Consulting Projects

HBS alumni are experienced in successfully helping businesses address tough challenges. Consulting projects are an opportunity for alumni volunteers to lend their highly transferable skills to the nonprofit sector. These projects are three-four month strategic consulting engagements with a group of 3-5 alumni who conducts a deep dive to tackle a broad challenge or opportunity.

We are now accepting applications for Fall of 2024

    • Designed to create significant strategic impact on the organization.

    • Addresses business-related issues within the organization such as strategic planning, organizational development, finance, and marketing.

    • Scaled and focused, to be completed by a volunteer team of 3-5 consultants working 2-4/hrs per week individually over 3-4 months.

    • Examples of typical projects include:

      • Strategic Planning Process

      • Market Assessment

      • Operational Review

      • Business Planning

      • Board Governance

      • Financial Sustainability & Development

      • Marketing/ Communications/ Branding Strategy

      • Growth Plan

      • Revenue/ Earned Income Plan (excludes direct fundraising activities)

    See our former client list.

    • Project Kickoff – 2 hours

      • This is the initial meeting between clients and alumni volunteers. It’s an opportunity to share an introduction of the organization and to review the current challenges. The project team has an opportunity to ask questions and gather information to better understand the organization and the project. The scope of the project and project plan will be captured in an Engagement Letter.

    • Volunteer Team Work – 3-4 month, 2-4 hours/week

    • Milestone Presentations – 1 hour

      • The project team will prepare interim and final presentations of their results to share with all the key and executive stakeholders, often including Board members.

    • Step 1: Clients are encouraged to submit an Inquiry Form prior to an application. After an initial phone conversation confirming fit, organizations should submit a project application before the deadline.

    • Step 2: Download the Consulting Application for Nonprofits.

      • Applications are accepted on a rolling basis.

    • Step 3: The Community Partners Steering Committee will review applications, meet with prospective clients, and select projects within 1 month of the applications submission.

  • Our clients are social enterprises who generally have 501(c)3 status, and whose mission benefits the community. Our clients typically focus on improving the social, economic, cultural, health, environmental, or educational conditions in communities, often concentrating on populations who are under-served by other institutions. We do not accept clients or projects that seek to advance a religious or partisan agenda. Our tax-exempt status prohibits us from interference in, or coordination with, political campaigns or any endorsement of a political candidate. The acceptance of a client does not imply any direct endorsement or support of HBS Community Partners for that client’s mission.

    Consulting applicants must:

    • Be in operation for over a year

    • Be staffed with a full-time Executive Director in place for at least a year and have at least 2 other paid staff members

    • Have an annual operating budget of at least $500,000

    • Step 1: View the list of current projects.

    • Step 2: Click “Volunteer Now” below and indicate the specific project you’d like to join.

    • Step 3: You will be contacted with next steps, which will include filling out a brief questionnaire and participating in a short phone interview.

    • Step 4: Team assignments will be shared via email within a month of your submission. Project placement will not only be based on interest and volunteer experience, but also on matching skills for the project and matching team member schedules.

  • The outcome of the project was more than we hoped for. Given the opportunity, any organization would be well served to engage in the HBS Community program

    Mervyn Regan, President, The Dipsea Race Foundation

  • The outcomes of the brainstorm gave me excellent next steps – already started mapping some things with our associate director later that afternoon. We were able to validate some of our own assumptions, hear fresh and new ideas, and zero in on a particular organizational inefficiency that continues to cause challenge. Thank you and the HBS Community Partners program for again moving our organization forward in meaningful ways.

    Sonja Palmer – Executive Director, Music for Minors

  • We were thrilled and deeply grateful to have HBS Community Partners’ strategic input and business acumen to assist No Bully to advance our mission of bringing schools solutions to bullying. We enjoyed every minute working with our entire HBS Community Partners team, who were lovely to work with on both a personal and professional level. Thank you so very much for this opportunity

    Therese Wilson, COO, No Bully

  • This is a tremendous service you offer and a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. We learned a tremendous amount and were blown away by the group’s energy, passion, and enthusiasm for our work and our mission to work with people in reentry, their families, and supporters.

    Katherine Katcher — Founder and Executive Director, Root & Rebound

  • The work we did with HBS alumni helped focus our organization on the important work of branding and story-telling and we have made it an internal priority! Thank you for organizing such a great group of people to help us out.

    Maggee VanSpeybroeck, Executive Director, Cypress String Quartet

  • I cannot tell you how energizing it is to have so many smart people in one room who have nothing but innovation and thoughtful creativity on their minds. Each alumnus added a different, practical perspective and were all keenly engaged in the topic at hand.

    Anne Marie Noonan, Founder & President The Avalon Academy

  • The HBS team exceeded our expectations in every way. Its work developing a dynamic positioning statement for us, and locating local agencies interested in working with us to execute initial logo design and usage guidelines, will have a major impact on our small non-profit organization.

    Parker Monroe, Executive Director, New Century Chamber Orchestra

  • Working with Harvard Community Partners was an incredible gift to our whole organization. We learned a new vocabulary and a new process for approaching planning. The CP team opened our eyes to possibilities that we never would have considered otherwise. It is hard to imagine a more considerate, generous and thoughtful team.

    Simone Marean, Executive Director, Girls Leadership Institute

  • Thank you each and all for guiding us to this exciting moment where we have the opportunity (and impetus and catalyst) to work towards cohesion and clarity so that we may become the organization that we can be– and make the impact that we will all be proud of! I am truly energized and strengthened by our engagement. Thank you for sharing your time and talent with us!

    Fay Zenoff, Executive Director, National Council on Alcoholism and Other Drug Addictions - Bay Are

  • The team that you composed for us was excellent and the work that they presented was so on-point, applicable and thoughtfully prepared. I could not be more impressed and grateful. Thank you, so very much!

    Margi English, Executive Director, St. Vincent de Paul Society of San Francisco