Financial Business Plan

We are looking to get our finances correct and would like to involve students in this exciting time as we work to develop a financial business plan. We can provide access to internal documentation and other information as needed as well as access to key contacts. Based on our unique goals and constraints, we would like students to develop a strong, competitive financial business plan, which we can present to investors and donors.The plan should include:Expense budgetIncome projections (conservative and aggressive)Assets and liabilities

Project Events Manager

We are looking for students to help us plan a charity eventStudents in this position will overlook the UMF team’s project through a logistical lensStudents will help facilitate the UMF team events and ceremonies.The student will play a key role in helping the project manager create a more efficient work process.

Marketing Plan 2.0

We want students to help us build a marketing strategy plan to grow and engage our target market: of donors. We’d like to know how we can maximize use of different channels and get recommendations to improve our messaging.The main questions we’d like students to help us answer are the following:How do students currently perceive our brand and marketing, based on publicly available information about our company?What channels should we utilize for promotion, including ones we are not currently using?What budget is appropriate for advertising, given our goals?How could our messaging be updated to better explain our value proposition?

User Research Study

We are looking to have students conduct usability tests. We will provide the customer contact information, and will obtain their consent to participate. Students will be responsible for:Interview schedulingDeveloping a script for the interviewConducting the moderated interview remotelyWriting the user research plan Analyzing the results and defining the solutionsFollowing up with the customers to share the final case studies and thank them for their participation

User Research Study

We are looking to have students conduct usability tests with 5 pre-identified customers, in order to test our latest prototypes for our next feature launch. We will provide the customer contact information, and will obtain their consent to participate. Students will be responsible for:Interview schedulingDeveloping a script for the interviewConducting the moderated interview remotelyWriting the user research plan Analyzing the results and defining the solutions

Research Assistant

The research assistants will support the research initiatives under the guidance of research faculty. Areas of inquiry including: Examples: political economy, immigration and labour markets, international trade, healthcare, urban development.

Business Administration

The primary focus for the student will be: (Remove any that don't apply)Strategy - Develop an implementation plan for entering a new market; develop a go-to-market strategy; identify new funding and grant opportunities, write proposals.Operations - Recommend process improvements or redesign processes; develop improvements to supply chain processes; introduce quality assurance into our internal processes.Marketing - Complete a full customer, competitor, market, and environmental analysis; complete a marketing strategy review; design a new marketing strategy (product, place, price, and promotion); Sales - Design a new/improved prospecting process for our sales team; design a new/improved pricing or service structure.

Diversity & Inclusion Strategy

Our company has dozens of volunteers with diverse backgrounds and experiences. We want to create an inclusive workplace where everyone feels valued.We would like to collaborate with students to create a diversity and inclusion strategy.This will involve several different steps for the students, including:Identifying areas for improvement based on our diversity audit data.Defining diversity goals and objectives for our company.Considering new diversity and inclusion training initiatives.Recommending ways to communicate diversity and inclusion initiatives to employees.Bonus steps in the process would also include:Recommending a timeline for evaluating our diversity and inclusion strategy.

Fundraising Plan

Our organization is committed to serving our target population. However, we are currently facing funding challenges.We would like to collaborate with students to develop a fundraising plan to meet our goals.This will involve several different steps for the students, including:Familiarizing themselves with our mission, values and goals.Familiarizing themselves with our past fundraising activities and donors.Conducting background research on fundraising strategies.Recommending suitable fundraising strategies and creating a timeline / calendar of these activities.Bonus steps in the process would also include:Assisting in implementing new fundraising activities.

Analyzing Sales Trends

We believe we have a good handle on our customer but we are lacking some knowledge into the acquisition of our customers. It is important for us to go back to the data we have on our sales process to determine key trends and patterns that will help us make informed decisions for the future of our business. Some areas that we hope to analyze include, but are not limited to, sales cycle length, average sale price, average ROI/customer, buying behaviours, etc.

Literature Summary Research Assistant

Our organization publishes dozens of papers every year to promote projects in our field of research. Among these papers are systematic reviews of relevant literature, which analyze the progression of research within our field.We would like to collaborate with students to support our literature review process by categorizing papers and summarizing important findings. This allows us to extract and process data more easily.This will involve several different steps for the students, including:Familiarizing themselves with our research and the types of academic papers that we are interested in.Reading studies relevant to our area of research.Applying the categorization scheme to classify relevant studies.Summarizing important results from relevant studies.Bonus steps in the process would also include:Working with researchers to draft a publication based on the results.

Blogging

We want to create a blog to strengthen our marketing.We would like to collaborate with students to create blog posts that drive more traffic to our website.This will involve several different steps for the students, including:Familiarizing themselves with our goals, target market, products and services.Recommending topics for our blog posts.Drafting blog posts relevant to our business.Revising blog posts based on feedback.Bonus steps in the process would also include:Recommending ways to market our blog.

Online Website Design

We would like to collaborate with students to produce a design prototype informed by real customer input and feedback that we can bring to a developer for implementation.This will involve several different steps for the students, including:Conducting user interviews and research on our industry, our target market, and desired website features.Designing a wireframe prototype for our website and mapping out user interactions.Documenting the design process and any additional insights that emerge.Testing the prototype with customers and surveying for feedback.Refining design ideas with input from experts and customers.Prototyping multiple versions of a design that includes the desired website features.

Data Collection Research Assistant

We would like to collaborate with students to support our interview process by assisting in data collection and verification of results. This will provide us with prepared datasets that are ready for further analysis.This will involve several different steps for the students, including:Familiarizing themselves with interview procedures and participating in training activities.Assisting researchers in contacting participants and setting up interviews.Recording, organizing, and storing results according to conventions.Verifying that data is recorded accurately.Cleaning data to ensure consistency and usability.Suggesting new research questions or modifications to improve the interview process.