Amanda Brennan (MBA), Zi Dvoskina (MSBA), Aditya Ganpule (MSIM), Evelina Wongosari (MBA)

Investment to Personal Capital: Elucidating CORE

The team brought a multi-dimensional set of talents to the table for Fashion Revolution USA. With our diverse backgrounds and skill sets, we were able to look at the challenge holistically.

• Aditya: “Fashion Revolution USA posed a fund-raising challenge which helped us in gaining detailed insight into the operations of the industry. Targeting the strong demographic of Millennials and Gen-Z to increase awareness about the harsh realities of fast fashion while also being able to generate funds to support the cause is something that inspired me to be a part of this team to help solve Fashion Revolution USA’s problems. This consultancy project provided us with an immaculate platform to demonstrate our analytical and strategic skills.”
• Amanda: “As someone who currently works at a human services nonprofit, I am interested in learning more about the business side of how a nonprofit works. Fashion Revolution USA’s challenge around how to increase fundraising for GenZ and Millennials is interesting and will also give me an opportunity to try out consulting, a potential career I see for myself in the future.”
• Evelina: “This challenge granted me an opportunity to learn about the business and operations of nonprofits, which I had nor prior background of. It served as a channel for me to apply all the knowledge and skills of marketing, strategy development, and consulting I have gained through the MBA program. My strong interest in sustainability also aligned with Fashion Revolution USA’s mission so I was very motivated to help this organization.”
• Zi: “Fashion Revolution inspired me to be creative & bring ideas based on my event planning & fashion experiences. As someone who never worked in non-profit, I was introduced to fundraising and had to take ethical nuances that i never thought of before into consideration.”

Investment to Social Capital: Developing Trust

To understand the best options for Fashion Revolution USA, the team conducted an interview with Kathleen Grevers, the Director of Education, to understand the organization and dig further into the challenge. Following this interview, the team focused our research on:

• GenZ and Millennial trends in nonprofit engagement and charitable giving
• Social media engagement across platforms and influencer marketing
• Partnership opportunities with small or local businesses owned by Millenials and Gen Zs
• Hybrid & virtual fundraising events
• Fiscal sponsorship and fundraising laws and regulations

Investment to Professional Capital: Adding Value

After conducting an extensive research into the market and industry, a SWOT analysis was conducted to identify current opportunities while leveraging Fashion Revolution USA’s existing resources and strengths. Through this analysis, we were excited to develop an innovative and creative fundraising strategy targeting Millennials and Gen-Zs for the nonprofit. We made three core recommendations to:

• Increase Fashion Revolution USA’s presence on Instagram and Facebook to keep the target audience engaged and increase awareness.
• Build relationships with social media influencers to spread Fashion Revolution USA’s cause, events & fundraising activities among their networks.
• Develop hybrid environments and opportunities to attract skilled talent, build relationships and drive donations in the long run.

Capital Utilization: Developing Tools for the Future

While the focus of this case was to address a challenge for Fashion Revolution USA, each of us gained a lot of knowledge and experience that will help us as we move forward in our own careers.

• Aditya: Fashion Revolution continues to be extremely committed towards their mission of addressing fast fashion which is evident in their decision making as well. Mindfully collaborating with brands which supplement their vision is something which stood out for me as it portrayed their commitment towards their work and the sort of impact they are trying to create in the fashion industry, demonstrating perfectly how to stay true to the mission. This project also helped us in understanding the importance of efficiency, how utilizing the resources available to maximize the output, depicting the essence of the non-profit sector.
• Amanda: One thing that stood out to me most about Fashion Revolution USA is how much they stay aligned to their mission in every decision they make. As our team provided recommendations, Kathleen was careful to ensure we discussed them through the lens of what Fashion Revolution stood for. This important skill will be something I take back to my own work within the nonprofit world.
• Evelina: A big piece from this experience that I will take with me is the ability to develop an effective solution when faced with limited resources or real-world constraints. Often times we have a tunnel vision on the things we want to accomplish, but we must make sure that the plans can be implemented. So I think having a balanced expectation of what works ideally and realistically is very important.
• Zi: Previously acquired data & research skills, plus experience in event planning were challenged by totally new ways of thinking, sometimes very different to what I was used to in the for-profit world.

Fashion Revolution USA Team:

Amanda Brennan (MBA), Zi Dvoskina (MSBA), Aditya Ganpule (MSIM), Evelina Wongosari (MBA)