Social impact

Each year, Bain London runs a number of pro bono consulting projects, working with organisations on projects that deliver results for the community.

Most recently, we have worked with our long-standing partner, the Private Equity Foundation, to develop a strategy for the London launch of its most recent investment, City Year. Launched in 2010, the scheme allows young people, known as "corps members", to spend 10 months working in schools as tutors, mentors and role models, leading in-school and after-school programmes and community projects.

Another example is our work with Business Action on Homelessness (BAOH). For the past 10 years, Bain London has been its national partner, developing its overall strategy and working on specific programmes to help homeless people move back into the workforce. Learn more about the results of this effort by reading our pro bono case studies.

"Bain & Company is proud to have supported BAOH over the last 10 years in establishing a world-class programme to help homeless clients return to the workforce and independent living. When Bain worked on the original BAOH strategy, it was clear that the general public felt that homelessness was a critical issue but businesses did not. The Ready for Work programme that we developed with BAOH has enabled businesses such as M&S, Carillion and the Royal Mail to help 5,000 homeless clients transform their lives. The BAOH programme delivers real, tangible results and we are proud to have contributed to its success over the last decade."

- Julian Critchlow, a London partner, sits on the board

Fund-raising is a core part of the Bain Cares programme in London. We run, for example, a give as you earn scheme, the Bain Cares fund, which has recently won the Gold Payroll Giving Quality Mark Award.

Eighteen per cent of the office has signed up to give monthly, and we have donated £50,000 to 14 charities through regular funding rounds and emergency appeals. The charities and projects we support vary greatly, but are proposed by people within the office with which they have a particular connection. Examples include:

• Building a primary school classroom in Mozambique (Vila Maninga)
• Setting up a sewing cooperative in Uganda (Soft Power Education)
• Saving penguins from the effects of climate change (ZSL London Zoo, Penguin Futures Project)
• Housing and educating two orphaned girls in Kenya (One Home Many Hopes)
• Bringing sexual advisory road shows to areas with poor sexual health in the UK (Brook)

"The Bain Cares Fund provides an efficient way for employees to support high impact charity projects, especially where there is a personal connection to the cause."

Many consultants from the London office choose to take advantage of the opportunity to complete a six-month externship at a nonprofit organisation, such as The Clinton Foundation, Bridgespan, the Carbon Trust and Technoserve. These externships provide an opportunity for consulting staff to use the skills they have developed at Bain to help a charitable organisation, whilst gaining experiences and learning new skills they can bring back to Bain.

Read about Belita’s externship experience at the Carbon Trust.

"I organised a winter coat drive, in conjunction with Connection at St. Martin's, which assists the homeless. For two weeks, Bainies were encouraged to bring in their old or unused winter coats which we then donated."

- Ben, Associate Consultant

"The charity was immensely grateful and reported to us that many of the people they serve will be better equipped to stay warm and look the part when heading to more formal meetings, job interviews, etc. It was very successful and we plan to continue the effort."

Business Action on Homelessness (BAOH) - Case study
At the senior leadership level, we run our Sounding Board programme, an innovative effort that partners our senior consulting staff with CEOs of UK charities for informal counsel and advice. In addition, we offer the group seminars where we explore how Bain consulting ideas and tools can be applied to nonprofits. We work with almost 20 of the leading charities in the UK such as The Prince's Trust, Private Equity Foundation, Impetus Trust, Brook, the sexual health charity, Right to Play and others.
Download a PDF of the BAOH case study

Right to Play - Case study
Right to Play (RTP) is an international nonprofit organisation making a huge impact with children in some of the poorest, disease-affected and war-torn parts of the world. Founded by the Norwegian speed skating star and four-time Olympic gold medallist Johann Olav Koss, the organisation's mission is to use sport and play programmes to improve health, develop life skills and foster peace for children in some of the most disadvantaged areas of the world.

Bain was first introduced to Right to Play when Jimmy Allen, a Bain London partner, met Johann in Davos in 2006. Jimmy later got Right to Play's UK office involved in the Sounding Board programme and matched Johann with Pat Manning, a UK-based partner who just happened to be an Olympic silver medallist in rowing.

Bain has helped Right to Play focus its fund-raising strategy, in particular clarifying where to win and how to win. The team applied many lessons from the for-profit world, and twice during this process, small teams of associate consultants were invested to deep-dive into fund-raising market opportunities by country and complete a full potential assessment for mass-market fund-raising strategies.

Work on the sustainable growth strategy has helped RTP to focus its fund-raising efforts for sustainable growth. Most importantly, the team has helped RTP to take items "off of plate", so that the organisation can become sustained value creators in its niche of the international development community.