Execute global strategy for a nonprofit’s Mexico operations

The Situation

We identified 12 initiatives to help NonprofitOrg Mexico* support its 47 entrepreneurs and work effectively with its more than 300-mentor network that advises its members.

Bain's diagnostic identified the following high-priority areas of opportunity for NonprofitOrg Mexico:

• Most of the entrepreneurs that become part of NonprofitOrg lacked a clear strategy and actions to promote sales and job growth.
• The number of clients and indirect employees (high-caliber mentors, for example) had grown substantially (~100% CAGR over the course of the last five years) and informal management of resources was producing inefficiencies.
• Seasonal funding and projected increase in operations could put the sustainability of NonprofitOrg Mexico in jeopardy.
• Feedback from entrepreneurs was recorded at a global level, but not at a local level (and mentors' opinions were not collected, which was a critical oversight).

Our Approach

To attack each of the high-priority areas of opportunity, the Bain team developed the following specific initiatives:

• Plan of Action Phase (PAP): Bain and NonprofitOrg Mexico created a program in which new NonprofitOrg entrepreneurs team with two strategy-oriented mentors to define and refine their strategy and key actions.
• To effectively manage the most important resource that NonprofitOrg has, its mentors, the Bain team created four initiatives:
  • Mentor Selection Process: We identified the key criteria to ensure that NonprofitOrg Mexico invites the best mentors possible.
  • Mentor Welcome and Training: Working together with NonprofitOrg management, we defined the welcome pack, training documents and processes to articulate expectations of mentors throughout the program.
  • Mentor Matching Process: A new tool will allow the NonprofitOrg team to match the best mentor to a specific service, taking into account expertise and commitment level.
  • Mentor Recognition Program: We helped NonprofitOrg define what activities to incentivize based on specific a specific recognition program for mentors.
• To guarantee the sustainability of NonprofitOrg's operations. The Bain team helped define a new funding strategy based on creating sponsorship bundles to increase the attractiveness of becoming a sponsor, i.e. market driven: fee charged to entrepreneurs receiving services, network generated: sponsorship opportunities, bundle programs, amount-based, and event-specific.
• Implement NPS® to create an experience enhancement process in which NonprofitOrg's clients (both entrepreneurs and mentors) are taken into account. With NonprofitOrg's team input, we identified the key touch points for each group and created specific surveys. Furthermore, the Bain team laid out the technological requirements so NPS can be managed from NonprofitOrg's technology system.

Our Recommendations

The Results

We piloted the Plan of Action Phase (PAP) with one entrepreneur and the results were encouraging. He commented, "The PAP sessions were the best meetings we have had since we started our company."

Regarding the new funding options, during the project NonprofitOrg Mexico was able to sell the first bundle for more US $130 thousand.

During our implementation, we were able to execute the first NPS survey and learned that NonprofitOrg Mexico has a high NPS.

As a result of the successful implementation of the new strategy and improvements in Mexico, NonprofitOrg is planning to roll out many of the core initiatives in its offices around the throughout the world.