During the first semester of the Center’s signature Cause Consulting course in 2007, The World Bank funded fourteen graduate students’ participation in a nine-month class project focused on auditing, developing and implementing strategic communications plans for the four nonprofits in the World Bank East of the River Initiative. Student teams worked collaboratively with the individual nonprofits to help build the foundation for a sustainable communications effort within each organization. The success of the students’ work was immediately evident, the nonprofits experienced greater capacity and knowledge of how to use communications more strategically within their organizations.
After the immense success of the curriculum partnership and building on the relationship with the Center, The World Bank created a Nonprofit Communications Research Assistant position to continue the work of Center students. The Research Assistant conducted in-depth interviews about the nonprofits’ experiences with Center students, which resulted in a deeper understanding of organizational change driven by the consulting. These interviews led to the creation of best practices and principles that were widely shared with the nonprofit community.