Global Consulting Team

Brothers of Sharing
South solidarity summer camp

Exercise case
Background

• The past 25 years, Brothers of Sharing organizes a summer camp that tries to
activate participants from 16-30 years, to think North-South.
• In the last 10 years, the number of participants decreased from 200 to 50. Over
the past 3 years, they started to open up the event for families members also
(parents and/or children) to meet their aimed number of participants.
• The summer camp is a 5 days event in the first week of July, traditionally held in
“the Flanders camping site”. Each year the summer camp focusses on a different
theme/country where they want to draw attention to. They decorate the camp
accordantly and have funny, creative extra’s related to the theme (for example, they
use the local currency of the country on which they focus).
• During the event, participants can attend lectures, workshops, etc… There is also
an animation team to entertain the participants.
• Currently, the target group is Flemish youth (16-30 year). They assume,
however, that the sub-group 16-20 is the most important (literature has shown that
if you can activate these people, you have them for life).
Project description

Main question
• How can we activate young people for North-South projects with our summer
camp?
Expected deliverables
• Conduct an in-depth problem analysis.
• Provide recommendations on how to solve the problem.
• Create a suggestion of an action plan including a timeline.
Constraints (for current summer camp)
• Already determined that families will be invited.
• Location is fixed
• 1st week of July
The Seven-step framework
Global Consulting Team

7 Step Framework Training

Step 1: Define the problem
Problem definition

Problem definition in 6 steps

Test your problem definition Identify and classify stakeholders

6 1
with your client

Articulate the problem in Problem Understand their vision and

a SMART way 5 definition
2 long-term objectives

Review the literature 4 3 Understand their current situation

Problem definition

1. Identify and classify stakeholders

Stakeholder mapping matrix

• The main stakeholders are Role in program

High
the targeted (young) delivery

participants Young participants

Core
Organizing volunteers

• Nevertheless, they are not Direct

Influence on program success

interested in the program Indirect

success. Guest speakers Employees

Medium
• Other relevant stakeholders Board

are the joining families, the

(organizing) volunteers, the
board and employees of Joining families

Brother of Sharing, …
Low

Low Medium High

Interest in program success
Problem definition

2. Understand their vision and long-term objectives

Interview with employees of Brothers of Sharing

During this conversation, it became clear that Brothers of Sharing is really

frustrated by the fact that they perceive an increased interest in North-South
thinking, but face decreasing participants. They seem to not “connect” anymore
to the youngsters (= late teenagers and young adults).

Therefore, they believe the project should revise the whole idea of a summer
camp, rather than a desire to “just increase” the number of participants as
defined in the initial project outline. Instead of increasing the number of
participants, their ultimate goal is to increase the number of activated, or
socially engaged youngsters. They define an “activated” youngster as someone
who changed their way of thinking about the South and actively contribute to
the cause by either donations or engage in volunteering projects in the South.
In order to achieve this goal, they argue that the concept as we know today
might be completely reformed and other alternatives might be better suited to
achieve the desired goal.
Problem definition

3. Understand their current situation

Interview with employees of Brothers of Sharing

During another conversation we zoomed in on the current situation of the

summer camp.

They work together with a lot of other organizations who help them organizing
the workshops. The last two years they had a lot of problems with some of the
long-time partners and consequently, these organizations dropped out. There is
one crucial partner, FOODFAM, that still contributes a lot both in terms of
human capital and financial contributions. FOODFAM is a NGO focused around
hunger both in developed as developing countries.

Furthermore, the question was also raised why they fail to reach their targeted
audience. One assumption was raised that intrinsic motivated youngster have
more access to inform themselves about the topic and/or engage directly in
their quest to improve conditions in the South (i.e. going on a volunteering trip
or internship in the South).
Problem definition

4. Review the literature

• Focus on literature related to generation Y and generation Z and their way

of thinking

• Review literature on donations and socially oriented demographic

characteristics (e.g. which populations segments are normally more
socially engaged or more likely to donate to good causes)

• Quick research on the current market of South-oriented projects and the

other main Nonprofit organizations with the same cause
Problem definition

5. Articulate the problem in a SMART way

- Specific: formulated precisely
- Measurable: expressed in figures
- Action-oriented: geared towards action
- Relevant: related to the main problem
- Time-related: schedule is defined

Reformulated the initial main question to the following:

• INITIAL: How can we activate youngster for North-South projects with
our summer camp?
• NEW: How can we bring together 100 conscious youths at our summer
camp next July and activate them for North-South thinking?
Problem definition

6. Test your problem definition with your client

Together with the client we agreed on the previous problem definition and
decided to focus on four domains
• Analysis of current concept and audience
• Segmentation of ‘youngster’ population and analysis of the future target
audience
• Propose alternative concepts, better suited for the targeted audience
• Rethink the marketing and use of communication channels to reach the
targeted audience
Global Consulting Team

7 Step Framework Training

Step 2: Break the problem into issues
 Issue tree

What is an issue tree and when is it useful?

WHAT? Definition
▪  An issue tree (or logic tree) is a
graphical breakdown of a question or
problem that dissects it into its
different components (issues)
vertically and that progresses into details
as it reads to the right

WHEN? Usefulness
▪ Issues trees are most useful in complex
and ambiguous situations as they
help to see how each piece fits into the
whole picture of a problem
▪ They are useful in problem solving to
structure the problem and to identify
the root causes of a problem as well as
to identify its potential solutions
 Issue tree

How to build a good issue tree?

HOW? Key characteristics of issue trees
▪ Mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive (MECE)

– Mutually exclusive means that the occurrence of one event effectively precludes the occurrence
of another
– Collective exhaustion means that all possible options are listed at least once. It is imperative to
have complete information on a problem in order to solve it optimally and hence collective
exhaustion is extremely important

▫ Example 1: Issue tree for total costs = marketing costs, wages, production costs
 NOT MECE: many kinds of costs are missing such as rent, raw materials, etc.
▫ Example 2: Potential customers = old people, mid-aged people and rich women
 NOT MECE: rich women can also be part of the two other groups

A B C A B C

MECE thinking is perhaps the most important concept in problem solving as it enables one to look
at the big picture while being aware of the finer details at the same time
 Issue tree

How to build a good issue tree?

WHERE? Important sources of information

▪ Client Requests: Initial starting point. It’s best to spend some time thinking about everything you
might possibly need as the project evolves, since you don’t want to use too much of your client’s
time. Examples: Financial data (budgets, prices, accounts), personnel data, market research,
operational/logistical data, etc.

▪ Comparable Organizations: Oftentimes, you’ll look at what comparable (successful) organizations

are doing to help move your client in the right direction. Be careful about looking for real peers, not
just the best-in-class, to set attainable goals.

▪ Social Impact Information Material: Journals like the Stanford Social Innovation Review, or the
McKinsey Quarterly, provide solid analyses for common problems and solutions facing nonprofits.

▪ Clients’ Social Media: You can get a surprising amount of information from the social media
presence of your client. Specifically, you get information on how they brand themselves, who they
interact with, what their presence is like, etc.

▪ Mentor Research: If your branch works with consulting mentors, they’re definitely sitting on
research about social impact groups and how they work, especially in niche areas.
 Issue tree

Why are issue trees useful in consulting projects?

WHY? Key Advantages
▪ Facilitates planning ▪ Facilitates problem- ▪ Facilitates
– Working in parallel solving communication
possible – Parts of problem – Concentration on
– Difficulties easier to easier to handle key topics
detect – Ensures – Context clearer
– Scheduling more completeness
transparent – Focused topics more
– Goal-oriented approach easily recognizable
 Issue tree

Issue tree of Brothers of Sharing

• How can a young person be ‘activated’, or more socially engaged?

Consumption
pattern
Financial
Donation and
memberships

Activated
External
Active all-
Active
year
volunteer
Internal volunteer
Engagement (Brothers of
Sharing)
Ambassador Summer Organizing
for the South camp volunteer

Focus of this project

 Issue tree

Issue tree of Brothers of Sharing

Target the
• By a better understanding Segmentation best suited
of the aimed segment and segment

more precise targeting, we Content

provided
can change and adapt the
current concept, content Current way
of working
and marketing of the Increase the
with
volunteers
Concept
summer camp and number of
participants of the Financial
consequently, increase the summer camp to changes
at least 100 in the
number of participants of first year
the summer camp to at Rethink the
concept
least 100 in the first year.
General
marketing
Marketing
Marketing of
summer camp
Global Consulting Team

7 Step Framework Training

Step 3: Prioritize issues
 Prioritize issues

Prioritizing led us to focus on segmentation, the

concept itself and summer camp marketing
Current way of
Marketing of
working with Rethink the summer camp
Easy/likely volunteers concept
Implementation

Plausible Content
provided

General Target the best

marketing suited segment

Challenging Financial
/unlikely changes

Low Medium High

Potential impact on participations

 Prioritize issues

Prioritizing led us to focus on segmentation, the

concept itself and summer camp marketing
Current way of
Marketing of
working with Rethink the summer camp
Easy/likely volunteers concept
Implementation

Plausible Content
provided

General Target the best

marketing suited segment

Challenging Financial
/unlikely changes

Low Medium High

Potential impact on participations

Global Consulting Team

7 Step Framework Training

Step 4: Issue analysis plan
Issue analysis plan

Issue analysis plan

Supporting
Issues Hypotheses rationales Analyses Sources End-product

Target: Hypothesis #1.1: Rationale #1.1:

The audience to The current targeted No segmentation in - Analysis of current - Interviews with - A good understanding
which the audience is not the the past and bad participants employees of the socially-engaged
organisations is most suitable understanding of their - Segmentation of the - Feedback from volunteer in Flanders
focussing on audience audience volunteering market participants - Selection of the
- Research volunteering correct segment
in Flanders: analysis
and trends

Concept: Hypothesis #2.1: Rationale #2.1: For both hypotheses: For both hypotheses: For both hypotheses:
Concept of The current concept Youngsters prefer to - Analysis of current - Feedback from current - New alternative
working with is perceived as act rather than to concept participants concepts how to
summer camps unattractive listen - Market analysis - Look at how provide content
- New concepts competitors provide
Hypothesis #2.2: Rationale #2.2: content
The content Intrinsic motivated - Brain storm for new
provided is not people have access to alternatives
attractive anymore a lot of information

Marketing: Hypothesis #3.1: Rationale #3.1:

Used marketing Used marketing Concept is hardly - Analysis of current - Literature on effective - Develop short- and
and tools are not known by any people marketing strategy marketing for long term action points
communication efficiently used because they don’t rely - Research effective generation Y and Z to reach the target
tools such as on any modern marketing strategy audience
mailing and marketing techniques
facebook
Global Consulting Team

7 Step Framework Training

Step 5: conduct analyses
Conduct analyses

The analyses are clustered around four steps

• Current concept and current participants analysis

- Analyze current participants group
- Analysis current concept
• Future target Target the best
- Volunteering in Flanders: trends and analysis suited segment
- New volunteer for Brothers of Sharing anno 2016
• Alternative concepts
Rethink the
- Market analysis concept
- Brainstorm new concepts
• Marketing
- Short-term employment Marketing of
summer camp
- Long-term development of a strong brand
Conduct analyses

Key takeaway: current concept and current

participant analysis
The current concept scores well, but fails to attract enough new participants. Strengthen the
current concept by short term marketing and better focus, evolve on long term towards an
alternative.

• Align the marketing campaign to the target group

- Mostly women from 16 to 25 year olds participate
- Aim especially at people in higher education or university
• Current marketing has limited range: need for more marketing
- New participants are very rare
- Most participants know the summer camp through friends, i.e. word-to-mouth
advertisement
- Participant retention among young people was high in 2014 but much lower in 2015
• Atmosphere and content are important
- Participants want more interaction and expertise in the topics (preferably in a nice
setting and atmosphere)
- Speakers, content and general atmosphere are appreciated
- Participants are open to a new concept
Conduct analyses

Key takeaway: future target group

(volunteering in Flanders: trends and analysis)

• Among all Belgians between 15 and 29 years 12.9% is doing

some kind of volunteering work
• Age is not ideal criteria for segmentation
- Focus on “fase in life” (some people are 18 and have children and a house,
some 28 year olds are still looking to expand their horizon)
- This highly depends on certain factors such as education or martial status
• Research has shown that especially higher education will lead
to more socially engagement
- Focus marketing effort on university and college
• Finding new volunteers is easiest through word-of-mouth
Conduct analyses

Key takeaway: future target group

(the “new” volunteer)

Volunteers have changed drastically in recent years.

• Individualization, self-development, flexibility and digitization define the

culture of the new volunteer
• Motivation reinforced by personal incentives, "Biographical Match“ and
appreciation
• The new volunteer is looking for short-term projects in which one does not
have to adhere to a specific organization
• The choice of activities is determined by capacity, variability of the program
and the social aspect
Conduct analyses

Key takeaway: alternative concepts

(market analysis)

• The target audience (16-30) can choose between a lot of high

quality alternatives
- Content alternatives (internships, etc.)
- Time-consuming, leisure alternatives (festivals in summer, personal
travels, etc.)
• Important of having a unique concept
- Importance of marketing to influence the perception of the concept
- Importance of differentiation (e.g. more focus on soft skills)
• Target audience want more and more extreme and adventurous
experiences
- Large demand for foreign experiences
Conduct analyses

Key takeaway: alternative concepts

(brainstorm new concepts)
CATEGORY CONCEPTS IDEAS
Business  Debate Week: panel discussions and debates
 Summer School: intensive training with certificate
 South Team challenge: solving cases related to the South

Festival  Mini-festival: music bands and workshops

 South festival: workshop surrounded with a foodtruck festival

Short events  Ghent Goes South: event in Ghent city with workshop for students
 Food sharing event: invite people from the south the cook and share their food culture
 Volunteer Days: several days without subscription with workshops
 Sport event: sport event as fundraising for the South

Foreign world  Volunteer Travel World Camp 2.0: World camp in the south, active engagement
camp  International World Summer camp: organize a summer camp abroad, in the South

Domestic  South Conference for youth movements: actively engage youth organization in south
world camp thinking by organizing a conference with workshops and presenations
Conduct analyses

Key takeaway: marketing

• A well-developped marketing plan is key to success
- Ensures that the target is reached
- In the short term, attract new people to the summer camp
- In the long term, support new concept
• Good marketing is also possible with limited budget
- Many (online) marketing channels are free
- Creativity is necessary to stand out
- New marketing (social media) demands interaction and can be time consuming!
• Invest the available resources in the most efficient marketing channels
- “The more marketing channels we use, the more people we reach” = NOT GOOD
- Pareto principle: 20% of the effort creates 80% of the result
- Start looking for marketing channels that reach the most people in your target market and
invest in these channels
Conduct analyses

How did we get to these summary key take-aways?

• Behind every key take-away are several slides to build up a story

• Explain they story behind the slides to your customer, preferably with
data and graphs
• Use short sentences or bullet points
• Take them through the different steps and show them how you came up
with your conclusions

• Examples of two detailed consulting slides

Conduct analyses

Key takeaway: current concept and current

participant analysis
The current concept scores well, but fails to attract enough new participants. Strengthen the current
concept by short term marketing and better focus, evolve on long term towards an alternative.

Have a look at the detailed consulting

slide (nextthe
• Align slide) to see how
marketing this was to the target group
campaign
presented to the
- Mostly women customer
from 16 to 25 year olds participate
- Aim especially at people in higher education or university
• Current marketing has limited range: need for more marketing
- New participants are very rare
- Most participants know the summer camp through friends, i.e. word-to-mouth
advertisement
- Participant retention among young people was high in 2014 but much lower in 2015
• Atmosphere and content are important
- Participants want more interaction and expertise in the topics (preferably in a nice
setting and atmosphere)
- Speakers, content and general atmosphere are appreciated
- Participants are open to a new concept
Conduct analyses

Decreased participation retetion between 2014 and 2015, word-of

mouth key determinant
First participation 2014 summer camp?
• About 37% of the participants participated for the first time in
2014
• The retention for 2014 is high
First participation 2015 summer camp?
Marketing
• Marketing has limited reach (decreased in 2015 compared to 2014
by almost 10%)
• Word-to-mouth through friends is most important
• FOODFAM is a crucial partner in creating publicity

• About 63% of the participants participated for the first time

in 2015 How did I got to know the summer camp?
50%
• The retention for 2015 is low
45%

• Between 2014 to 2015, a lot of participants decided not 40%

to join again on the summer camp 35%

30% 2014

2015
Is this your first participation? 25%

20%
70 63%
60 15%
50
37% 10%
40
% 30 5%
20
10 0%

0 Friends Marketing Own initiative FOODFAM

ja
2014 nee
2015
Conduct analyses

Key takeaway: marketing

• Aawell-developped
Have look at the detailed marketing
consultingplan is key to success
- Ensures
slide (next thatto
slide) the target
see howis this
reached
was
- In the short term, attract new people to the summer camp
presented to the customer
- In the long term, support new concept
• Good marketing is also possible with limited budget
- Many (online) marketing channels are free
- Creativity is necessary to stand out
- New marketing (social media) demands interaction and can be time consuming!
• Invest the available resources in the most efficient marketing channels
- The more marketing channels we use, the more people reached
- Pareto principle: 20% of the effort creates 80% of the result
- Start looking for marketing channels that reach the most people in your target market and
invest in these channels
Conduct analyses

SEO ensures that your website is higher in the search results. "Check-in"
services provide free advertising.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) "Check-in "services

Adjust content on the website so that your
website will be placed at the top of search
engines
• Search engines try to find a match based
on algorithms
• Titles of articles on the website are
very important
• Mentioning relevant terms
• North-South thinking
• youngsters
• ...
• Link to other website and create a
network of common click-through
websites
• Regularly edit content
People let friends know where they are,
what they are doing ... by "checking in"
• Popularized by emerging smartphones
• Free publicity
• Use of incentives to encourage people to
check-in
• Foursquare, Swarm, snapchat,
Instagram, ...
• Linked with social media (Facebook,
Twitter ...)
Global Consulting Team

7 Step Framework Training

Step 6: Synthesize findings
Synthesize findings

Importance of synthesizing the findings

• A synthesize is NOT a number of facts

- Fact are just descriptions of the created insights
• A synthesize is NOT a summary
- A summary is a merely compiling the gathered facts to one general problem
• Synthesing all comes down to asking ‘so what’ questions
- What implications to our findings have?

Many consultant teams do not invest sufficient time in synthesizing their findings.
However, this often is one of the highest value-adding components of the consulting
methodology.
Synthesize findings

Synthesis adds an insight that advances your

thinking: Social Enterprise (SE) example
Summary Synthesis
Brothers of Sharing has mostly Brothers of Sharing can increase
young women as participants. The its participants by tailoring the
modern volunteer has changed a concept and the related marketing
lot on different dimensions. to a well considered target
Furthermore, the concept lacks segment.
innovation to attract new
participants. Finally, the
organization does not use its
marketing tools effectively.

Facts
▪ See key-takeaways (cf. supra)
Global Consulting Team

7 Step Framework Training

Step 7: Develop recommendations
Recommendations

Develop recommendations (time schedule)

• Develop marketing plan for current concept

• In-dept analysis of the participants and selected target groups regarding their expectations (panel
January discussion, questionnaire, check alternatives with target audience, case studies)

• Adjust current concept where possible for this summer

• Development of new concept based on feedback for the next summer
February –
march • Rethink marketing strategy plan on the long term

• Develop action plan for summer camp next year

April – • Start to search for new competencies and/or partners needed for the new concept
May

• Summer camp
• Immediately start with kick-off of new concept, test and verify new concept with current participants
Summer