Nonprofit Spark – Technical assistance from Students Consulting for Nonprofit Organizations – 03/26/12

Summary: Many nonprofits run on a tight budget and will love to hear that there's an organization of very bright undergraduate students who are eager to provide pro bono consultation to local non-profits. Students Consulting for Nonprofit Organizations (http://www.scnonational.org/) has a growing number of chapters on college and university campuses. SCNO members apply their personal skills and coursework knowledge toward complex issues facing nearby non-profits. Not all students can join the chapters, only the ones who are very bright and demonstrate the ability to work with a team and devote the time to consulting. I speak with two guests this week. One is Michael Gallagher, who serves on the national volunteer board of SCNO and has the primary duty of expanding the number of campus chapters. He is a 2008 graduate of Michigan State University where he participated in the SCNO chapter and consulted with nonprofits. The other guest is Julie Ufford, an environmental engineering major at Johns Hopkins University who founded an SCNO chapter on campus this year where three projects with nonprofits have just kicked off. Their enthusiasm for making a difference is infectious and the nonprofits who've worked with SCNO student have been thrilled.