Local Nonprofits Benefit from MBA Skills

BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Fifty-four MBA candidates from Boston University School of Management will meet with representatives from ten greater Boston nonprofit organizations on Friday, February 22, 2008. Their mission is to analyze and provide practical strategic solutions for specific business problems these organizations are facing.

This is the eighth year teams of MBA students, faculty and alumni from Boston University have reached out to the local nonprofit community to help solve their pre-articulated business challenges. Bringing consulting expertise in marketing, finance and technology, this student-run program, called Link Day, provides services that might ordinarily cost many thousands of dollars. Popular among graduate students wanting to make a difference, while gaining valuable consulting experience, Link Day continues to draw an increasing number of students and organizations.

“By participating in Link Day last year, SHARED was able to focus on shaping strategy for our Celebration Gifting initiative,” said Elizabeth Ziemba, founder of SHARED. SHARED, Inc. is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to improving global health by increasing access to the essentials of good health including medicines for the world's poorest people. “SHARED's MBA consulting team created a clear action plan for immediate short-term and long-range goals for the project. We were then able to implement and launch the project by bringing in additional capacity and integrating Celebration Gifting into our organization's core offerings,” Ziemba continued.

Organizations participating in Link Day this year are Adoption and Foster Care Mentoring; Child Care Resource Center; PinkRose; New Hope, Inc.; Cape Verdean Association of Brockton; La Alianza Hispana; Cambridge Cares About Aids; NOAH, Neighborhood of Affordable Housing, Inc.; Cohasset Center for Student Coastal Research, CSCR; and Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation of America – New England Chapter.

"Link Day provides MBA students with the opportunity to use their newly honed business skills to help address the increasingly complex business problems facing nonprofit organizations today," said Kristen McCormack, faculty director of the School’s Public and Nonprofit Management Program.

Link Day is underwritten by funds from State Street, Citizens Bank and Sovereign Bank.

To speak with students, faculty or representatives from these organizations, please contact Link Day Co-Chairs Taline Lorensian, talinel@bu.edu,or Meghan Blute-Nelson, mbnelson@bu.edu.

About Boston University School of Management

Founded in 1913, Boston University School of Management develops tomorrow’s leaders through curricula that distinctively fuse the art, science, and technology of business. The School offers several undergraduate and graduate degrees, including the unique MS·MBA. The MS·MBA equips future leaders with the skills necessary to build successful organizations in a shrinking, digitized world. All School of Management students graduate with a business specialty, but they all have an unusually broad approach to business that enables them to understand and deal with the complex interrelationships within organizations. The School also offers a range of executive education opportunities. For more information, visit www.bu.edu/management.

About the Public and Nonprofit Management Program

The Public & Nonprofit Management Program (PNP) is designed for students who seek to use core business management skills to address society's most challenging humanitarian and social problems in the global economy. Whether students plan to work in the government, nonprofit, or private sector, this course of study prepares them with the financial, operational, leadership, and entrepreneurial skills to lead and manage in today's changing environment.

The PNP was recently awarded a Fidelity grant for a project called Students4Giving℠. An alliance between Campus Compact and the Fidelity® Charitable Gift Fund℠, Boston University was among five schools to receive a $15,000 donor advised fund. Students will oversee the Giving Account® and make grant recommendations for supporting local nonprofit agencies. To learn more, please visit http://management.bu.edu/pnp/