The Social Impact Project (SIP) is a five-week project for both Master and Full-time MBA students. It offers students the opportunity to serve as an economic or management consultant for an organization with specific social impact objectives.
Make a positive impact during your studies
If you are interested in getting hands-on experience and making a positive impact, all while developing your management and leadership skills, then the Social Impact Project, taken as part of the Full-time MBA, or Master's in Global Management, is for you.
Who can take part in the Social Impact Project?
The Social Impact Project is an integral part of the Master in Global Management curriculum and also optional for Full-time MBA students during their summer term. Students act as an economic or management consultant for an organization with specific social objectives.
What are the benefits of the Social Impact Project?
- Students get to apply management theory to a real problem, including fieldwork, research, or project management;
- find solutions to that problem, and if possible during the project timeline, help to implement the solutions;
- directly help society as a whole – this is not a project to maximize profit, but a project to maximize the welfare or satisfaction of stakeholders that the client organization serves.
Which organizations can I work with as part of the Social Impact Project?
You can complete your social impact project at a variety of organization types, such as:
- The CSR department in a for-profit company
- An NGO
- A local non-profit organization
- A social entrepreneurship venture
- A company launching a new product or service that serves the poorest members of society (microfinance, etc.)
Past student projects
- Allianz SE | Group Sustainability, Munich/Germany - Researching and setting up suitable models for further enhancing Global Partnerships
- Beca a un Pana, Venezuela - Creating a sustainable business plan for a student scholarship fund NGO
- COVID-DATA, Berlin/Germany - Creating publicity strategy for different COVID-19 vaccines in the market
- Freundeskreis Nepal e.V., Nepal - Developing a fundraising strategy for an education and inclusion NGO that addresses disability discrimination
- GIZ, Cambodia - Opportunity assessment of decentralized smart grids solutions for the food & agricultural sector
- SINA, Uganda - Plastic Upcycling in Ugandan Refugee Camp
- UNDP, Uganda - Finding innovative solutions to make Uganda Tourism Ecosystem Platform (UTEP) financially sustainable in the mid- and long term
Student voices from the Social Impact Project
A year and a half ago, I didn’t know any of these guys, I had never been to India, and I had never consulted on a startup. I really felt lucky to have been given this opportunity.
My favorite memory from ESMT was from when I was working on the Social Impact Project in Kochi, India. We had just finished four weeks of intensive business development consulting for a shrimp farming startup.
The ESMT team: Son, Costa, Itay, and I, had decided to take a road trip through Kerala and Tamil Nadu. On the first day of our trip, we woke up at five am to walk through the tea plantations of Munnar and watch the sunrise. I realized how amazing and random it was. A year and a half ago, I didn’t know any of these guys, I had never been to India, and I had never consulted on a startup. I really felt lucky to have been given this opportunity.
