Consulting Teams
The consulting teams are typically composed of five consultants and senior consultants, led by an engagement manager. Our volunteers engagement managers and consultants range from university students to working 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. Only returning volunteers are eligible to become Senior Consultant.
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 for Non-Profits.
Volunteer Consulting FAQs
1. When and where do client and team meetings take place?
The team meetings are scheduled around the availability of the team members, so are generally weekday evenings or weekends as most volunteers are working or in school. Client meetings are based on the availability of the client and team members. Location of client and team meetings are determined by the team and client. Endeavour teams may book City of Toronto space (e.g. Metro Hall) for meetings.
2. Do you need to have consulting experience to volunteer?
Few of Endeavour’s volunteer consultants have consulting experience. You are an ideal candidate for Endeavour if you are dedicated, have good problem solving and communications skills, and can work well on a team. The engagement manager generally has consulting experience.
3. Can I still apply if I am a university/college student?
Yes, Endeavour encourages students to apply. Endeavour’s consulting teams are made up of varying levels of education and work experience.
4. Is there any formal training provided?
Endeavour holds an orientation at the beginning of each project cycle to provide knowledge and insights relevant to consulting specifically with the non-profit sector. Endeavour also holds training sessions and review sessions throughout the project life cycle to allow the volunteers to further develop these skills.
5. Where do Endeavour events take place?
Events hosted by Endeavour generally take place in downtown Toronto (usually at Metro Hall, City Hall, or Ted Rogers School of Management).
6. What is the interview format?
Interviews are in person and consist of behavioural and situational questions, and a non-profit case to test problem solving skills. The case is nothing to worry about; we just want to hear you think out loud on how to solve a problem.
7. How long do the engagements last?
The engagements are scheduled to last approximately six months, but will depend on client needs. The fall/winter cycle is from October to April and the spring/summer cycle is from April to September.
8. What kind of support and resources are provided to the consulting teams?
- Orientation & Review Sessions: Projects kick off with an orientation where volunteers are introduced to engagement managers, consultants and advisors in their round, key Endeavour executives, and Endeavour’s volunteer management approach. Consulting teams and advisors come together again for the mid-term and final review sessions where each consulting team presents their work to date and receive feedback from the audience.
- Non-Profit Consulting Training: Endeavour volunteers receive training in the essential consulting skills for volunteer engagements with non-profit clients. Three training sessions are held throughout the engagement, led by a seasoned consultant/professor with experience in non-profit/social sector consulting. The sessions also provide volunteers with the opportunity to learn from the challenges and approaches of former volunteers.
- Engagement Manager (EM) Support Network: An engagement manager (EM) training session is held prior to general orientation and an EM mailing list provides new EMs with the opportunity to learn and interact with alumni EMs before they begin and as they progress through their engagements. Furthermore, new EMs are assigned a dedicated EM Mentor to whom they can turn for informal advice, feedback, ideas, etc. during the entire duration of the project.
- Advice & Mentorship: Each team is paired with an experienced consulting and/or non-profit professional from Endeavour’s Advisory Board who acts as a mentor to the consulting team throughout the consulting engagement.
- Subject Matter Experts: Throughout the engagement, consulting teams can contact Endeavour’s Subject Matter Experts for advice and/or resources in specific areas, such as research design, consulting methodologies, and non-profit resources.
- Online Knowledge Centre: Endeavour volunteers have access to Endeavour’s Knowledge Centre containing work from past Endeavour consulting teams, resources from past training sessions, consulting engagement templates, and external resources recommended by Endeavour advisors and executives.
- Ongoing Feedback: In addition to feedback from the project advisor and at review sessions, teams receive feedback from the Executive Team on monthly progress reports and exchange feedback with the Executive Team at the pre-midterm and post-engagement debrief sessions.
- Meeting Space: Consulting teams have access to meeting space at City of Toronto buildings (such as Toronto Metro Hall and City Hall), and the Volunteer Toronto boardroom. Teams are required to make booking requests in advance.
- Executive Team: The Executive Team welcomes questions and feedback from volunteers at all times in order to provide the necessary support and to continuously improve.
9. How many consulting projects do volunteers work on?
Volunteer engagement managers and consultants work on one project for a six-month engagement. Volunteers sometimes return for additional projects.
10. Do volunteers get to choose the project?
Volunteers do not get to choose the project, but the Executive Team tries its best to match each volunteer’s background and interests with the client’s needs and sector, while also creating teams to leverage the diversity of knowledge and experiences among volunteers. High-performing volunteers can volunteer on future consulting engagements, and typically get to work on their preferred project.
Advisory Board
The members of the Advisory Board have in-depth knowledge and experience in consulting and / or the non-profit sector, and serve as project advisors and/or subject matter experts. The advisors provide guidance to both the executive and consulting teams, and are instrumental to the success of the consulting engagements.
The responsibilities of the advisors include:
- Attendance at orientation, midterm and final review sessions during the project life cycle
- Setting expectations at first team meeting around meetings and communications with their team
- Reviewing, validating, and changing the scope of work if necessary
- General guidance around where to look for resources
- General guidance around client management
- Validating and providing feedback on frameworks
- Signing off on the final deliverable before it goes to the client
- Feedback on potential client projects
Knowledge Sharing Committee
The Knowledge Sharing Committee, comprised of knowledge brokers, exists to strengthen knowledge sharing and retention among our network of volunteers.
Typically, the Knowledge Broker is a current/past Endeavour consultant or engagement manager. Recognizing the demanding time commitment of each consulting engagement and the valuable knowledge gained from past projects, the Knowledge Broker role was created to allow high-performing volunteers to stay involved with Endeavour without the time commitment required of an engagement manager/consultant role. While the Executive Team endeavours to identify suitable volunteers to serve as knowledge brokers, we encourage volunteers to approach the Executive Team when they learn about a project that they can serve on as a Knowledge Broker.
Our consultants and engagement managers bring strong functional skills (marketing, finance, engineering, etc.) to our consulting projects, but often come from an industry unrelated to the sectors of their non-profit clients. This is where the Knowledge Broker comes in — with knowledge of and connections within a specific sector developed through industry or consulting experience, the Knowledge Broker can bring their insider perspective to the consulting project, and help bridge the gap between information and insight. The Knowledge Broker shares his/her knowledge, information, resources and connections with our consulting teams as they related to specific client sectors, but is not responsible for project work.
To learn more about our Knowledge Broker responsibilities and opportunities, visit http://www.endeavourvolunteer.ca/wp/knowledge-brokers/
Executive Team
The Executive Team provides stewardship, establishing strategic direction, plans and priorities, and monitoring, evaluating and reporting on the performance of the consulting engagements. The responsibilities of the executives include:
- Strategic Planning, Execution and Evaluation
- Project Selection, Staffing, Monitoring and Evaluation
- Advisor Recruitment and Relationship Management
- Volunteer Recruitment and Relationship Management
- Client Recruitment and Relationship Management
- Fundraising and Sponsorships
- Educational Events
- Knowledge Management