Wharton Community
Consultants
Information Session
Fall, 2009
Agenda
WCC Overview
Project Descriptions
Applying
What is Wharton Community Consultants?
Wharton Community Consultants (WCC) provides free
hands-on consulting and advisory services to nonprofit and
community organizations throughout the Philadelphia area.
Our goals are to:
– Make a measurable impact on the success of promising
non-profit organizations in Philadelphia
– Serve Philadelphia’s underserved communities
– Sustain relationships between Wharton and the nonprofit
community
– Provide a memorable career and community service
experience to volunteer consultants.
What services does WCC provide?
Cost Analysis Public Relations
Business Improvement Direct/Database
Marketing
Market Entry Strategy
Financial Planning and
Growth Strategy Budgeting
Competitive Analysis Project Management
Fund Raising Strategy Training/Planning
Marketing Strategy
Why should you join WCC?
Work with a new team
Get to know classmates with similar interests
Be a part of one of the largest community service clubs at Wharton
Learn about the non-profit sector
Develop client management and project management skills
Help Philadelphia
Why you SHOULD NOT join WCC!
Resume padding
Uncertainty makes you nervous
Your Schedule is already overbooked
WCC Project Team structure
WCC Advisors (As Needed)
Project Manager Client Contact
WCC Board Team Members Client
(4-5 MBAs, 0-1
Undergrads) Organization
(As Needed)
WCC Mentor
Roles
Project Manager Team Member Mentor (2nd year)
Coordinates and Performs analysis Provides guidance
manages team
work Conducts Reports to Board
research
Sets up meetings
Takes on
Tracks progress leadership roles
Acts as primary Develops
client contact hypotheses and
recommendations
Updates status
with Mentor
Takes on tasks of
a Team Member
Event Timeline
September
– Club Social Tuesday 9/29
– Project Manager Training on Tuesday 9/29 @ 4:30 – 6:00pm
October
– Club-wide Kickoff and Training on Friday 10/2 @ 10am – 3pm
Special non-profit consulting training led by The Boston Consulting Group
Helpful tips from last year’s projects
– MBA Pub sponsored by WCC and the Wharton Alliance for Social Responsibility
– Training sessions on topics relevant to your project, led by Wharton professors and
WCC Advisors
November
– Project Midpoint Review Sessions on Saturday 11/7
– Town Hall club-wide lunch meeting
December
– Final deliverable and presentation to client
Deliverables
Signed Client Contract
Project plan and timeline
Mid project progress report to client and Board
Final project report and presentation:
Potential deliverables:
- Business Plan
- Marketing Plan
- Strategic Plan
- Financial models
- Interview Lists, Summaries and Transcripts
- Other Client Requested Documents
Agenda
WCC Overview
Project Descriptions
Applying
2009 Clients & Project Descriptions
Project descriptions are accurate as of today
Due to the nature of non-profit organizations, project
scopes may still change slightly
These descriptions will help you determine your
project rankings on your applications
How are Clients & Projects Selected?
Client sourcing
– Returning clients
– 1st Year TAP projects, FAP projects, NPBLP
– Contacts, word of mouth, Philadelphia non-profit community
Client selection
– In line with WCC mission
– Organizational readiness
– Organizational commitment
Project Scope
– Sets Expectations
– Confirms Timeline
– Sets Projects Up for Success
Arab American DC
Project: Fund Raising Strategy
Mission: The Arab American Development Corporation’s mission
is to preserve the Arabic culture and language, to empower the Arab-
American community and promote its economic development, and to
combat racial, ethnic, and religious discrimination.
Situation: Arab American DC currently receives funding from
foundations through grants. The organization would like to explore
other funding strategies including private donations, individual and
corporate solicitation of funds, fundraising events, and even funding
from a broader national level.
Project: WCC would help develop a funding strategy as part of a
strategic plan. The key deliverables for the project would be to
provide a funding strategy or plan for 2010 that is realistic and can
be implemented immediately.
Arts & Spirituality Center
Project: Pricing Strategy & Marketing Plan
Mission: The Arts & Spirituality Center partners with multicultural
groups in the Philadelphia area to empower and transform
communities through spiritual and creative expression such as poetry,
creative writing, music, dance, and other artistic media.
Situation: Currently, the Arts & Spirituality Center is healthy financially
but is quickly moving into a more mature phase of its lifecycle that
requires new forms of income. The center sees curricula as a potential
game changer for sustainability on a variety of levels.
Project: The Center has valuable – yet untapped – intellectual
property that could open up an entirely new funding stream while
catalyzing growth. WCC would help develop the revenue model and
channel strategy for two anchor programs.
Clarke Pennsylvania Auditory/Oral Center
Project: Marketing Strategy
Mission: Clarke Pennsylvania is an early intervention preschool for
deaf and hard of hearing children living in the Greater Philadelphia
area. Clarke’s mission is to provide deaf and hard of hearing children
with the listening, language and speaking skills necessary to be
successful in mainstream school settings.
Situation: Clark relies on a combination of public funding and fees for
service which covers only about 33% of our tuition.
Project: Clarke Pennsylvania would like to engage Wharton
Community Consultants to assist us in developing a strategy for
marketing the EITC (Educational Improvement Tax Credit) program to
the corporate community with the goal of increasing our Scholarship
Funds through corporate donations.
Clay Studio
Project: Marketing Strategy
Mission: Founded in 1974, The Clay Studio (TCS) is a non-profit
educational arts organization dedicated to the promotion and
development of the ceramic arts and the work of new clay artists.
Situation: TCS launched a new interactive website almost three
years ago, and have seen extraordinary results in online class and
workshop registrations but have not seen similar results in online
Shop sales. Ceramic Shop sales for the past fiscal year totaled
approximately $110,000, but less than $3,000 came from the
website.
Project: WCC would develop a tactical growth & promotional
strategy designed to increase earned income, particularly from the
on-line Ceramic Shop (www.theclaystudio.org/shop/).
Evoluer House
Project: Marketing and Fundraising Strategy
Mission: The Evoluer House (EH) is dedicated to nurturing at-risk
girls to help them achieve their full potential and become productive
members of their communities through the development of social
and academic competence.
Situation: The Evoluer House is currently suffering from a lack of
identity in philanthropic, corporate communities and a lack of a
branding model.
Project: The WCC team would develop a short-term branding
strategy, marketing, and corporate fundraising plan. The project will
enable EH to raise a significant amount ($75,000) of funds that will
be used for annual scholarships for these low-income girls.
First Foundation
Project: Marketing and Financial Strategy
Mission: The First Foundation distributes street accessible food
and primary medical care delivery
Situation: First Foundation needs to generate excitement by
aligning the profit structure concurrent to the nonprofit’s
foundational launch. The promotional capabilities would enhance
the Foundation’s long term initiatives by supplying an upfront vital
prospective marketability capacity and streamlining current
community based food/medical distribution/clinical research
recruitment efforts.
Project: WCC will perform a marketing analysis to identify ways to
improve the Foundation’s marketing efforts and will perform a
partnership profitability analysis to identify ways to pursue public
and private funding partnerships.
Learning Sandbox
Project: Start-up planning
Mission: The Learning Sandbox’s mission is the facilitation of
learning globally by maximizing “Edutainment,” the combined
potentials of technology and entertainment.
Situation: The Learning Sandbox is currently in the early start-up
conceptual stage. Learning Sandbox has ideas but needs help
creating a non-profit company and a strategy plan to realize the
initiatives.
Project: The WCC team would develop a strategic plan to start and
grow the business including an understanding cost, budgeting,
marketing, and the financial outlays regarding the pursuit of product
creation and distribution
Main Line Arts
Project: Marketing Strategy
Mission: The mission of Main Line Art Center is to inspire and
engage artistic creativity for individuals of all ages and abilities and
to celebrate and strengthen the essential role of visual art in
community life.
Situation: Main Line Arts would like to expand upon previous
marketing studies conducted in 1994 and 2006 that indicated a
potentially broader audience in our community for the visual arts.
Project: The WCC team would conduct marketing research and
develop a marketing plan in preparation of opening a new satellite
facility at Ashbridge Park in Lower Merion County.
National Cristina Foundation
Project: Product Strategy
Mission: For the past 24 years the National Cristina Foundation
(NCF) has led the national effort to promote the reuse of technology
from its first life to productive reuse with non-profit organizations and
public agencies.
Situation: NCF is preparing for the launch of a social networking
system called the Cristina Network where open communication and
the sharing of best practices and lessons learned can be tracked and
promoted.
Project: The use of social networking is relatively new within the non-
profit sector. The WCC would examine and ascertain what might be
the best methodologies to consider for the structure of the site.
Non-Profit Finance Fund
Project: Reorganization
Mission: The Non-Profit Finance Fund (NFF) works to create a
strong, well-capitalized and durable nonprofit sector that connects
money to mission effectively, supporting the highest aspirations and
most generous impulses of people and communities.
Situation: The Philadelphia office employs nine staff and the current
organization structure is based on a business model from at least six
years ago. During this time the market has shifted and the nature of
NFF delivery of services has attempted to manage the shift within an
outmoded organization structure.
Project: The proposed project for the WCC team is to evaluate the
work flow and processes of the Philadelphia office as it fits within the
Mid-Atlantic Region in an effort to identify the most effective
organization structure.
Rock School
Project: Strategic Planning
Mission: The Rock School is dedicated to enriching the lives of all
students and preparing those students who are specially gifted for
careers as professional artists.
Situation: The Rock School needs help in the development of the
School’s strategic plan, which is being recast starting in the
summer of 2009.
Project: First, the WCC team could gather information on the
activities of other top-level dance schools. Second, the WCC team
would gather information from board members regarding the
development of strategic objectives and plans. Third, the WCC
team would help to develop ideas for new sources of revenue.
Ronald McDonald House
Project: Finance Strategy
Mission: The Philadelphia Ronald McDonald House provides a
home away from home to families traveling to Philadelphia to seek
medical treatment for their critically ill children.
Situation: In the last 3 years, the Ronald McDonald House has
gone through a 7.5 million capital project to build a second House.
The second House has added an additional $500,000 to the
operating budget. The expansion has affected the organization’s
financial position significantly, along with the unstable economy.
Project: The WCC team would determine the best way to conduct
a 5 year projection on the capital and operating needs of the
organization, incorporating the investments and assets into the
analysis.
White-Williams Scholars
Project: Product Management
Mission: White-Williams Scholars' mission is to support high
academic achievement in Philadelphia public high school students
of limited financial resources in order to increase their
opportunities for success in the future.
Situation: The organization is now facing the problem of
essentially operating three lines of business: stipends, Back on
Track, and College Connection.
Project: The WCC project will focus on Back on Track. White-
Williams piloted this program with 26 students, a part-time
consultant, and 15 volunteer and work-study tutors. The
deliverable would be a rollout plan, including a 3-year budget for
the program’s growth.
Women’s Therapy Center
Project: Pricing Strategy
Mission: Rooted in the empowerment of women, Women's Therapy
Center (WTC) provides individual, couples, and group psychotherapy
based on a sliding fee scale to adult women who can neither afford
mainstream mental health services nor are eligible for subsidized care.
Situation: WTC currently earns 75% of its income each year through
fees charged to clients for therapy services. The organization operates
on a sliding scale that was developed based on the clients’ ability to
pay; this fee schedule bears no relationship to what it costs the center
to deliver services.
Project: WTC would like WCC to evaluate its business model to better
understand the true costs of delivering services, and considering new
methods of increasing the earned income without compromising client
access.
Agenda
WCC Overview
Project Descriptions
Applying
What our Clients say about us
What do clients like most about working with WCC?
– New insights to long standing problems
– Thoughtful approaches to problem solving
– Professionalism and attentive nature of the teams
– Excitement and fun that the teams bring to the non-
profit
– A results oriented focus that leads to tangible
results
What are we looking for?
Passion for serving the community
Commitment
– Approximately 3-5 hours per week
– September through December
Interest in building consulting and non-profit skills
Functional skills
Project management and client experience
Application Process
Applications will be sent to you via email tonight. Make sure to
sign-in!
Applications due September 22nd at 5:00 pm
(see application for details)
Applications should be turned into the 2nd year mail folder
labeled “Gomez,Courtney” outside the MBA Cafe
Project Managers notified for Interviews on Sept. 23rd
Project Manager interviews Sept. 24th - 25th
Teams selections made and emailed to you on Sept. 28th
Mandatory Training Session for Project Managers on Sept. 29th
Mandatory Club-wide Training Session on Oct. 2nd
Questions?
Questions for any of us?
Thank you for your interest in
Wharton Community Consultants!
If you have questions or concerns about the
application process please contact Courtney
Gomez at cogomez@wharton.upenn.edu