Beth Mitchell ’13

Beth Mitchell ’13 interned at the Blue Ridge Foundation New York, a social innovation fund with a mission to help develop effective strategies for connecting people living in high poverty communities to the opportunities, resources, and support that they need to fulfill their full potential. The foundation incubates and launches innovative ventures that enhance economic and social mobility and facilitates connections among its network of grantees. Beth completed several short-term consulting projects over the course of the summer with Blue Ridge’s “portfolio” organizations, assisting in areas such as financial analysis, strategic planning, and organizational development. She also completed a project that helps to shape Blue Ridge’s overall organizational direction.

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My Experience

Blue Ridge Foundation supports startup nonprofits in New York City which “connect people living in high poverty communities to the opportunities, resources, and support that they need to fulfill their full potential.”  In addition to financial support, Blue Ridge provides organizations with access to Summer Associates who do consulting projects for them as needed. This summer, I completed five projects for the organizations in Blue Ridge’s portfolio.

These projects were:

  1. Conducted market research and developed a marketing strategy for Green City Force, an organization which prepares low income youth for careers in environmental sustainability.
  2. Analyzed the performance metrics Green City Force uses to evaluate the youth in their workforce development program.
  3. Designed a professional development plan for Blue Engine, an organization which places teaching assistants in middle and high school classrooms to accelerate student learning.
  4. Developed a tool to evaluate expansion options into new cities for Common Justice, an organization which provides an alternative to incarceration for individuals charged with violent felonies based on the principle of restorative justice.
  5. Developed a list of metrics for Blue Ridge to use when tracking and comparing the portfolio organizations.

Each of my projects required different skills, many of which I learned or enhanced during my first year of business school. For the marketing project with Green City Force, I utilized frameworks introduced in my core marketing classes, including careful analysis of the “Three C’s”: company, customer, and competitor. For the performance metrics project, I brought in concepts discussed during Amy Houston’s High Performing Nonprofits course, like the connection between inputs, outputs, and outcomes. I also used basic statistical analysis to compare metrics to outcomes, which I would not have known how to do pre-MBA.  For the professional development project for Blue Engine, I pulled out my notes from my Incentives and Performance class, which were particularly useful in advising Blue Engine on performance-based compensation. Finally, for the expansion project for Common Justice, I used Bridgespan’s framework for organizational analysis, which was introduced during Amy Houston’s course. 

Pre-MBA, I would have been able to complete all five my projects. However, the final deliverables would not have been nearly as strong. The MBA courses provided additional tools for contextualizing and then tackling the issues these organizations were facing.

One of the challenges for me was figuring out where I fit into these organizations. This was my first experience as a consultant, and I found the interpersonal dynamics of the role a bit confusing at first. I was immersed in the organizations: I worked in the same office as their staff, had access to all their files, and my projects were directly advancing their organizational goals.  At the same time, I wasn’t really part of their world, partly because I was only there temporarily, and partly because I wasn’t actually doing the work of running the programs; instead, I was developing strategies and documents that helped them to do it. In addition, my direct supervisor was the Executive Director of Blue Ridge, but the Executive Directors of the portfolio organizations were the people I was completing projects for, so I felt like I was reporting more to them than him.  In the end, I think I found a reasonable balance, but it definitely required time and thinking.

I have a number of takeaways from this summer. First of all, I was really happy at Blue Ridge. I loved the feel of the office and the people I met. It was a good reminder of how positive an office culture can be, and what I want to look for in a full time job. In addition, previous to this summer I thought that I probably wanted a management position at a social services organization, but was also somewhat intrigued by the idea of nonprofit consulting or foundation work. This summer was definitely a confirmation for me that I want to be directly involved in running an organization. I didn’t dislike being a consultant, but I also didn’t love it.  It’s not what I want to do full time.

Second, I was really impressed by the nonprofits I worked with. The places I worked at previously all did good work, but were not nearly as deliberate and organized in laying out their goals, measuring their progress and creating strong cultures. I got to see the concepts discussed in High Performing Nonprofits and Nonprofit and the City in action – like having a well thought out Theory of Change and using performance metrics to measure not just outputs, but also outcomes. It’s one thing to talk about best practices in class, and another to actually experience an organization working through them. This is something I’ll definitely carry with me into future nonprofits I work at.

Finally, I made great contacts.  I developed a strong relationship with Matt Klein, Blue Ridge’s ED, as well as the EDs of Green City Force and Blue Engine. I have no doubt that this will help me in my search for a full time position.