A.T. Kearney develops pro bono donation concept for school building project in Uganda

Donations of 25.000 Euro generated for association „Give a goat“

17 February 2010 — Düsseldorf: As part of its pro bono initiative “Create a Difference”, the top management consultancy A.T. Kearney has been working with two teams of students to develop a wide-ranging donation concept and a feasibility study for the construction of a school in Uganda. The recently completed project for the “Give a goat” association generated donations amounting to over 25,000 euros. For several years now A.T. Kearney has been providing free support to student teams under its “Create a Difference” initiative to help them run projects operating in the social or cultural sphere or other areas of public good.

Under the A.T. Kearney pro bono initiative “Create a Difference”, selected consultants are on hand to support the student teams in a mentor role throughout the duration of their project, while also providing resources such as graphics and research capacity. “A.T. Kearney has already helped a whole series of public-benefit projects to succeed through its ‘Create a Difference’ initiative. A fundraising concept was drawn up for an internationally renowned opera house, for example, and an intercultural exchange programme was designed for young people”, says Martin Sonnenschein, Managing Director A.T. Kearney Central Europe. “The student teams that we support are given professional coaching to plan and implement their projects, which guides them to a successful outcome. This gives them first-hand experience of the central importance of entrepreneurial thinking and action – not only for management consultants.”

“Give a goat”

The focal point of the most recently completed “Create a Difference” project was the development of a donation concept and preparation of a feasibility study for the construction of a school in Uganda on behalf of the non-profit association “Give a goat”. The association was founded with the aim of improving living conditions for the population in Uganda. “This involved setting up a goat farm, which gives pregnant goats to needy families. The families can then use the milk from the goats to feed their children, and build up their own goat breeding business so that they can generate income for themselves. After two years the family has to give a young goat back to the farm to ensure continuation of the stock”, explains Claudia Witzemann, a principal at A.T. Kearney, who headed the project in collaboration with two consultants, David Uhlenbrock and Peter Schmidt.

“We were very pleased with the high level of social commitment shown by the voluntary project teams, and their willingness to display initiative and assume responsibility”, said Witzemann.

The volume of donations raised, over 25,000 euros, was far in excess of the expectations of the “Give a goat” association chairman, Robert Wunderlich: “I’m delighted with the great work done by A.T. Kearney and the two project teams. The great effort they have put in, their professionalism and passion and the results that they have achieved – we wouldn’t have dared dream of that before.” To obtain a goat, smallholders have to attend training courses and workshops at regular intervals. These are run by local employees, and deal with topics including animal husbandry, hygiene, nutrition, agriculture and even AIDS prevention.

The two pan-regional student project teams who ran the operational side of the project were constantly coached and supported by the consultants at A.T. Kearney. The process of designing and developing a comprehensive donation concept meant floating ideas and devising measures to generate long-term donation payments, with the aim of meeting ongoing costs and expanding the association, attracting companies to act as general sponsors for the association and establishing a patronage programme. A detailed feasibility study was also drawn up for the planned construction of a school in Uganda.

“Create a Difference” was originally designed for the German-speaking countries, but it is currently being rolled out on an international scale and is open to voluntary projects around the world. Further information is available at www.create-a-difference.de.