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Eritrean Youth Coalition (EYC)
Organization
Eritrean Youth Coalition (EYC) is a loosely based non-partisan coalition of youth ages 18 to 30. Through HIV/AIDS awareness for youth, mentorship programs for youth by youth and employment counselling services, EYC aims to build capacity for change in the Eritrean diaspora. Project Endeavour is collaborating with EYC to develop a sustainability strategy, including designing an organizational structure and marketing plan. Team
It has been more than a month since our team received our project assignment at the orientation. The orientation was indeed a helpful event. We were introduced to the industry of management consulting and basic consulting skills. Professionalism was shown from the executive team and the speakers, and I was convinced that strong support would be provided from the executives and our advisors. In addition, I had the chance to get to know my team members during the orientation. When we did the activities together and analyzed the "Hockey case" presented by our executives, I was truly impressed to see how innovative my team mates are. I am very fortunate to be given the privilege to volunteer in this amazing environment, and I was looking forward to starting our project.
The meeting between us and our client was held in late October at OISE (Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto), where our primary EYC contact is completing her Master's degree. It was nice to see that our client was composed of an enthusiastic executive team, and that their members really desire a close cooperation with us. Our client expressed that they need help in many aspects, including a fundraising strategy, possible organization structure and marketing strategy. Meanwhile, our team requested more information from them to facilitate our understanding of EYC's mission and goals. The meeting was constructive since it enabled a better communication between us and our client. Following the meeting, there was considerable communication between Claire, our engagement manager, and our client. At last, we presented our client with a set of timeline and deliverables. We proposed that our team would assist them in performing organizational structure and fundraising mechanism research, developing a marketing guideline, and creating a preliminary long-term strategy. Our proposal was accepted by our client with satisfaction. Knowing that we have actually lost more than three weeks in October to work on the project, it pushes us all to work harder on the research because we have proposed to present our first phase of service by January. I am given the task to research on and develop a marketing toolkit. The task would be challenging for me as I have never touched on anything related to marketing, but I am assured of Claire's helpful assistance because of her years of work experience in the marketing industry. We are currently busying ourselves with all this research and at the same time trying to cope with our busy schedules. It is actually challenging and fun! I am also looking forward to meeting our advisor, Jane, for her evaluation and suggestions for our project. With our hard work and support from the execs, I truly hope that our client will benefit from our services.  The opportunity to work with Endeavour has granted me a unique experience that I have never had. The time that I have spent with my teammates has been wonderful. Claire has been a constructive and helpful manager and the other team members, Aditya and Kelvin, are so enthusiastic and thoughtful. I believe I can better handle my tasks, as I have learned from my peers and developed experience and new skills. Sometimes it might be hard to juggle all these tasks and three midterms at the same time, but the experience of Endeavour is something that is worth working very hard for because you can learn so much from it!
This month has been marked by significant progress and in-depth research on the topics of organization design, fundraising strategy and marketing mechanism as promised to our client, EYC. We ended the month on a high note after presenting our initial recommendations and now wait eagerly to continue collaborating with our client in the new year. Eritrean Youth Coalition (EYC) is a young coalition who requested Endeavour's assistance in various areas to expand their operation. EYC is a youth-based organization that wants to promote cooperation and community building in the Eritrean Diaspora. In order to analyze our client's needs and expectations, we focused on understanding the Eritrean-Canadian community through our own research and from EYC members' expertise in this area.
From last month, we divided up the research component of the work among us. Aditya focused on the fundraising mechanism, Benson on the marketing strategy, I concentrated on the organization design; and Claire, our Engagement Manager, compiled the components together into a cohesive presentation. Thanks to the wealth of resources that Claire and our advisor Jane have provided, we were able to delve deeply into our topics. By looking at past cases and related documents from various management consulting firms, I was not only able to investigate different organization structures that non-profit organizations construct around, but also learn about the related risks and reasoning behind these choices. From the inspiration from these documents, we designed a set of recommendations which tailored to the current and future needs of EYC. To prepare for our presentations to our client, our team approached Jane, our advisor, for improvement opportunities and to hear her perspective regarding the results of our research. I must say that very insightful meeting with Jane was the highlight of the month for our team. Her wealth of knowledge from her past non-profit experience was extremely helpful, especially in utilizing different frameworks to represent difficult concepts and guiding us along correct consulting methods. She also listened attentively to our practice presentations and suggested various approaches to frame our recommendations so they can be easily implemented and readily accepted by a non-profit client. In the beginning of this month, our team met with EYC once again to present our initial recommendations. Although it was near the end of term and the workload from school was becoming increasingly difficult, we managed to compile a coherent collection of recommendations in fundraising, marketing and organization structure. During each section, we provided a macro-level reasoning behind our suggestions and also a few tangible action items which could be worked upon in the short term.
This presentation has granted me an opportunity to experience the responsibilities and rewards of consulting with a client. It allowed me to gain experience on how to deal with client expectations and how to effectively communicate our recommendations in a way which can be easily implemented. Our consultation with Jane allowed me to realize that original research into the topics is important, but our methods of delivering our recommendations to our client are essential as well. Now I can't wait until the new year so that I can continue working with Aditya, Benson and Claire with our EYC client.
Our last meeting with EYC in December was very beneficial for both sides. EYC's core team is very enthusiastic and passionate about the direction they want to go in, and as consultants, our team is also gaining much exposure, experience and most importantly, we're learning about the skills that make a consultant successful. I want this journal entry to be focused more on the soft skills of successful consulting as opposed to merely listing out the milestones we've accomplished thus far, or describing the next steps we're going to take.
Coming back refreshed from the winter break (where members of our team went to China, Vancouver and Scotland for vacation), we met with EYC in mid January 2008 to initiate a discussion on progress. I always knew one thing about consulting: you have to align the people you're working with (your client, your team) towards a common goal, and set realistic expectations so that you can deliver on them within the timeframe of three to five months. When you meet with a client, you have to engage them in meaningful conversation so that you are able to draw up issues without asking any leading questions. EYC really wants to hold a visioning and planning workshop to chart out what type of organization they want to be. It is an important for us to facilitate this successfully so that they are energized and can focus on the two to three things that will help the most as they go forward. To be successful as a consultant, I think confidence and being outspoken are important characteristics along with competency and leadership. These are skills and roles I am continuously learning and evolving myself into. Personally, being part of Endeavour has helped me grow tremendously. It has given me the opportunity to test the waters – so to speak – and to see if consulting is something I would enjoy full time after graduation. It has afforded me a 'safe environment' where I can make mistakes and learn without negatively affecting business clients. And finally, I can't end this entry without speaking about my team. We have come a long way since October, and it really feels like we have become more cohesive now that we are well into the project and understand the client's expectations. Our advisor, Jane, is simply amazing and we're really lucky for her guidance. While we were working away on our mid-term review presentation in Jane's office at the Centre for Social Innovation, she remarked that every consulting project comes down to that at some point –- teams huddled over laptops: designing, re-evaluating and synthesizing key points and working together to realize the client's expectations.
 About two years ago, when I read an article about the Nobel Peace Prize winner Mr. Muhammad Yunus' micro-credit practice in rural India, I was inspired by the idea of social enterprise. I was also curious to explore a few questions behind the popularity of the not-for-profit sector in Canada, such as how the not-for-profit organizations work, who are they and how they connect with society, etc. I got the name of Endeavour through a friend who worked in Rotman Nexus and applied to explore the answers to my questions. The client assigned to our team was Eritrean Youth Coalition (EYC), a coalition formed by a group of Eritrean young Diasporas in Toronto willing to help the youth in their community to get more educational opportunities, as well as enhanced self-awareness and self-esteem. After several interactions, I was amazed by the mechanisms of the not-for-profit community in Canada. Firstly, the group could be highly focused, like our client, on specific issues facing a specific demographic in a specific area. Secondly, there are many funding mechanisms, such as EYC's current funding source, the City of Toronto's Community Partnership and Investment Program (CPIP), and large not-for-profit organizations like the United Way, Trillium, etc. Also, the fundraiser partnerships with companies that have a similar consumer focus could also have great effect. Thirdly, besides the specialization and the various funding channels, there is a community of scholars, universities associations and consulting professionals that provides support for not-for-profit start-ups. Endeavour is one of such organizations. Another important point is that capable not-for-profits play roles to bridge the knowledge and experiences of advisors, and organize volunteers to deliver services to the people and organizations in need. I am amazed at how the advisors devoted themselves in the operations. I guess the mission of return to the society is the main driving force for the advisors to devote their personal time to projects. The engagement with EYC not only helped me to understand the mechanisms of the not-for-profit community, but also revealed the difficulties facing grassroots organizations. The main problem they are facing is the stretch of the capacity. Members are full-time students or employees. Start-up status, needs to handle relationship with different stakeholders (such as community elders and youth), dealing with more and more demanding funding requirements, trustee relationship maintenance, volunteer recruiting, upcoming projects, conferences, etc. all require devoted time, efforts, and possibly, prioritization of the projects. I also enjoyed working with a team of talented young students. When I asked them the reason why they volunteer, I got answers covering different aspects. Aditya, a chemistry master student, wants to get a well-rounded training for himself besides his engineering study. Benson, an international politics undergraduate is having fun participating in multiple volunteer projects. Kelvin, a major player in multiple university associations, such as Engineers without Border, is gaining experience to achieve his goal of changing the world. And our advisor, Jane, founder of Tech Soup Canada and a young lady who is devoting her career to assist not-for-profits with technology solutions, chose to make an impact on society with her technology expertise. The consulting engagement with EYC was a learning process for the whole team. We have been learning how to define the scope of work, conduct research and analyses, deliver recommendations, and most important to all of us, how to evaluate the process of client interactions and how to improve in the future. Time passes so fast and looking back I really appreciate the efforts of the team members, advisor Jane’s passion and energy to engage us to do a better job for our client, and the Endeavour Executive Team for all the settings, connections and encouragement they provided to us. Really hope Endeavour grows well, and look forward to the reunion to meet all of you again. - Claire Shen, Engagement Manager
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We were given the EYC project. EYC stands for Eritrean Youth Coalition. The coalition was launched recently and needs Endeavour's assistance in various areas. Our client is a group of Eritrean youth that wants to promote cooperation and community building in the Eritrean Diaspora. In order to have a clearer understanding of our client's expectations, as the first step, we focused on understanding the Eritrean-Canadian community and analyzing possible challenges that the community faces. Our team conducted the preliminary research on the background, challenges, and possible directions EYC has.
After our presentation, we initiated an enlightening discussion regarding EYC's long term strategy as our team has identified that to be one of the areas where they could potentially benefit more from. The conversation was fascinating, especially in how different opinions contrasted and supported each other. In the end, we promoted an additional recommendation in terms of a visioning workshop so that our client can benefit from a long term strategy.
