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Aisha Coons

An Impact Story: Mentoring Future Generations of Professionals

Updated: May 21, 2022

Every hard-working student deserves to have a bright future, don’t they? Learn how a comprehensive nonprofit marketing strategy empowered a nonprofit e-mentoring network to revamp its website and reach its target market—to better engage its mentors and mentees and find long-term corporate partners and investors.

Imagine a college student who has a clear plan for utilizing their degree after graduation, an arsenal of tools for how to accomplish their plan, and a professional mentor in the field who can give them guidance along the way. Sounds like a recipe for success, doesn’t it?


However, many students are not so fortunate to know the ins and outs of their desired career field. Often, especially for first-generation college students, they are at a disadvantage in terms of knowing how to translate their hard work in college into a thriving career in their field.


Luckily, that’s where mentorship programs come into play. One example is a nonprofit organization of e-mentoring network, founded in 1997, which fosters relationships between STEM students in college with professionals in the same fields to help them succeed.


However, with all of this great work, there also came challenges. When this nonprofit approached CLASS, the organization was struggling in key areas while experiencing changes in leadership. They needed help with securing and maintaining revenue streams and increasing and sustaining current corporate relationships.


Meanwhile, the organization was also dealing with precarious expectations for the new management, having mentors leave to work for competitors, and relying on their partners’ cultures.


Propelled by our passion to provide nonprofit consulting services to nonprofits on the West Coast to better employ their resources, CLASS’s plan of action was three-fold. Our team interviewed existing and potential corporate partners and current and previous staff of the client. We reviewed marketing programs and their website composition and layout. Additionally, we performed a competitive analysis.


Tactics for an Improved Marketing Strategy

The CLASS team suggested that the organization redefine its value proposition to focus on its benefit to the community, hold meetings between evangelists within corporate partnerships and CEOs in order to better relations, revamp the client website to improve navigation, and install security features for identity verification. CLASS helped to identify and characterize the key target market and suggested ways to connect with the target. Our team also recommended ways to retain and find new mentors as well as engage mentees.


The Amazing Results


Working with this nonprofit demonstrated how valuable it is to do a competitive analysis in order to boost a nonprofit’s marketing strategy.


Unsurprisingly, the results from this analysis yielded amazing results for this nonprofit e-mentoring network! The CLASS team was able to help the client boost their website and identify and draw in the target market—the goal being to connect mentors and mentees and to help find sustainable corporate partners and investors.


Want to learn more about our services and how we help nonprofits? Read some complete case studies here.


Impressed? Contact us here.


About The CLASS Consulting Group


The CLASS Consulting Group is a trusted advisor to the boards of directors and senior leadership of the West Coast nonprofit organizations. It is a boutique management consulting firm headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area that provides consulting services to senior management and boards of directors of nonprofit organizations and offers community leadership opportunities to professionals.   


Since 2002, CLASS volunteers have been assisting nonprofit organizations on the West Coast and supporting the communities in which we all live and work.  Learn more about our mission and story. 

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