Minneapolis-St. Paul

Business Professionals

Compass forges lasting ties between local nonprofits and local business professionals to empower thriving, equitable, resilient communities. Build your professional network, chart a path to nonprofit board service, and gain invaluable experience and career development while giving back to the community. 
Contact: Lisa Gaffney, Program Manager, at lgaffney@compassprobono.org.

Consulting Program Overview
Compass offers volunteer opportunities based upon your skills, experience, and availability. Business professionals are assigned to a team of five volunteer consultants to serve on a project for one of our nonprofit clients. Projects run from late January through May.

The volunteer application closed on January 13, if you would like to be placed on the volunteer waitlist, please fill out this form.

Volunteer Roles

We are looking for enthusiastic and empathetic business professionals who are prepared to partner with nonprofits for the entirety of the project. It’s critical that volunteers enjoy team-based work and have the availability to attend regular team meetings. We do not accept anyone currently enrolled in undergrad, or full-time graduate programs.

Teams are composed of five/six volunteers: one Project Leader and four to five Team Members.

Project Leader Role
Project Leaders should have an MBA, a similar advanced degree, and/or significant management consulting or business experience. Project Leaders should expect to commit 4-6 hours/week from mid-January through May leading a team of four volunteers.

Team Member Role
Team Members must have at least one year of post-undergraduate professional experience in consulting, strategy, law, finance, marketing, technology, data analytics, nonprofit management, organizational design, communications/PR, HR, or entrepreneurship. Team Members should expect to commit an average of 3 hours/week (including team meetings) from late January through May.

Serving on a Project

At the start of the projects, volunteers are required to attend our virtual Volunteer Orientation and Service Line trainings. We also provide access to research and past project materials in an online Toolkit.

Each team decides when to hold regular team meetings, most team meetings will be conducted virtually. However, we strongly encourage teams to visit clients sites and gather in person in accordance with public health guidelines.

Application Process

Our online application collects your educational and professional background information, and also asks you to state your interest for each of our nonprofit clients and their projects. Staffing decisions are made by matching an applicant’s skills and project interests to the projects being offered.

The volunteer application dates: December 9 – January 13. If you would like to be placed on the volunteer waitlist, please fill out this form.