At 31Projects we work with all types of organizations, from multinational companies which deal with external consultants on a regular basis to small nonprofits which have never worked with an outside party. Regardless of your experience, we help you through the process step-by-step to ensure a smooth and successful project. Below are some best practice tips for managing projects- to find more please check out the guide for sponsors under the Resources tab.
Be clear about your goals for the project
The first step in a project is to clearly define the goals of the project- what you hope to get out of it. Start by identifying the problem you’d like to solve or the area where you need help, and what a successful outcome would look like. If you need help defining your goals, our support team is happy to work with you on this.
Schedule a kickoff call and regular project updates
Once you have selected a team for the project, the students will contact you to set up a kickoff call. You can also find their contact information by navigating to the project under Current Projects. During the kickoff call review the project requirements again with the team and provide them all background information they need to understand the context and get started. You should then work out a plan with the team for update calls during the course of the project, depending on project length. Check-in calls can be scheduled on a bi-weekly basis, although a different frequency may make sense depending on the length and intensity of the project.
Make yourself available to the students
In our experience, the more interaction you have with the students during the project, the better the outcome. Additionally, interaction gives you the chance to get to know each of the students and build relationships with them.
Don’t forget to provide feedback, both at completion and along the way
Feedback is an important part of managing a successful project. Providing feedback to the student(s) during the project is important to both keep interest high among the team and to ensure that students continue steering in the right direction. Upon project completion you will be prompted to provide overall feedback to the students through the 31Projects platform, which then appears in each student’s Feedback Portfolio on the site.
As 2011 dawns, companies and organizations around the world are looking hopefully towards an improving economic climate and a potential return to the pre-recession growth years. During the past couple years businesses have been forced to do more with less and operate as lean as possible. The return to growth will pose challenges to resource-constrained organizations which had previously focused exclusively on survival rather than growth. 31Projects is one great way for managers to add focus on new market opportunities without overburdening internal resources. To help get the ideas flowing about how your organization can best utilize the service, below are 11 of our top project ideas for your organization in 2011:
1. Brainstorming of new product/service opportunities
Engage creative students in analyzing your markets and capabilities and developing concepts for new product/service opportunities which will help your organization grow.
2. Develop a marketing plan
Looking to gain market share from your competitors? Build a solid marketing strategy and plan to build awareness of your organization.
3. Trend identification
What are the big macro trends influencing your industry in 2011? Find out how you can use these trends to your advantage and position yourself for growth.
4. Business plan development
Have a concept for a new business opportunity? Get an analysis and business plan developed to capitalize on the opportunity.
5. SWOT analysis
Get a non-biased, outside-in analysis by an external party of the strengths and weaknesses of your organization as well as current opportunities and threats.
6. Viral marketing strategy
Viral marketing is a hugely effective and inexpensive way to spread the word about your organization and gain new customers. Get a solid concept and strategy for implementing a viral campaign.
7. Market entry strategy
Grow your organization with your existing capabilities by entering new geographical or demographic markets.
8. Pricing analysis
Working on a new product/service but not sure how to price it? Get a pricing analysis to find the right price point for your target market.
9. Competitive analysis
Get an understanding of what your competitors are doing and how you are positioned with respect to them.
10. Social media strategy development
Heard the buzz about social media marketing but don’t know how to get started? Get a custom analysis and plan for you to get started with an effective social media effort to engage new and existing customers.
11. Secondary market research
Spend your time on operations and get a team to help you with the research / due diligence side of things.
Starting today student teams for all new projects will have access to the 31Projects project management platform. The platform is a simple, easy-to-use web-based system for tracking progress in completing the project tasks. Students can use the platform to input project tasks and delegate them to team members along with associated deadlines. The platform can also be used as a communications tool to post project-related messages as well as documents and attachements.
Sponsors will have access to the platform as well to view projects and access any documents which are posted for sponsor review. The addition of the project management platform makes it easier for both teams and sponsors to communicate and track progress, bringing what was previously done through email and Excel spreadsheets into a simple online system which all can access. Students and sponsors will receive the login information for their project’s site at project commencement.
The Parivartan Project is a movement to increase the capacity of humanitarian organizations in Asia and Africa. Pari’s vision is for the professionalization of the NGO sector; to achieve this, they provide an array of fund raising, marketing and organizational development services. Pari’s unique approach to social entrepreneurship ensures that their services improve each client organization’s transparency, accountability and efficiency.
The Pari Project was founded by Allie Hoffman, a 2005 graduate of the University of Southern California who moved to Cambodia at the age of 21. The team has grown over the past few years to a staff of 11, and the organization is now poised to further expand its operations throughout Asia. In order to do this, they are in need of an analysis of their current operations and a strategic plan for expansion and scalability. Allie and the Pari Project are using 31Projects to engage a small team of students passionate about social entrepreneurship to help them develop an expansion plan and gain an understanding of the resources needed for expansion. If you are interested in working with the Pari Project team on this great mission, you can get involved by loggin in to your account and applying to the project!
Congratulations to University of Georgia seniors Victor Vulovic, Evan Gold, and Christopher Herrin on being selected for the MyLu Foods project. MyLu Foods is a Connecticut-based social enterprise which seeks to bring affordable, healthy food options to inner-city schools. The company was founded by two Yale School of Management MBA graduates and is currently working towards a pilot of their service. Victor, Evan, & Christopher will be working over the next couple of months with the MyLu Foods team on one of the major challenges which most social enterprises face: building an effective financing strategy. They will be examining potential funding sources for the social venture and developing a set of recommendations on the most attractive sources of financing for the start-up venture. Congratulations again to the team and we wish them the best of luck with their new project!
31Projects founder Jon Reifschneider has a guest post today on iGrad about the benefits of skilled volunteering for students and recent graduates. In the post Jon provides tips for leveraging volunteer projects in your job search to help you both grow your network and distinguish yourself to employers. Check out the entire article on iGrad at http://www.igrad.com/articles/?recent-graduate-volunteer-work-experience.
31Projects founder Jon Reifschneider was featured in an article today on Courting your Career, a blog by career expert, author, and 31Projects adviser Shawn Graham. In the article Jon discusses strategies and best practices for turning a project or temporary position into a full-time job opportunity. To read the full text of the article please visit the site.
I met yesterday with a student who has a great idea for a social enterprise and is eager to get started turning it a reality. He’s a business major, but when it comes to starting up a social venture he was at a loss about how he should proceed with the venture. He’s probably not alone. I would venture to guess there are thousands of students out there who have ideas but just don’t know how to go about turning them into viable businesses. Since I’ve been going through the process myself, I decided to take the opportunity to share some of the things I’ve learned so far along the way:
1) Share your idea with the world.
I’ve talked to so many students who have ideas but are hesitant to tell anyone out of fear that someone else will steal their idea. It’s highly unlikely that someone else will steal the idea, and even if they do it’s really the execution of the idea that matters, not the idea itself. Spread your idea- tell as many people as you can and get feedback, because each time you share the idea you will get new perspectives which will help you validate and shape the idea.
2) Get feedback, and ignore half of it
When you start sharing your idea you’ll get a ton of feedback. Some will think its great, some will tell you it doesn’t make sense, and everything in between. Listen to all the feedback you get, but don’t try to follow all of it. Distill it and then decide for yourself what makes sense and what you should ignore.
3) Engage others in helping you
It’s very hard to be a solo entrepreneur (possible, but hard). If you’re a student you’ve got thousands of other students around you who have complimentary skills to your own- engage them and build a small team of people interested in working with you. Not only will it help you make progress faster but it’ll also help keep you motivated.
4) Keep the business model in mind
Even social ventures need to have a revenue model to be sustainable. Don’t think you can live off of donations, because that’s a very tough life. Build a business model into the venture from the start- some mechanism that will generate enough money to sustain the operations.
5) Don’t worry too much about financing
You don’t need to (and you shouldn’t) go running to all the VCs with your idea and ask for money to get started. Your time is limited- don’t spend too much of it early on worrying about financing. Instead, try to scrape together a bit of money from friends & family to get by, live cheaply and manage your cash closely, and focus on building a sustainable venture. After you start getting some traction you can go look for investors once you really need them, and by then it’s much more likely that you’ll have success.
The Sustain Tomorrow Initiative (STI) is a new nonprofit organization with the mission of supporting and promoting the growth of sustainability-focused ventures around the world. The organization operates the website sustaintomorrow.org,which features a new innovative sustainability-focused venture every day and promotes the ventures to their audience of investors, entrepreneurs, and consumers. STI also hosts monthly competitions among the ventures, making awards to the most popular and most promising ventures featured each month.
On 31Projects STI is looking to engage a talented graphic design student or young professional who can create an interesting new logo for the organization, to be featured on their website and promotional materials. If you or someone you know is interested, log in to apply and help them out!
– Post by Jon Reifschneider, founder & CEO of 31Projects
Students, I know you’ve got a lot on your plate. I know because it was not that long ago that I was in your shoes: classes, homework, sports, social events, recruiting, the list goes on and on. You’ve got a million things vying for your attention all at the same time. And with 31Projects we’ve added another one: skilled volunteering. So it’s only fair that I try to explain to you why I think this is important and worthy of your precious time.
First, let’s talk about the big picture. We all know there are a lot of problems out there in the world. The good news is that there are millions of organizations around the world, both nonprofits and social ventures, working to fix them. But these organizations can’t do it alone. Most simply don’t have the time, resources, or skills to do everything, so they often have to rely on outside help. That’s where you come in. Through your education you’re developing practical skills which you can put to use to help these organizations succeed. If we all help out where we can, whether it’s creating a logo, building a marketing plan, or writing a press release, these organizations can make progress a lot faster in overcoming the challenges they were created to tackle.
Now let’s talk more specifically about what’s in it for you. Beyond the inherent satisfaction in using your skills to help make a better world, there are other tangible benefits of skilled volunteering. It’s a great opportunity to further sharpen your skills and gain great real-world experience which will prepare you well for life after school. It’s also no secret that employers look very highly upon volunteer experience, and having that on your resume can make you stand out from the masses of other students who don’t have it. Not to mention possible references or recommendations from appreciative nonprofits or social enterprises who value the work you did.
So as tempting as an extra couple hours of Facebook surfing or that Tuesday-night party might be, consider putting some of your time toward helping organizations who need it. It’ll be of great value to the organization and also has nice side benefits for you. We all want to see a better world, here’s your chance to help create it. To get started, join our community and help us spread the word among your friends!
