Offering decentralized pro bono service with a management consulting firm
Abstract
As more companies and individuals are volunteering professional skills to assist nonprofit organizations in creating or improving business practices, pro bono has moved from the legal field to encompass many arenas. This effective practice highlights the efforts of McKinsey & Company, an to offer pro bono services that help a variety of leading institutions address important societal challenges.
Issue
While there is increasing reliance on and need for nonprofit services in the health care, housing, food, education, and cultural sectors of society, the sustainability of nonprofit organizations is oftentimes neglected.
Corporate organizations look to offer their services on a pro bono basis for a variety of reasons and in a variety of capacities; nonprofit organizations seeking these services are as varied in number. The challenge is achieving the right fit to create a win-win situation.
Action
McKinsey’s pro bono approach is decentralized, enabling local McKinsey leaders to select projects that will have the greatest impact on their communities. In addition, McKinsey helps the world’s leading institutions address important societal challenges through the work of its global Social Sector Office, which serves nonprofit and public sector clients primarily in the areas of economic development, education, philanthropy, and global public health.
Examples from McKinsey & Company’s portfolio include the following:
The September 11th Fund
McKinsey & Company worked with the United Way of New York City (UWNYC) in the immediate aftermath of September 11th to ensure that the September 11th Fund, which had been established as a relief fund for the victims of the September 11th attacks, had the capacity to manage the enormous influx of donations and the ability to maximize the resources that could be raised. A team of McKinsey consultants worked with UWNYC to create a marketing campaign to mobilize resources for the fund, develop a new infrastructure to manage the fundraising, and provide overall project management for the effort that grew to include many different corporate supporters providing their resources and expertise to the fund.
Ashoka Fellows
McKinsey & Company consultants work with Ashoka, an international nonprofit organization that supports social entrepreneurs, to provide pro bono management services to Ashoka Fellows, strengthening institutional capacity and training social entrepreneurs to write business plans, make effective presentations, and market their work. Ashoka in turn creates opportunities for transformative experiences and impact to McKinsey and its clients. In 2008, Ashoka and McKinsey launched an integrated Business Plan Competition in seven Latin American countries, involving over 150 McKinsey consultants and drawing over 1600 applications from citizen organizations. See the website at www.ashoka.org.
Context
McKinsey & Company is a leading management consulting firm that helps many of the world’s leading organizations address their strategic challenges, from reorganizing for long-term growth to improving business performance and maximizing revenue. With consultants deployed in more than 40 countries worldwide, McKinsey advises on strategic, operational, organizational, and technological issues. McKinsey devotes at least 5 percent of its labor hours to pro bono work each year and takes on more than 100 pro bono clients annually.
Resources
“Entrepreneurship in the Social Sector” by Jane Wei-Skillern, James E. Austin, Herman Leonard, and Howard Stevenson. Sage Publications, Inc., 2007.
See the Resource Center’s pro bono page at http://www.nationalserviceresources.org/probono.