Last year, Neighborhood Business Initiative, the student-run pro-bono consulting organziation at the Kellogg School of Management, provided high-level strategic assistance and support to 34 Chicagoland non-profit organizations.

We have worked on a variety of projects, and our experience has shown us that the most successful projects have been based on well-defined, strategic questions of high importance to the organizations served. Projects we typically take on include :

• Our nonprofit is looking to expand. How can we do so in a financially sound manner?
• Our nonprofit is considering a new revenue generating arm. Is it economically viable?
• Our organization is seeking new strategic partnerships. How can we make that happen?
• How do we redirect our fundraising efforts to target more corporate donors?
• We have limited visibility in Chicago . How could we better market our organization to the public?

Specific projects we've done in the previous years include:

Women's Business Development Center (WBDC)
The WBDC is a non-profit organization which provides resources to women looking to start small businesses. NBI provided the WBDC's Child Care chapter, which provides a 10-week training course for women looking to set up child care centers, with a high level strategy document focusing on opportunities for starting child care centers in the Chicago area.
Final presentation

El Coqui Gifts
El Coqui Gifts is an art gallery that focuses on selling unique, one-of-a-kind art pieces from Latin America in the United States. The NBI project team analyzed El Coqui's recent decision to target the corporate art market, and provided a market analysis and sales strategy for this new initiative.
Final report

Cafe Madafa
Cafe Madafa is a non-profit restaurant start-up focused on fostering knowledge and understanding of middle eastern culture and issues. The NBI project team assessed several proposed restaurant locations, and developed a financial model to assess various scenarios for the start-up.
Final presentation

Additional sanitized versions of final presentations and documentation for these projects are available from the NBI leadership team upon request.