Building Impact Blog

With the MIT Sloan mission in mind, the “Leading with Impact” course was established four years ago by Professor Nelson Repenning, Johanna Hising DiFabio, and Diana Ganz (EMBA’14) to provide EMBA students with the challenge of applying business principles to make an impact in the nonprofit sector.  In the final week of the twenty-month Executive MBA Program at MIT Sloan, the executives who have been students of business and management as a part of the EMBA class take on a business challenge faced by a local nonprofit organization.  The goal is simple – making an impact.  But, the complexity of the projects becomes evident from Day 1.

As part of the business development team at Building Impact, I am often the first person on the phone with a working professional planning a day of service. They are passionate and ready to jump in and get their hands dirty. Passionate and ready to get their hands dirty is a great mindset to start in, but impact volunteering requires a step backward first. Before we start ordering supplies and coordinating transportation, we want to think first about the mission of the day. Project leaders need to think about the issue area they are concerned with, training volunteers to work with client populations, and the outcomes for the nonprofit. Then we can focus on acquiring budget, recruiting volunteers, and executing the project. Overall, the process of planning a day of impact volunteering requires a wide range of professional and interpersonal skills.

On this Giving Tuesday, we want to thank all of the volunteers who partner with us in Giving Time and their resources to help our neighbors in need all year round!

We are filled with Gratitude this month for those who have helped us with building Trail Mix Packets for homeless elderly who are served by a nonprofit organization known as Hearth!  Collectively, our volunteers across 30 companies have prepared trail mix that will provide healthy snacks for several hundred elderly people who find housing and social services through Hearth’s outreach. As we worked with our volunteers in preparing and delivering meals at Thanksgiving for families, elderly and teens in shelters, our nonprofit partners in Boston, Waltham, Cambridge and Watertown reminded us that as the weather gets colder, the needs of those struggling for shelter and healthy meals only grow after the holiday season.