Scaling Social Impact Consulting Programs at Anderson

1. Executive Summary.
As part of his involvement in the Net Impact club on the Anderson campus, Austin partnered with a fellow MBA candidate to oversee efforts related to social impact consulting. This came to life through two key programs, the Net Impact Consulting Challenge in the Fall and the Social Impact Consulting Corps in the Spring. Both programs connect students with organizations solving the world’s toughest problems from environmental degradation, to educational deficiencies, to food insecurity.

For the Net Impact Consulting Challenge (NICC), Austin and his partner organized the entire event, from student and client application selection, running kick-off and final presentation events, and everything in between.

They followed this up by carrying out the Social Impact Consulting Corps (SICC), a similar program in the Spring quarter.

2. Importance
I had the benefit of participating in SICC last year and had a wonderful experience working with a social enterprise to optimize their operations. I wanted to pay this forward and give a new batch of students the opportunity to have this great experience and make an impact for important organizations. I knew that by helping to facilitate the programs, I could ensure that they would be carried on for future students and client organizations.

3. Impact and Reach
At a high-level, our goal is to help students leverage the skills they are learning at UCLA in order to benefit our client organizations and as an extension, the rest of the world. One of the most measurable outputs is the number of students and clients we have participating. We received the greatest number of applications for NICC in the history of the program (19 years) and had the most teams participate this last year. The SICC program is capped, so we plan to fill the quota and will hope that the selectivity of the program leads to more committed teams who can drive the greatest impact for their organizations. We receive feedback from clients that we expect will help us understand the success of these efforts.

4. Collaboration
a. Anderson Net Impact chapter: My role is part of the Net Impact club at Anderson. While I partner with a fully-employed MBA student to lead the two programs, we also work to ensure we are aligned with the broader Net Impact organization.
b. Center for Impact: We co-host these events with the Center for Impact and work quite closely with Kelly Chung, who works at the Center. Generally, my partner and I oversee most of the logistics and planning of the programs and the Center helps with funding and carrying on knowledge across the years that these programs have existed.
c. Professor Gayle Northrop: Professor Northrop helps advise students as part of NICC and teaches the course for SICC. She generally plays a hands off role in the planning of the programs (excluding the class syllabus) but is quite active while they are going on.
d. Students: NICC reached is highest level of participation this year with over 70 Anderson students participating and we anticipate filling the capacity (60 students) of the SICC course with students from Anderson, but also other UCLA programs.
e. Client Organizations: Between the two programs we will be working with over 25 organizations, ranging from organizations run by an individual to those that are made up of thousands of employees. We always have significantly more client interest than ability to work with them all – as an example, we have about 50 client applications for 12 spots for SICC this year.

5. My Role
I am a co-lead for the two programs. My partner and I oversee all parts of the programs – planning the formats, selecting the participants, organizing the various events associated with each, marketing the events, and acting as the point of contact for students and clients with questions. This role really started with planning in the Spring of 2023 and will run through the Spring of 2024.

6. Next Steps
Starting toward the end of the NICC program, we brought on a “Director” who is a First Year at Anderson. We have been able to train her and help her understand how the program runs so that she can carry the torch next year.