Nonprofit and Government

The Center for Social Value Creation has served more than 140 nonprofits from around the world through our many curricular and extracurricular student consulting programs. We also work with social enterprises and government agencies from the federal to municipal levels, connecting with many of them through events and resource sharing. Please contact Assistant Director, Guillermo Olivos to discuss the possibility of working together!

Read some of our success stories below!

In 2008 the nationwide AshokaU Changemaker Campus initiative launched with the University of Maryland as its pilot program. Today, that program continues to thrive through the AshokaU Terp Changemaker team, under guidance of the center. Ashoka fellows visit the University of Maryland campus each year to meet with students and deliver new program content on the power of social enterprise to create a better world.

Through a partnership with the Nature Conservancy, a student team comprised of MBAs and Conservation Biology Masters candidates developed a business plan for an oyster reef restoration project focused on building a profitable, scalable oyster reef restoration economy in the Louisiana Gulf Coast region. This opportunity, delivered via the Sustainable Systems Practicum (BUSI 728), highlighted the importance of cross-disciplinary skills in solving real world challenges.

In spring 2012, a team of MBA’s participating in the center's Smith Experience offering worked with the City of Baltimore Mayor's Office of Employment Development to explore the feasibility of an entrepreneurship incubator for citizens re-entering society out of the state prison system. The project, sourced by a Smith EMBA alumnus, aims to find innovative solutions to reduce recidivism by providing citizens with the skills they need to begin their own businesses. The report was delivered in municipal offices in May.

Over the years USAID and the Center for Social Value Creation have worked together to produce both programmatic opportunities as well as business competitions for our students. In 2010 USAID and CSVC co-sponsored The Global Challenge, a competition aimed at the creation of new public-private alliances. In addition, each summer graduate students work with USAID partner organizations in Sri Lanka. In 2011, students improved the business practices of the faculty at the Jesuit Academy, analyzed the supply-chain and marketing of Aqua N’ Green (a fish culture and production company), and provided a communications strategy for the Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka.

The Center for Social Value Creation has a standing partnership with Grassroots.org, a national organization providing free online services to more than 5,000 nonprofits in the U.S. Over the last 6 years, this partnership has produced over 130 projects matching 501(c)3 organizations to student consultants. The partnership has recently launched a new and evolving website resource for nonprofit organizations and university partners of the consulting program- learn more at ChangeTheWorld.org.

New Ventures is the World Resources Institute’s center for environmental entrepreneurship – providing business development services to environmentally-focused small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in emerging markets. New Ventures addresses the key barriers to “green” entrepreneurial growth by building in-country support networks for environmental enterprises and increasing their access to finance. Smith Experience SVC MBA students and a client worked on an international survey of technologies (for purification, conservation and treatment) to identify transferrable venture-funded companies to address the need for clean water in India.