As part of their full-time MBA cohort curriculum, DePaul University students completed a year-long community service project in which they worked with Misericordia, a local nonprofit that provides support and care to individuals with developmental disabilities. The prospective MBA consulted the nonprofit’s operations in four areas: human resources, marketing, and two fundraising ventures.
Four separate student groups focus on each initiative, performing research, collecting information through surveys, and gathering guidance from professors to develop their recommendations. In addition, the students learned through the DePaul Team Challenge, a program designed to help groups build trust, develop greater communication, and establish higher levels of understanding and appreciation for all team members.
Students presented their findings to the board of Misericordia back in the spring, proposing the following solutions: The marketing group provided several recommendations on how Misericordia can increase their digital presence and advance fundraising opportunities; The human resources team delivered a report with an extensive appendix that offered many options on how Misericordia can attract high-quality employees and reduce turnover; The restaurant group delivered data-backed recommendations to increase sales by $20,000, using the results of market-pricing analysis, menu item cost analysis and customer feedback.