Kellstadt Students Provide Services for Chicago Nonprofits
This past summer, the business students in Professor Lori Cook’s course on project management at DePaul University’s Kellstadt Graduate School of Business worked with a handful of local Chicago nonprofits. The value of their work, between the money that they raised and the services they provided, was ultimately over $20,000.
“The students truly were DePaul ambassadors this summer,” said Cook, “Words simply cannot describe how proud I am of the class.” One student called it “a great culmination to our MBA degree” because it provided her with the opportunity to combine her business knowledge with charity work.
The organizations involved included PAWS Chicago, the Jackson Chance Foundation, Educational Assistance, Ltd., the Greater Illinois chapter of the National MS Society, Clearbrook, and War Dogs Making It Home. The student-led teams engaged a variety of fundraising techniques with their respective organizations; one team created a “dine and donate” restaurant partnership, while another launched a fundraising campaign through a website and pop-up micro events in key locations.
The campaign was so successful that it even gained attention from the two local television stations, NBC5 and Fox 32 News. Many of the teams exceeded the expected amounts of donations, with one team nearly doubling their goal number.
To learn more about the specific projects and the lessons that each team learned, visit the course blog here: http://opsmgt.edublogs.org/category/0-mgt-598-summer-2013/field-project-audit-summer-2013/
