Missouri students as outlined above. We also work to identify leadership skills from within our organization, and encourage our educators to share their own expertise to the benefit of all of our schools. At this point, our only limit is time; while our current board and officers have accomplished everything so far while working other jobs, we could expand much more quickly with a full-time staff of two to four.

In addition to the progress on our goals as described in the strategies section, we are also experiencing constant growth as an organization.

October 2019: nine schools gathered at a tournament to form what would become MOSEF
September 2020: MOSEF's first full competitive season commenced with two titles
May 2021: eight MOSEF players signed to play for college teams
November 2021: two in-person state championship weekends
December 2021: nearly 100 schools and over 2000 students engaged in some capacity

This demonstrates that our goals are impacting an ever-expanding community of students, and the rate of growth continues to accelerate.

How we listen

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.

done We demonstrated a willingness to learn more by reviewing resources about feedback practice.
done We shared information about our current feedback practices.
  • How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?

    To identify and remedy poor client service experiences, To identify bright spots and enhance positive service experiences, To inform the development of new programs/projects, To identify where we are less inclusive or equitable across demographic groups

  • Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?

    We collect feedback from the people we serve at least annually, We aim to collect feedback from as many people we serve as possible, We take steps to ensure people feel comfortable being honest with us, We look for patterns in feedback based on people’s interactions with us (e.g., site, frequency of service, etc.), We engage the people who provide feedback in looking for ways we can improve in response, We act on the feedback we receive, We tell the people who gave us feedback how we acted on their feedback

  • What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?

    It is difficult to get the people we serve to respond to requests for feedback

Financials

Missouri Scholastic Esports Federation
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Operations

The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.

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lock

Connect with nonprofit leaders

Subscribe

Build relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.

  • Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
  • Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
  • Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations

Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.

Missouri Scholastic Esports Federation

Board of directors
as of 11/26/2021
SOURCE: Self-reported by organization
Board chair

Dr. Tony Gragnani

Columbia Public Schools

Term: 2024 - 2021

Nate Anderson

Wellington Napoleon R9 School District

Jason Beffa

Farmington School District

Jeramie Price

Ozark School District

Amy Harris

Mexico Public Schools

Board leadership practices

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.

  • Board orientation and education
    Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? No
  • CEO oversight
    Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? No
  • Ethics and transparency
    Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes
  • Board composition
    Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? No
  • Board performance
    Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? No

Organizational demographics

SOURCE: Self-reported; last updated 11/24/2021

Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.

Leadership

The organization's leader identifies as:

Race & ethnicity
White/Caucasian/European
Gender identity
Male, Not transgender
Sexual orientation
Heterosexual or Straight
Disability status
Person without a disability

Race & ethnicity

Gender identity

Transgender Identity

Sexual orientation

Disability

Equity strategies

Last updated: 11/24/2021

GuideStar partnered with Equity in the Center - an organization that works to shift mindsets, practices, and systems to increase racial equity - to create this section. Learn more

Data
  • We analyze disaggregated data and root causes of race disparities that impact the organization's programs, portfolios, and the populations served.
  • We disaggregate data to adjust programming goals to keep pace with changing needs of the communities we support.
  • We have long-term strategic plans and measurable goals for creating a culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.
Policies and processes
  • We have community representation at the board level, either on the board itself or through a community advisory board.
  • We engage everyone, from the board to staff levels of the organization, in race equity work and ensure that individuals understand their roles in creating culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.