Client Partners
Pro Bono Consulting Projects
Do you want to be a client for a pro bono consulting project? AU/Kogod School of Business can provide you with a team of student consultants to solve your business needs!
In our extra-curricular pro bono consulting projects, teams of undergraduate and graduate students work together to solve real business problems for clients. The student consultants serve clients that range from small to mid-size organizations to large global companies - based in the DC area and beyond - via a statement of work. Projects run for three months and are staffed with a team of 5 student consultants. There projects are among the many ways we incorporate experiential learning into a holistic business education at Kogod School of Business.
The impact is mutual!
Kogod in Practice (KIP) experiential learning provides clients with a diverse team of AU student consultants, including masters and undergraduate students. These students bring their unique backgrounds, various academic disciplines and creativity to provide out-of-the-box solutions to each client over the course of their three-month project.
Clients provide students with hands on experiences as consultants for their organization and students gain valuable resume-worthy tools and skills that make them even more attractive to employers. They become job-ready on day one, upon graduation.
Your involvement as a client also positively impacts the market – employers are gaining job-ready talent that can begin adding value in a position on their team on day one.
Our Clients
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Deliverables
Actionable business deliverables are a key outcome for pro bono projects, and can include:
- Logistics and operation strategy
- Financial modeling
- Data analytics
- Internal marketing strategy
- Go-to-market strategy
- Social media strategy
- Business development
- Key performance indicators
- New product development
These are just some of the things a pro bono project can deliver for you and your business!
What students say
"KIP has been one of the most valuable experiences of my MBA program."
"This has been really fun—I've never done consulting before, and it really helped me to learn how to be a consultant while helping a company—it's a win-win—why would you not do this?" -Shiva Mirchandani, BSBA '22
"I received and accepted an offer to join KPMG as a Human Capital Consultant starting March '22. Pulling examples from my experience with the pro bono program really helped during the interview process, so I wanted to give my heartfelt thanks for allowing me the opportunity!" -Julian Booker, MBA '22
"I just got a job at Deloitte as a consultant. I was reflecting on the path that brought me here... My pro bono experience was key in landing my first and second job!" -Tanner Mecham, International Studies '21
"Your (pro bono project) session for Kogod in Practice was honestly transformative to my career journey, and I was excited to spread the knowledge!” -Layla Shaw, MS in Marketing '22
“This project offered me completely different opportunities from week to week. There is no one-size-fits-all in consulting, but we were able to use the skills we previously learned about communication and anticipating the needs of a client and apply it here.” -Scott Schneider, MBA '21
“I just secured a consulting project for a local community composting service. Our first project kickoff meeting prepared me a lot for my upcoming kickoff meeting with the founder. Thank you so much for all your great support and for making my first pivot toward consulting such a positive and rewarding experience.” -Lam-Ahn Le, MS Analytics '21
"I received a job offer yesterday—a lot of my talking points during the interview were from the pro-bono experience, so I am very grateful for that. The MS in Marketing curriculum and the pro-bono project experience are what set me apart." -Linda Malika Sako, MS Accounting '20
“The projects have been great fun—a challenge. I’m interested in opening my own business, so working with this client has given me a glimpse of the challenges of a start-up. I’ve really enjoyed my team members! We’ve all bonded with each other, have formed a friendship, and will stay in touch. I now work for an IT consulting company, so it definitely helped me!” -Ruth Espinoza, MS Analytics '21
What clients say
“They totally aced it. They came up with outstanding research and deliverables.”
"We've worked with a lot of professional consultants, and this student team was on par with them and was even better than the professionals in terms of insights and creativity. We've paid thousands of dollars for professional consultants with way more experience, and we didn't get what this team gave us." -Jonathan Krieger, CEO, Humor Cure
“The team far exceeded our expectations. They have given us insights and perspectives that we certainly would not have had on our own. The goal of the project was for the team to study the viability of our company entering into a new business segment and how to best go about this." -Karl Scarlett, Founder, Great Dwellings
“The student consulting team is doing a GRAND job, not just great. This project is helping our company to cement our foundation and our approach for our next phase with venture capitalists. I want to hire these students!" -Walt Alfred, CEO, Ally Power
“It’s been one of the greatest experiences I’ve had since I started this company. These consultants were incredibly creative…really helped us streamline some of the deficiencies that we’ve had… Honestly, I would have hired half of that team right out of the gate.” -Alan Gellman, Founder, Wall Sensations
"I'm super pleased with this team, they're delivering everything and more that we could ever ask for, coming up with great new ideas and strategies - there's lots of meat for us to pursue." -Alan Henderson, Strategist, First Bridge Centre
It’s easy! Generally, the client would commit to 1-2 hours per week. The client would meet with the AU consulting team for one hour every other week at a time that is convenient for the client. During the in-between weeks when the AU team doesn’t meet with the client, they will reach out to the client with clarifying questions and share draft deliverables.
The AU student consulting team is part-time and works an average of 6-8 hours per week.
One who remains in their “client lane” and avoids being a teacher or mentor. Additionally, other characteristics that make a great client include; clients who are present throughout the project, communicate regularly with the student consulting team, and are open and candid.
Here is a sample timeline for a typical KIP Summer semester consulting project:
April 1: Clients submit initial SOW draft
April 26: KIP reviews/finalizes SOW for feasibility and timeline
April 26: Clients must submit signed MOA before project can be included on application
April 29 – May 12: Student application is open
May 17: Projects staffed, students notified of decision
May 27 – May 31: Student Consultant Trainings and Pre-Kickoffs
June 3: Client Kickoffs
August 23: Projects End
Conciseness, not being prescriptive, keeping your problem to be solved streamlined to one sentence or one small paragraph.
Please note that your SOW submission can be a draft – it doesn’t need to be perfect. Our AU team will be reviewing your SOW draft submission together with you for feasibility and timeline.
The client is welcome to submit any problems they may have at their organization!
Our AU consultants, through Kogod in Practice pro bono consulting projects, can address any needs related to any industry or business function. Our student consultants have done logistics and operations strategies, data analytics, financial modeling, new product development, social media strategies, sustainability plans, global funding strategies for non-profits, etc
Our Kogod in Practice team will schedule a time to meet with you to review your SOW draft submission (it doesn’t need to be perfect) for feasibility of content and timeline. During that meeting, we will be editing your SOW together, as necessary.
Our Kogod in Practice team will meet with you 2-3 times before the project begins to prepare you for the project. This includes a pre-kickoff meeting with you, to prepare you for the project kickoff with your AU team.
You will only need to prepare one thing for your entire project – a presentation about your organization for the kickoff meeting with the student consultants at the start of the project. That presentation will be 6-10 slides and can include an overview of your organization, your team, the statement of work problem to be solved and the expected deliverables. This will give the student consultants an understanding of and excitement about your organization.
There’s really no other preparation you’ll need to do but what is mentioned above. The rest of the time that you’re on the project, we only want you to be a client that we can meet with every other week to ask clarifying questions to be sure we’re aligning the deliverables with your business needs.
All KIP projects are remote, although clients can arrange for site visits with the student consulting teams, if feasible. The client is also welcome to come to our AU campus to meet the student consultants in person, if feasible for everyone’s schedules.
The team is generally comprised of 6 people. 5 student consultants (a mix of grads and undergrads from across all AU schools and disciplines) and 1 faculty /staff who oversees the project for deliverable development, quality control and professional development of the student consultants. Additionally, our Kogod in Practice team supports the logistics behind the scenes, to make the projects run smoothly.
