During my summer at Il Lago di Pane, I primarily worked on a consulting project aimed at defining a development plan for the organization. Il Lago di Pane is a nonprofit in Parma, Italy that aims to foster the inclusion of under-privileged children and marginalized families through family residential experiences, as well as collective daily laboratories. Over the years, the nonprofit has helped more than 100 children, but external factors, such as inflation, pose threats to their business model. I helped them define their future evolution by identifying a new effective business model and developing a business plan.

Finding a plan to boost their growth was crucial for them. I led a taskforce and, after weeks of analysis and discussions with internal (e.g., hosted children and volunteers) and external stakeholders (e.g., potential partners), we came up with a plan to merge with another nonprofit in Parma (starting with a 1-year pilot). We followed this with a list of ten initiatives aimed at providing new growth opportunities for the involved youth (e.g., opportunities to learn a new skill) and making additional revenue sources (e.g., hosting fundraising events).

To complete the project in a successful manner, it was crucial to have a strong analytical and financial background as well as interpersonal skills. For the former, the core courses of Corporate Finance and Business Analytics gave me the tools needed to run a series of analyses as well as develop business cases (e.g., exploiting cashflow projections) in order to evaluate the different growth initiatives proposed. For the latter, the LEAD class was fundamental to improve my leadership skills (e.g., I was in charge of running a taskforce), and all the interactions with my classmates and learning team helped me improve how to manage team dynamics.

In order to further deep dive the relationship between finance and nonprofits, during the next fall term I will take the Impact Investing class. That course will help me better understand the financing process of nonprofits and the challenges they face during that process.

During the time spent at Il Lago di Pane I faced a series of challenges. The first one was that the scope of work was not initially well defined. Therefore, we spent the initial days/weeks framing the scope of the project. Secondly, the stakeholders I was working with were often “not speaking my same language.” Indeed, they all worked their entire career in nonprofits, and terms like “cash flow” were new for them. However, by working together I was able to learn a lot from them and they learned a lot from me — establishing an enjoyable team environment.

Thirdly, I have always been used to working in very structured environments. However, in this case I learned how to work in a different setting (e.g., with people interrupting meetings, children outside the office, etc.). This was one of the most valuable things I learned during my time there, since I really perceive my adaptation skills improved a lot. Fourthly, my previous knowledge of how a nonprofit such as Il Lago di Pane works was null. I spent the first week conducting interviews to better understand how the business model of Il Lago di Pane was and where we could find room for improvement.

Finally, the internship was during the month of August, which is traditionally a time in Italy when people go on holiday. Therefore, it was not easy to find and speak with all the stakeholders to complete the project by the end of the month.

Working at Il Lago di Pane was an incredible experience that gave me the opportunity to get a closer look at how the nonprofit sector operates in Italy. I had no previous work experience with these organizations.

Moreover, I had the chance to meet and work with amazing people. I spent a lot of time with under-priveleged children, really understanding how lucky I am to have had such a supportive family. I also met people who decided to spend their lives helping others. They were extremely inspirational for me, and I will keep in touch with them and hope to find new opportunities to help them and Il Lago di Pane, such as organizing a fundraising event with my McKinsey colleagues.

Finally, during this project I acted as a manager of a team, and this gave me the opportunity to train my leadership skills. I think this experience has been an incredible learning opportunity to be a better manager in the future, after my MBA.