Grassroots, take-the-initiative involvement, a marriage of local and global perspectives, a passion and enthusiasm that spread from one man or woman to a whole office or the entire firm— these are what make the difference to the communities Bain serves.
Volunteers in Bain's Chicago office created a brand new school for inner-city kids. Volunteers in Amsterdam installed a solar-powered system at a remote hospital in Sierra Leone. Volunteers in Madrid figured out a quick way to raise nearly $200,000 for Japan's earthquake and tsunami victims. In 2009 and 2010 we volunteered approximately 40,000 hours—nearly four person-years—and we helped more than 100 organizations.
In addition to Bain's
volunteering and
fundraising efforts, offices around the world hold a Bain Cares Day. And Bain associate consultants in many of our US offices are involved in Inspire.
Bain Cares Day
One day each year, many Bain offices around the globe observe a Bain Cares Day. People close up their laptops, roll up their sleeves and go to work on a designated community project.
In Singapore, the latest beneficiary was the Henderson Senior Citizens’ Home; in Sydney, it was Clean Up Australia; in Germany, it was frog habitat restoration; and in India it was a home for street children.
Inspire
Bain consultants are constantly looking for ways to use the professional skills they develop at Bain to improve their local communities. Our partnership with Inspire allows them to do just that.
Inspire is a US-based nonprofit consulting group that supports junior consulting staff who wish to lead pro bono case teams serving education and youth development organizations. With Inspire, we apply management consulting strategies, tools, and techniques to help other nonprofits achieve greater social impact. Founded in 1998 by a group that included two Bain consultants, Inspire has spread to Bain offices across the country.
Our Inspire case teams have led to many outstanding results stories, from creating a successful expansion strategy for America SCORES Chicago, an after-school soccer and creative-writing program for urban youth, to developing a plan to increase fundraising by 70% for Room to Read, a nonprofit designed to build education infrastructure in Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, and other Southeast Asian countries.
From book to global movement
A few years ago, Bain alum (and Bridgespan partner)
Katie Smith Milway wrote a children's book titled
One Hen: How One Small Loan Made a Big Difference, to enlist children in the cause of microfinance. Then she co-founded One Hen, Inc (
www.onehen.org) to support an educator movement that grew up around it.
Excited by the possibilities, Bain Inspire teams got involved, helping the program get off the ground and then expand globally. Today, One Hen offers print, Web and classroom programs used throughout the US and in 140 other countries. "At every juncture in One Hen's rapid growth," says Smith Milway, "there has been a Bain team working to assemble the data, drive key decisions and even jump in to aid implementation."
