SHU Receives $30,000 Bank of America Grant for Charitable Work

Grant will help fund new aspect to the center’s service to students and nonprofits

Sacred Heart University has received a $30,000 grant from Bank of America Charitable Foundation to support its Center for Nonprofit Organizations (CNP), which assists agencies in meeting their community’s needs. Specifically, the money will create a problem-based learning lab—an experiential program that exposes students to real-world problems and provides real-time solutions.

As part of the Jack Welch College of Business & Technology, the CNP was founded in 2002 to provide students seeking a master’s degrees in business administration (MBA) with opportunities to apply their knowledge and skills while helping not-for-profit organizations to achieve their goals. The students make valuable contributions addressing the organizations’ long-term viability and effectiveness while gaining real-world experience.

Over the last 18 years, more than 850 students have completed 60,000 consulting hours on 230 projects for more than 110 nonprofit clients. Due to this success, the CNP’s advisory board decided to expand the center’s work beyond consultations to include applied learning projects for students and opportunities for staff training at nonprofit organizations.

For the CNP to achieve these goals, it must expand its capacity and infrastructure to create a problem-based learning lab, which will enable the CNP to develop and facilitate training for three nonprofit organizations, print related materials and coordinate 16 MBA applied-learning projects. The majority of the work will take place on Sacred Heart’s campus, where student teams, faculty mentors and expert consultants will meet throughout each semester.

Lab participants, in conjunction with nonprofit organizations from Fairfield and New Haven counties, will conduct market research, economic impact studies, pricing analyses and feasibility studies. They also will help prepare business plans, create social media marketing campaigns and provide workplace training, financial analyses and strategic planning.

The Bank of America works with nonprofit organizations to correct issues that hinder the economic mobility and social progress of vulnerable populations throughout the United States. Its charitable foundation has provided grants to the CNP annually since 2014.

“We are incredibly grateful to the Bank of America Charitable Foundation for its continued support and are excited to expand our Center for Nonprofits even further,” said Bill Hass, CNP director.

Pictured: Center for Nonprofit Organizations Director Bill Hass