SPOTLIGHT

MORGAN STANLEY STRATEGY CHALLENGE:

Pro Bono Strategic Consulting for Nonprofits

JENNA WHITTINGHAM

American Cancer Society

A team of Morgan Stanley employees works together on a pro bono project for a local organization, and learns just as much themselves in the process.

A young woman realizes her skills as a graphic designer would help an organiza-tion that helped her and her family so much during her father’s illness.

SPOTLIGHT

MORGAN STANLEY STRATEGY CHALLENGE:

Pro Bono Strategic Consulting for Nonprofits

“I can honestly say it’s one of my greatest accomplishments in my career,” says Sri Reddy, who works in Bank Resource Management at Morgan Stanley. Sri isn’t referring to a promotion or a particularly successful project – she’s talking about her team’s 3rd place finish in this year’s Morgan Stanley Strategy Challenge, the Firm’s signature pro bono volunteer initiative.

The Strategy Challenge deploys cross-divisional teams of Morgan Stanley employees in cities across the U.S. and pairs each with a senior Morgan Stanley Managing Director advisor. Teams work together for a two-month period to address crucial strategic business and financial issues faced by nonprofit clients, who apply and are selected to participate. This intensive program leverages the distinctive skills that Morgan Stanley employees normally deliver to clients - rigorous analytics, strategic thinking and innovative solutions.

From 2009 to 2013, Strategy Challenge delivered more than 32,500 hours, valued at $4.9 MM, to 61 nonprofits. As the 2013 winner of the VolunteerMatch Corporate Volunteer Award for Employee Volunteer Program of the Year – Large-Sized Business, it’s not surprising that Morgan Stanley runs a successful program at this scale.

SPOTLIGHT

While the scope and structure of the Strategy Challenge are impressive, it’s the impact the event has on the employees that is most extraordinary. According to Morgan Stanley program managers, Strategy Challenge is a fundamental component of the company’s pro bono engagement strategy. The program develops important employee skills, like strategic thinking, client management and communication, and teaches them the power of utilizing their unique expertise toward helping others. It also creates concrete and measurable connections between employees and the company, and positions Morgan Stanley as a place where employees can pursue their desire to serve others with the power of the company behind them (which is a top priority among Millennial recruits, in particular).

Meet a Winning Team of Volunteers

For Sri and her Strategy Challenge team, working together and staying focused on the big picture were the keys to their success, and resulted in an experience that impacted not only their nonprofit partner, Let’s Get Ready (LGR), but each of them as employees and volunteers.Sri, Neil Mukhi, David Kosh and Shawn Woodhull were led by Managing Director Mandell Crawley. Each member of this team works in a different division at Morgan Stanley. And not one of them had heard of their nonprofit partner before the Strategy Challenge kicked off.

Let’s Get Ready is a New York-based nonprofit organization that provides free SAT prep and college admissions counseling to low-income and first generation high school students. The Strategy Challenge team quickly rallied around their cause.

“It really hit home for me, personally,” Mandell relates. “When I was in high school, I didn’t have many examples of people around me who had gone to college. I was one of those kids, so this program was something that resonated with me.”

SPOTLIGHT

The strategic question presented by LGR was to determine how the organization could expand geographically from their current offices in New York and Boston, and what conditions must be in place to enable and sustain expansion.

The Strategy Challenge team quickly decided how they would structure their research and analysis and divvied up responsibilities. Teamwork was key. “Personalities, experience, skills and other intra-team dynamics were highly complementary among the members of our team, which helped drive a very natural division of responsibility,” says David Kosh. Neil Mukhi agrees: “There was never a moment when it didn’t feel like a team effort. We communicated frequently and our team chemistry played a big part in our success.”

Still, the team found certain aspects of the Strategy Challenge to be…challenging. One element was the short time allotted for the project. “It was difficult at times to maintain our focus on answering the strategic question that LGR asked,” says Shawn Woodhull, “Because throughout the project we came upon other problems that we wanted to help LGR solve.” There were just so many details to learn in a short period of time, but the team was determined to produce a high-quality, valuable final deliverable for LGR.

Mandell enjoyed pushing his team to be the best. “The week before the Strategy Challenge, I had a group of senior executives sit in on my team’s presentation,” he relates. “The team was confident of their product and I deliberately brought in the audience I did to conduct ‘surgery’ on the content.”

“We went into that meeting feeling great about our work,” remembers Neil. “It was gutted apart. We left feeling like we accomplished nothing over the weeks prior. That meeting fueled us to take our presentation to the next level.”

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They worked through the night and into the next day to re-vamp the presentation. “I always knew I had a very strong and special team, but that was a defining moment,” says Mandell.

The LGR community itself added another inspiring and motivating element for the Strategy Challenge team members. They invited their team to attend LGR fundraisers and events during the course of their project. “One of [the students I met] had never considered attending college before enrolling in LGR,” says Shawn. “That student ended up completing the program, taking the SATs and attending Columbia.” “The desire, effort, commitment and talents of this group of students, and the reciprocal passion, dedication and expertise of the LGR team were on display and truly inspirational,” adds Neil.

A Challenge Met, an Impact Made

In the end, the team placed third in the Strategy Challenge, winning a prize of $10,000 for LGR that they can use to help fund their expansion. Much more significant and valuable than the monetary win, however, is the tangible impact for the organization. LGR has adopted the team’s recommendations and is now planning an expansion to Philadelphia using the tools and analysis that were provided to them. “We estimate that LGR could reach over 4,000 students in six years once they expand,” says Shawn. Since 92% of LGR students attend college after graduating high school, that’s a lot of new students.

As with most pro bono partnerships, the benefit was not all on one side, either. Each of the team members described the experience as eye-opening, educational and inspirational. David sums it up nicely: “Through this project I made great contacts across the company, gained a different view into the nonprofit sector, formed a relationship with an excellent organization in LGR, and developed important professional skills.”

SPOTLIGHT

“This experience has made me appreciate all the hard work involved in running a nonprofit,” Sri reflects. Each of the team members plans to stay involved with LGR moving forward – even David, who will soon be re-locating to Hong Kong, is planning on staying in touch and helping out however he can.

And so after the two months of the Strategy Challenge, a team of disparate employees from across the large company became a cohesive unit, having bonded over an impactful experience that inspired them to become more involved in their community and instilled greater pride in their company.

“I’ve been at Morgan Stanley 21 years and there are few occasions I’ve been more proud of the firm than on Strategy Challenge day,” says Mandell. Added Shawn, “The Strategy Challenge shows that Morgan Stanley and its employees truly care about their community and are willing to invest both time and money to help make a difference.” But perhaps Mandell sums it up best: “There are few special things we do that are this cool.”

HOW ARE YOU CHANGING THE WORLD THROUGH VOLUNTEERISM?

SHARE YOUR STORY TODAY.

www.VolunteerMatch.org.

SPOTLIGHT

JENNA WHITTINGHAM

American Cancer Society

Like many Millennials, Jenna Whittingham has a lot of fun at work. As a graphic designer, she does work for some very successful companies, and she finds her projects quite rewarding. But there’s always been something missing.

“It’s always been important to me that I do something personally to help people or organizations that spend their days making a difference,” she says. “It gives my work much more meaning.”

Jenna decided to browse VolunteerMatch.org to find a way to give back. She was surprised to see how many opportunities there were to use her graphic design skills to help others. She found a posting from American Cancer Society South Atlantic Division looking for a virtual volunteer graphic designer, and immediately reached out to them.

The mission of American Cancer Society is to eliminate cancer as a major health concern through public health education, cancer research, and patient programs and services to ease the burden of a cancer diagnosis. For Jenna, the organization holds a very personal significance.

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In 2009 Jenna’s father was diagnosed with cancer. While undergoing surgeries and receiving many months of treatment in Philadelphia, her parents were able to stay at an American Cancer Society facility called Hope Lodge at no cost. “Giving my parents a place to call home while being surrounded by such an amazing support system of volunteers and others going through similar situations during this difficult time was invaluable and something that I will never forget,” Jenna relates.

The day Jenna heard back from American Cancer Society about the volunteer listing happened to be the same day that her father had a cancer-free CT scan result. It made the opportunity to give something back even more exciting for her.

As a virtual volunteer, Jenna wasn’t able to meet with her volunteer coordinator in person. As Carrie Klamut, Community Manager of American Cancer Society South Atlantic Division explains, training consisted of a few e-mails and links to examples of what we were trying to accomplish through Jenna’s work. And it was exciting work.

ACS is currently undertaking one of the largest cancer prevention studies in the world - Cancer Prevention Study-3. This study is like no other in the United States and will provide researchers and health professionals with knowledge to develop future technologies, treatments, screenings, and prevention strategies. Jenna’s job was to create infographic marketing materials to encourage people to sign up for Cancer Prevention Study-3.

Even though they were virtual, Carrie and Jenna made a great team. “Sometimes it can be challenging to collaborate with someone from afar and talk via email, but we had great communication,” Jenna remembers. “Any questions I had about the project she was able to answer very clearly for me.”

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Carrie was similarly impressed with Jenna. “I have not always had great experiences with virtual volunteers - it’s difficult to find someone who is a self-starter with the time and talent that a great success like this brings.” But according to Carrie, Jenna quickly educated herself on the organization, its goals and the project, and her first design was right on point!

Carrie describes the impact Jenna’s work has had on the CPS-3 project. By providing an infographic, the study became far more shareable via social media and other online platforms. Additionally, Jenna’s design is transferrable to all of the other enrollment sites across the country for the study, so the impact of her work can grow exponentially.

“When you find someone who is in their element, it’s a great reminder to meet the volunteer where they are, with the time they have, and see some amazing results!” Carrie says.

As for Jenna, she’s just happy to have made a difference. “There are so many ways to volunteer,” she says. “I didn’t realize I could use my design knowledge to help. I learned from browsing VolunteerMatch that there are so many people out there trying to make this world a better place, and I hope that more people lend a hand to them. They won’t regret it.”

HOW ARE YOU CHANGING THE WORLD THROUGH VOLUNTEERISM?

SHARE YOUR STORY TODAY.

www.VolunteerMatch.org.