Business management students in the Jacksonville University Davis College of Business & Technology are making a social impact on the community through working with nonprofit organizations to help them streamline their marketing efforts.
The projects are part of the Davis College pilot program, called “Business for Social Good,” sponsored by JU’s Center for Organizational Research and Executive Education, in conjunction with the Nonprofit Center of Northeast Florida.
“Our Davis College’s Business for Social Good projects are part of our strategic initiative to pursue and deliver long-term social impact,” Jim Simak, JU CORE director, said in a Nov. 20 news release.
This semester, the students are working with the UF Health Child Protection Team, the Literacy Alliance of Northeast Florida, The Tributary, Barnabas and the Marie Barney Boston Scholarship Foundation.
For UF’s Child Protection Team project, senior JU management students worked with computing students to establish a marketing strategy and build a new website for the Healing Hands charity that supports the team activities including child abuse awareness and response, water safety programs and sleep safety for newborns.
Students from the university’s Zimmerman Scholars Program supported the efforts and held a fundraiser to restock Jay’s Closet, which provides clothes and snacks for children who are served by the Child Protection Team.
“With this specific nonprofit, their motivation is the impact of saving a child, where everything they do directly correlates to children in their homes and those walking into their offices. Having this emotional investment translates into wanting to put the best work out possible,” JU business student Hannah Gagnon said in the release.
All of the clothing donations, matched by College of Business Dean Barbara Ritter, will be given to children who are abused and neglected.
“We can’t charge clothes to the state, so having clothes donated allows each child to have a new pair of clothes to leave with in order to keep their dignity,” Valerie Stanley, Child Protection Team associate director, said in the release.
“The students designed a website and logo for us and that’s going to keep us in the public eye, which will get us some much-needed visibility.”
Students working with the Literacy Alliance suggested creating a Mobility Bus, which will allow the company to grow geographically and help more people.
“The Literacy Alliance established a culture of creativity and problem solving that resulted in more than 100% growth in adult education over the last five years. The challenge became how to maintain that culture of innovation while managing the unprecedented growth,” alliance CEO Marcus Haile said in the release.
The university said CORE intends to establish Business for Social Good as a regional or national initiative in 2024. The Center for Organizational Research and Executive Education is the outreach arm of the Davis College, providing consulting and executive education programs to the university’s industry partners.
CORE supports the social impact strategy of the Davis College by inspiring positive change in organizations in Jacksonville and the surrounding region.
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