Social client consulting
Nonprofits, social enterprises and socially responsible businesses are pillars of our communities. At Bain, we're proud to apply our expertise, passion and energy to helping these organizations do even greater things.
Social sector consulting
Our social sector projects operate much like our for-profit work. We agree with the client on objectives and scope, draw from the Bain toolkit, and tailor our approach to meet our client's needs.
Our people contribute their ingenuity to help non-governmental organizations, foundations and community groups prosper. We are making a difference in many sectors around the world:
- Rowe Elementary School (Chicago): Bain consultants designed and planned a new K-8 public charter school in the low-income West Town community in Chicago. The Chicago office has continued to support the school with ongoing volunteer support, thought leadership on specific projects, and Board-level engagement. Read more
- Teach For America (New York): Bain joined Teach For America in building the movement to eliminate educational inequity by helping to identify areas for cost cutting while growing our organizational impact.
- 100 Black Men of America (Atlanta): Bain provided pro bono support to help this national nonprofit—aimed at educating and empowering African American children and teens—define a single strategic vision and a consistent set of objectives and goals to align the chapters.
Community and family development
- City Year (US): Bain was essential to City Year's founding and has been integral to the organization's development for more than 20 years. Twelve pro bono case teams have helped transform the US urban peace corps' operations, making it one of only 14 to achieve annual revenues of US$40 million-plus. Read more
- Business Action on Homelessness (London): Bain played a pivotal role in establishing BAOH as a credible and effective force for change, persuading businesses to provide support to homeless people and helping BAOH to expand its activities to 23 cities across the UK. Read more
- Florence (Tokyo): This organization provides babysitting services for mothers who can't stay home to take care of their sick children. Bain helped Florence to clarify its overall strategy and address pricing issues. Read more
International development - Clinton Foundation, HIV/AIDS Initiative (New Delhi): When this foundation launched an institute to train its dedicated nurses, our people created a successful business plan and provided implementation support.
- PlaNet Finance (Paris): Bain worked with PlaNet Finance, a global microfinance organization, to refresh their overall strategy and define their fundraising and organizational approaches.
Environmental sustainability - Fundação Amazonas Sustentavel (São Paolo): Bain provided fundraising and organizational structure strategies to help FAS turn Amazon communities into "guardians" of the forest. Read more
- Nature Conservancy of Canada (Toronto): Bain helped NCC review its operational and decision making processes and determine the most effective structures in its fundraising and other functional teams.
- Special Olympics (Mexico): With Bain's support, Special Olympics Mexico prioritized regional programs for investment, identified additional service offerings and tapped into new sources of funding from individuals and local governments.
- World Heart Federation (Germany): "Go Red for Women" is a heart health awareness raising and educational campaign started in the US and licensed to the WHF for international expansion. Bain helped with their growth strategy, working jointly to identify the highest priority markets, required activities and global sponsors. The Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada (HSFC): In collaboration with HSFC, Bain helped develop a national strategy for HSFC's CPR training program. Bain continues to support HSF by playing an advisory role on an HSFC strategic planning initiative.
- Improving donor loyalty in the Spanish nonprofit sector: Bain joined forces with nine of the largest nonprofit organizations in Spain, such as UNICEF, the Red Cross and Medecins sans Frontiers, to enhance their donor loyalty strategies and create a sector-wide action plan to address the impact of the economic downturn.
- Jet Li One Foundation (China): Bain shared its expertise to help Jet Li One Foundation become China's first nongovernment-based public foundation. Read more
- World Childhood Foundation (Stockholm): Bain's multiyear partnership with World Childhood Foundation of Sweden has created a platform for sustainable growth for the organization. Bain's work has helped Childhood's executive board focus on fewer, more impactful projects, strengthen its fundraising base and build the organizational capacity to improve the living conditions of the world's most vulnerable children. Read more
Socially relevant issues
In addition to providing pro bono consulting services to nonprofits, we also work with our for-profit clients directly on socially relevant issues. We have a strong track record in a number of areas. Though we need to preserve confidentiality for our clients, read more below on the types of work we undertake.
Sustainability
We work with a diverse range of clients on sustainability issues ranging from alternative energy and renewables to waste and recycling.
- Global solar equipment manufacturer: supported major ramp-up of business by improving sales pipeline management, account penetration, and commercial execution
- New renewables division of a utility company: developed a business model and financial plan, including market assessment and required capabilities
- Fuel cell technology manufacturer: analyzed future demand and refined the corporate business plan
- Synthetic fuels manufacturer: defined organic growth and acquisition opportunities
- Global packaging company: developed an environmental strategy and action plans to meet environmental targets
Economic development
We help national and local governments develop plans to increase the economic and social strength of their territories. For example:
- Worked with a leading Middle Eastern nation to create sector diversification and foreign direct investment plan
- Helped a regional government in Spain optimize their portfolio of state-run enterprises to achieve economic development goals
- Worked with the investment arm of a Southeast Asian trade union to improve triple bottom-line returns from their social enterprise holdings
Higher education
We work with leading higher education institutions around the world to improve their effectiveness and enhance their ability to achieve their educational mission. For example:
- Worked with a leading state university in California to improve their operating cost structure to create a sustainable infrastructure and free up funds for core education and research agendas
- Supported a US east coast state university to improve its recruitment, retention, progression, and graduation of Hispanic/Latino students
- Assisted a major international business school in Europe to identify how it should organize itself to achieve its target growth objectives
Arts, sports, and health
Much of our work in the healthcare industry helps leading institutions deliver on ambitious agendas to improve medical knowledge and access to high quality care. For example:
- Supported a prominent nonprofit medical research center to develop a seven-year strategic plan, including a long-term vision, required points of differentiation and detailed strategic initiatives
- Worked with a publicly-funded, university-affiliated hospital group to test the feasibility of a proposed new hospital and research center
- Facilitated exploration of a possible strategic collaboration between a leading hospital and top-ranked medical school
