Big Ideas for Society
Charity starts at UCS
MBA students help FIND the solution to more aid for local charity
Universities Week is celebrating the value that students add to the community through projects, volunteering and charity work.
UCS students undertaking the MBA (Master of Business Administration) recently assisted Families in Need (FIND) - a Christian based charity that provides emergency assistance to families or individuals affected by poverty or dispossession who have been struggling in the economic climate.
The students were approached and asked if they would use their business skills to increase food donations and the number of volunteers for the organisation. The students happily accepted the challenge and began undertaking a critical analysis of FIND’s current strategic position, to identify a zero-budget marketing strategy, as a means of gaining more and better support.
Lucill Curtis was one of a team of ten students who helped devise and deliver the ideas to FIND. "We were asked by Maureen Reynel, MBE (Director of FIND) to help support and expand their valuable work, by utilising our business skills and developing a range of marketing communications."
After six weeks, the students were able to present their business proposal together with some practical applications to help increase FIND’s visibility.
"We have been able to set-up a new website, provide posters to build awareness of the charity and arrange fundraising campaigns with organisations such as Ipswich Borough Council," continued Lucill.
"We have also supplied a number of key business contacts for FIND to follow up, in order to continue their fundraising work, to help ensure the charity can continue to grow and help those in need throughout the region. It has been a very rewarding and inspiring experience for me and my colleagues."
Maureen Reynel, Director of FIND, said: "Before the students presented their ideas, I never saw FIND as a brand but they highlighted that it is actually a very credible brand which the community needed to be aware of.
Since working with the students we have seen increased interest in the charity thanks to the new website and we continue to arrange food collection points through the contacts we were given and have recruited another volunteer to the charity".
The other students involved in this project included: Mike Vaughan, Mark Walsh, Paula Bennett, Jonathan Stephenson, Ian Booth, Paul Farrer, Reuben Chamunoita, Tan-Yun Huang and Jen-Che Wang.
The MBA students continue to stay in touch with the work of the charity and both they and Maureen have found the experience extremely mutually beneficial.