Call for Project Partners
The Social Impact Challenge is an opportunity to offer a social impact challenge to students passionate about bringing about positive societal change. Throughout the semester, students will work in teams to conduct analysis and develop solutions to address a social impact challenge facing your organization.
Process & Timeline
JuneSubmit a project proposal
- Interested organizations are asked to submit an online project proposal.
Case prepared by Smith’s Living Case team
- Partner organizations will collaborate with the faculty instructor and Smith’s Living Case writing team to develop a case outlining the social impact challenge.
- Partners will be required to complete one or more short interviews, a well as providing any relevant data that can support our case writing team in developing the case. Students are also encouraged to access publically available data to support their recommendations.
- Partners will approve the case before it is finalized and launched to students.
Project launch
- Partner organization will deliver a presentation to the student teams outlining their social impact challenge.
- Student teams will begin analyzing the case and developing possible solutions.
Project completion
- Student teams will deliver consulting reports outlining their research insights and recommendations to the partner organization.
Partner Benefits
- Engage with responsible student leaders who are passionate about making a change and are ready to tackle challenging issues.
- Leverage student knowledge and expertise to receive a customized solution to a business challenge facing your organization
- Receive consulting advice from 10-12 student teams
- Strengthen relationships with Smith students and faculty
- Raise your organization's visibility at Smith
- No financial commitment requirement from project partners
Partner Requirements
- A partner organization must have an organizational challenge with a social impact dimension – that helps address a social problem.
- The project scope should amount to roughly 100hrs of consulting work (20hrs x 5 students).
- The project deliverables must be able to be completed within a 3-month time frame.
- The partner organization must be willing to provide 1.5-2 hours of time to gather all necessary data, participate in interviews and ensure our case writing team has the necessary info to write a compelling case for students.
- The partner organization must be prepared to present their business case, assign a dedicated person to liaise with student teams, and be available to hear final presentations and offer feedback.
Past projects have included:
- Helping an organization create and implement ESG metrics
- Identifying opportunities for a business to make a positive social or environmental impact
- Charting a sustainable growth strategy for a small business
- Addressing a social or environmental problem on campus
Ready to get involved?
Complete and submit the following project proposal. If you have any questions or would like more information, please contact the Experiential Learning Team.