Social Venture Consulting Program

Business Best Practices that Better the World

"The Social Ventures program has helped Generations Community Development Corporation build an infrastructure to track and monitor our clientele and staff electronically. Electronic files help create a green environment that saves time, space and money. Additionally, we are able to evaluate our effectiveness, project outcomes for the future and create needed reports for our funders."
 

- Deborah Young, director
Generations Community Development Corporation

  

The Smith School has partnered with Grassroots.org, a national organization providing free online services to over 1,000 nonprofits in the U.S., to harness the social entrepreneur expertise and enthusiasm of Smith students to benefit nonprofit organizations.

In the Social Venture Consulting Program, the Smith School engages with selected nonprofits to provide MBA students with practical consulting experience and an opportunity to give back to their community. Projects are designed for 80 fulltime equivalents (FTEs) over 3 months to address issues —whether financial, marketing, operational, organizational or strategic— and to develop the necessary steps to solve the problems and improve the business. Since our inception in Fall 2006, nearly 90 fulltime and part-time MBA students have assisted 36 nonprofits. Consulting projects involve three phases: information gathering, implementation and evaluation/review. Read on for more information on how students and nonprofits can apply.

Benefits of the consulting program:

For student consultants: For nonprofit clients:
  • Build new skills in project management and leadership
  • Enhance resume with real world experience
  • Apply curricular learning outside of the classroom
  • Gain exposure to the nonprofit sector
  • Give back to the community
  • Benefit from applying business processes to organizational issues
  • Become more efficient, effective and scalable for a sustained future
  • Develop cross-sector partnerships and alliances
  • Raise awareness and broaden reach of programs/services

Students

"My work with the small nonprofit International Children’s Digital Library was my first exposure to working with a client and a team to solve real problems. We came up with a marketing plan for the organization to reach sponsors and increase Web traffic to the library site among children and their parents globally. I learned that when it comes to nonprofits, doing the greatest good with the smallest amount of resources is critical."
 

- Cynthia Soriano, MBA 2010

 

Students interested in developing their skills outside of the classroom and gaining real world experience while improving the world around them are encouraged to attend an informational meeting at the beginning of the semester. The short session will outline the application process and will give students the opportunity to learn more about the semester’s projects.

Applications for Fall 2009 have closed. Check back in mid-January for applications for Spring 2010.

Nonprofit Organizations

Applications for Fall 2009 have closed. Check back in December for applications for Spring 2010, and in the meantime view information on past projects.

 

Client Spotlight: Fathers and Families of San Joaquin
FFSJ, a Stockton, Calif. nonprofit, helps build strong and healthy families by addressing communities’ critical problems of fatherless homes, widespread poverty and inadequate access to public health services. The SVC consultants helped to revamp FFSJ’s stakeholder relations through an updated communications strategy, outreach materials and the planning of a local Father’s Day event.
“Their help has already had tangible results as was demonstrated at this years FatherFEST event,” said Sammy Nunez, Executive Director of FFSJ. “We exceeded our goals with over 500 fathers, children and families in attendance. We were also successful in creating broad community awareness through articles in the Stockton Record and coverage by ABC’s Sac & Co.”