A National Imperative: Joining Forces to Strengthen Human Services in America (Jan 2018)

CASE STUDY: ALTERNATIVE REVENUE STREAMS AT SPONSORS FOR EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITY

Sponsors for Educational Opportunity , or SEO, was founded in 1963 to assist underserved students with college preparation. The organization provides a free, rigorous 8 year academic and mentoring “Scholars” program for almost 1,500 students. These students come from economically disadvantaged families, the vast majority are first generation college students, and 90% of them, with SEO’s support, ultimately graduate from college. In 1980, SEO started a complementary program, “SEO Career,” which provides career training and job placement services to underserved college students. The program places almost 300 students into internships with leading banks, investment firms, and corporations, and roughly 80% of these interns go on to receive full-time offers of employment from their intern employers. SEO added a “Law” program in 1986, pairing high-achieving minority students preparing to matriculate at top law schools with corporate law firms seeking a more diverse talent pool. The Career and Law programs are completely consistent with the organization’s core mission of helping underserved students. From a business perspective, though, these programs are very different. The Scholars program provides services to students free of charge. The Career and Law programs also benefit students, but they are also a valuable service for the corporate partners who hire SEO students as interns and for the law firms who recruit SEO law students as entry-level attorneys. Like other third party providers of recruiting services, SEO receives fees for these services. Historically, the Career and Law programs together have earned a surplus (in effect a “profit”), which has helped fund other aspects of the organization’s work (such as the Scholars program), for which SEO receive no fees its services, and which are otherwise funded by philanthropic donations. These in-house ventures are therefore critical contributors to the larger organization’s financial health and stability.

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