Our Work
We connect passionate college students with education nonprofits to provide free consulting services!
We create teams of dedicated New York University students who work on semester-long projects with NYC education nonprofits in a variety of service areas. Our student consultants are trained to think strategically and creatively, with the ultimate goal of providing a thorough recommendation for our nonprofit partners.
WHY CONSULTING?
In the movement for educational equity, why choose consulting as our avenue of impact?
You may not be the best teacher or mentor, but when it comes to consulting everyone has something to offer.
Consulting is inherently diverse because strategic and creative consulting projects are usually best served by a wide range of skills and perspectives. With consulting, EmpowerED can leverage diversity to produce better results for the nonprofits we work with.
Our goal is to be as inclusive as possible.
Most college students have been through the public education system very recently. At EmpowerED, we all have opinions on the challenges, issues, and successes that we experienced within the education system. EmpowerED is our way of providing an opportunity for students from all areas of study to shape the future of education.
Our project methodology leverages teamwork and diversity.
To best serve our non-profit partners and truly make an impact, we ensure that each team is carefully selected with a variety of skill sets in order to offer feasible and effective solutions. Learn more about the services we can provide.
OUR SERVICES
For one impact measurement project, EmpowerED Consulting worked with a non-profit organization that primarily provides academic support for underserved youth. The non-profit client wanted to more successfully communicate the impact it has on its students, to external bodies. To be able to do so, the client needed two major things: methods to collect basic progress data and the quantification of qualitative aspects. First, the organization lacked standardized methods to collect basic data like student GPA, which made it difficult to analyze the full extent of the non-profit’s impact. Second, the client strongly emphasizes soft skills such as effective communication, leadership, and dealing with failure or imposter syndrome. However, the client did not have a process to accurately measure these soft skills. To tackle these two issues, EmpowerED focused on creating surveys and timelines for data collections to provide a more streamlined and structured approach. EmpowerED also created data collection methods for qualitative data, accompanied by a coding schema and roadmap on how to quantify and analyze the qualitative data once collected.
Impact Measurement
Impact
Measurement
EmpowerED worked with an organization that needed a new financing strategy to ensure its sustainability. In addition to a new strategy, they also desired a proper database to keep track of fundraising and donor information. To tackle this project, EmpowerED first identified the value proposition of the organization, and how those strengths can be used to reach out to targeted donors interested in the client’s mission. Because the client already worked with corporations, EmpowerED looked into a wide variety of grants that the organization was eligible for, as well as methods to increase its other areas of revenue. We proposed a budgeting plan for the organization to cut costs when administering its programs, and even created sample marketing materials to effectively reach potential donors. And finally, EmpowerED created a comprehensive database on Excel to ensure that the client could easily track and safeguard its partnership and fundraising data going forward.
Financing Strategy
Financing Strategy
EmpowerED Consulting worked with a non profit organization that wanted a long term recruitment strategy with a key focus on retention. The non profit client was having trouble with recruiting and retaining both a staff and volunteer base for their student after school programs. They wanted a sustainable method for long-term employment/relationship of new staff and volunteers, as they experienced high turnover. First, EmpowerED Consulting worked with the client to identify their ideal target audience and looked at how the client can improve its appeal in terms of incentives and branding/messaging, in order to stand out from other organizations. We then created marketing materials which incorporated the restructured value proposition of the organization. Secondly, we curated a list of specific recruitment channels that aligned well with the organization’s mission and effectively reached the target audience. Utilizing that list, we also created an outreach guide/plan for the client to have a standardized process in creating long term partnerships with universities for a consistent staff/volunteer base.
Recruitment & Retention
Recruitment & Retention
EmpowerED Consulting worked with one non profit client to develop a marketing strategy that differentiates the client from similar organizations and effectively communicates their value proposition across their main marketing channels. The goal was to help the client make longer-term strategic decisions with increased intentionality. To approach the project, we applied the strategic triangle framework that looks at an organization from an internal, competitive, and audience-driven perspective. We first began with a competitive analysis, evaluating the websites of other similar organizations to understand how they were positioning themselves and how they conveyed their brand message to their audiences. We also conducted primary and secondary research to better understand the needs of different audiences, such as families, students, teachers, and donors. Then, we examined existing literature and past research studies to identify best practices for website design and usability. EmpowerED was then able to build a final report that summarized the findings and recommendations for the client to easily implement, as well as a wireframe and sample flyer in the final deliverable.
Marketing Campaign
Marketing Campaign
A SWOT analysis project EmpowerED completed for a client focused on analyzing the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of an organization’s internal operations. This primarily constituted analyzing the client’s admissions process for accepting underprivileged youth into its programs. Our main goal was to ensure that the admissions and retention process for both applicants and current students respectively, were holistic. We flagged bias and inaccuracy within their current system, noticing that the qualitative and quantitative skills of applicants/students were not being equally weighted. Furthermore, the qualitative skills of an applicant were not properly accounted for. The EmpowerED team created a more streamlined process to ensure that each applicant was being fairly depicted in the admissions process, and that students were also fairly evaluated throughout their time in the organization’s program. This process also included creating evaluation metrics and materials for evaluators to use in the future, allowing for easy implementation.
SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis
The EmpowerED team started out by asking probing questions to better understand our organization and priorities. They did an excellent job empathizing with our limitations and capitalizing on our strengths and ultimately recommended a strategy that was easy to implement and helped us meet our ambitious goals. Every interaction with the EmpowerED team was extremely professional and their work products exceeded our expectations.
- Tabitha Hamon, GO Project
The team at EmpowerED was an excellent resource for Oliver Scholars. As a small nonprofit, we genuinely appreciate the time spent analyzing what makes us competitive and honing in on the best way to communicate that to our students, families, and partners. The team was extremely professional and produced excellent work. We look forward to continuing the relationship between Oliver Scholars and EmpowerED!
- Oliver Scholars
360° Skills Academy has worked with EmpowerED on multiple occasions and our organization always benefits tremendously from the dedication of EmpowerED consultants. They’ve helped us launch successful events, enhance our curriculum, and reimagine how we engage with our program participants. EmpowerED has made an extraordinary impact on our organization.
- 360° Skills Academy
Our EmpowerED team devised a fundraising strategy for our Star Learning Center program that was thoroughly researched, highly creative and ready for implementation. In just 10 weeks, they worked to gain a deep and realistic understanding of our program’s needs and capacities, and provided a well-crafted plan in their final presentation. The group is a tremendous resource for nonprofits in the education field, especially in this time of intense budget constraints.
- Goddard Riverside - Star Learning Center
EmpowerED were exactly what our organization needed during a tough time and gave us a great first step to attacking a huge fundraising need of ours. Thank you so much!
- Kids Creative
Breakthrough New York is a 10-year academic enrichment and college access/success program that works with low-income students from NYC from middle school to and through college.
- Breakthrough New York
