About Endeavour Volunteer Consulting for Non-Profits

Endeavour Volunteer Consulting for Non-Profits brings together skilled volunteers to provide pro bono management consulting to non-profit organizations in Toronto and neighbouring cities.  Since our inception in 2007, we have worked with over 100 volunteers and non-profit clients in various sectors, including the arts, children and family services, disabilities, education, healthcare, immigrant services, rural development, poverty relief and youth development.  To learn more about us, visit www.endeavourvolunteer.ca. 
 
Volunteer Roles & Responsibilities
 
Endeavour is looking for talented, committed and enthusiastic volunteers to participate in our upcoming consulting projects. As a volunteer, you will have the opportunity to work in a team on a six-month project to help a non-profit with a business problem. To learn more about our past projects, visit our Project List (http://www.endeavourvolunteer.ca/wp/projects/current-past-projects/)
 
The consulting teams are typically composed of five consultants led by an engagement manager. Our volunteers engagement managers and consultants (http://www.endeavourvolunteer.ca/wp/volunteers/?menu=vol) range from university students to seasoned professionals from various backgrounds and industries. The consultants and engagement managers work directly with the client on a specific project to help the client achieve its goals.

Equal Responsibilities of Consultants and Engagement Managers:

• Attending an orientation, mid-term review session, final presentation event and three training workshops
• Developing a statement of work based on team consultations with your client and project advisor
• Research, analysis, and the development of strategic options and recommendations
• Regular meetings with your team, client and advisor
• Presentations to your client, members of the Advisory Board and Executive Team, and fellow consulting teams
• Assisting your team in providing monthly progress reports to the Executive Team of Endeavour Volunteer Consulting for Non-Profits
• Sharing your experiences and feedback with fellow consulting teams and the Executive Team of Endeavour Volunteer Consulting for Non-Profits

Additional Responsibilities of Senior Consultants & Consultants
The senior consultants and consultants are responsible for streams of project work.  In addition to the above responsibilities, the senior consultants and consultants are also responsible for escalating issues to the Executive Team related to the performance of their Engagement Manager.   The Executive Team will staff a volunteer as Senior Consultant or Consultant based on the individual’s experience. 

Additional Responsibilities of Engagement Manager
The Engagement Manager plays a pivotal role in addressing the challenges of our non-profit client during the six-month consulting engagement.  The Engagement Manager is an experienced manager and leader with client experience who has the capability and responsibility for:

1) Project Leadership & Management
The Engagement Manager manages the entire project life cycle, including: diagnosing the client needs through client consultations; defining the problem statement, scope of work and timeline; structuring and executing the problem solving methodology correctly; leveraging the knowledge and creativity of the senior consultants and consultants to generate solutions; managing the consulting team to meet project milestones; leveraging the expertise of the project advisor for feedback on methodology, research and solutions; submitting detailed monthly progress reports to the Executive Team; and escalating team performance issues to the Executive Team.  The Engagement Manager typically still does hands-on work and analysis, instead of playing a purely managerial role.  It is the responsibliity of the Engagement Manager to ensure that the final deliverable is of the highest quality and meets or exceeds the client’s expectations.

2) Client Leadership & Relations
The Engagement Manager builds and maintains a close working relationship with the non-profit client assigned to his/her consulting team, including: developing a good understanding of the client’s sector and strategic and organizational issues; identifying the root causes of the client’s challenges and long-term solutions to help the client improve their impact and sustainability; and overseeing and managing the relationship with the client, including communicating at least weekly/bi-weekly with the client on the status and progress of the consulting project and scheduling client meetings.

3) Advisor Relations
The Engagement Manager builds and maintains a close working relationship with the project advisor assigned to his/her consulting team, including: working with the advisor and team to set expectations around meetings and communications; leveraging the expertise of the advisor for feedback on the statement of work, methodology, research, resources, solutions, presentations and final deliverable; and overseeing and managing the relationship with the advisor, including communicating at least weekly/bi-weekly with the advisor on the status and progress of the consulting project and scheduling advisor meetings.

4) Associate Development
The Engagement Manager motivates, supports and enables his/her associates (both senior consultants and consultants) to become high performers on the consulting engagement by: identifying and leveraging the talents, knowledge and creativity of the senior consultants and consultants on his/her team; designing work streams and matching them to leverage the strengths of the associates; transfering knowledge; providing opportunities for associates to take ownership and leadership; providing feedback to associates to help them develop; and monitoring and managing team performance.

5) Organizational Development & Knowledge Management
The Engagement Manager plays a leading role on his/her consulting team in helping Endeavour Volunteer Consulting for Non-Profits to develop and strengthen our organizational capacity to serve our clients and share knowledge among volunteers in the organization by: ensuring active participation and learning by yourself and all team members in our orientation, training sessions, and mid-term and final reviews; providing feedback and suggestions for improvement to the Executive Team; and sharing the consulting team’s statement of work, presentations and final deliverable with the Executive Team for Endeavour’s Knowledge Network.

Support & Resources
 
Support is provided to the consulting teams through ongoing feedback from a project advisor, an orientation, training sessions, mid-term and final review sessions, an online resource centre with templates and sample work from past consulting teams, and monthly feedback from the Executive Team in response to monthly progress reports submitted by each consulting team.  Consulting teams also have access to the board room at Volunteer Toronto for meetings.

Benefits

Using your skills and knowledge to give back to the community can be an extremely meaningful and rewarding experience. As a volunteer with Endeavour, you will have the opportunity to:

• Work with and develop friendships with like-minded individuals
• Network with and learn from consultants, industry professionals, and community leaders
• Gain exposure to different areas of work and discover potential career paths
• Gain consulting experience
• Volunteer on a flexible schedule
• Help a young non-profit grow

Post-Consulting Engagement

Endeavour is dedicated to providing a high quality experience for both our non-profit clients and volunteers, and will remain in touch with our clients and volunteers to evaluate the impact of the consulting engagement. High-performing volunteers will have the opportunity to continue volunteering as a consultant/senior consultant/engagement manager/knowledge broker for future projects. 

Other Networking & Educational Opportunities

As a member of Endeavour Volunteer Consulting for Non-Profits, we also encourage you to attend our networking fundraisers and interactive workshops open to all members of the public.

Requirements

Requirements for Engagement Managers & Consultants:

• Enthusiasm for working with non-profit organizations
• Active participation and commitment for the entire duration of the consulting engagement
• Strong teamwork, communication, interpersonal, presentation, research and analytical skills 

Additional Requirements for Engagement Managers:

• Experience managing/leading a team
• Client experience
• At least one year of full-time corporate work experience preferred
• Non-profit experience preferred
• Consulting experience preferred