Apply for UIC InKIND 2015

Each year since 2012, the UIC Liautaud Graduate School of Business has offered free consulting to Chicago-area nonprofit organizations through the MBA Association’s InKIND Consulting Program, part of the training that graduate students receive at the Liautaud Graduate School of Business. InKIND student consulting groups form in early fall and are paired with participating nonprofits, who come to InKIND for consulting on a wide variety of problems. Student consulting groups work with their partner organizations over a five-month timeline, with the goal of presenting their recommendations in February 2016 to an audience of nonprofit professionals, Liautaud faculty, and fellow UIC Business students.

The minimum time commitment for Liautaud students is two hours each week for five months, starting in October. Interested students should send a completed application to cmicks2@uic.edu no later than Friday, September 25, 2015.

The InKIND program provides Liautaud MBA, MSA, and MIS students with the training needed for launching their consultancy with a partner nonprofit. This training includes an overview and history of the nonprofit sector in the US economy, as well as an overview and history of consulting practices in US business. Training in the practices of management consulting will include an introduction to data analysis, central to present-day consulting work.

Past InKIND partnerships have ranged across the nonprofit sector to include organizations such as the Illinois Manufacturing Foundation, Care for Real, and even the UIC College of Dentistry, who sought the help of Liautaud students in developing communications strategy for their alumni network. Community Media Workshop worked with InKIND student groups on business models for social venture media outlets, and an InKIND student group helped The Night Ministry develop remote and mobile access to their servers and applications.

InKIND is always looking for new partners from the nonprofit sector. Liautaud students have worked with nonprofits on everything from accounting practices to IT solutions to crowdfunding and social media marketing campaigns. Interested nonprofits should contact Christopher Micks at cmicks2@uic.edu no later than Friday, September 25, 2015.