In December 2016, Jodi Butts, executive director of Rise Asset Development (Rise), sat at her desk pondering whether to take a more aggressive, strategic, and proactive approach to scaling the organization throughout Canada. While an aggressive expansion would ensure that Rise would serve many more people with mental health issues, it required a significant increase in resources and carried many risks to the viability of the organization. Located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Rise offered microcredit loans, training, and mentorship to people experiencing mental health and related poverty issues. The organization encouraged entrepreneurship among its clients to ease their transition from isolation and poverty to productive work and self-sufficiency. Rise currently operated in four cities in the Province of Ontario: Toronto, Ottawa, London, and Kingston.

This exercise asks students to use consolidated balance sheets and statements of stockholders' equity for ConAgra Foods, Inc., to help them answer three questions pertaining to the issuance of stock shares, stock repurchasing, and cash dividends.