"Please explain if you have been involved in charity/volunteer and/or entrepreneurial activities, giving examples of your involvement, the amount of time you gave to each activity, and why you chose to get involved."
When you are shortlisting Charity, Volunteering, or Entrepreneurial Activities, remember that:
Entrepreneurial > Volunteering > Charity
Prioritize the list. If you need help shortlisting relevant examples and help with creating a succinct narrative, reach out to me.
What does the Business School want to know?
Business Schools want to know about your outlook and commitment to the well-being of your community.
The time invested is a big hint of what you care about - the causes that touched your heart.
Branded vs. Non-Branded
If you are applying to European, UK, or American universities, volunteering engagements in branded non-profits are valued over non-branded unless you were the founder/co-founder of the NGO/non-profit. Your non-profit should have some coverage in the media. Make sure that you gain some visibility (sponsored) or strategic partnership before applying.
Here is a narrative to get you started. Traditionally, the space in the application would be limited to 100-200 words. Change the narrative style accordingly. For anything over 250 words, the school is expecting some storytelling.
Sample Charity/Volunteer and/or entrepreneurial activities Essay (No Storytelling)
In <year>, in my first time as a marketing lead, I applied my planning, marketing, perseverance, persuasion, and fundraising strategies for <non-profit> to convince a 90s <sitcom_name> star to attend our fundraising event. Strategically convincing the star to participate and promote the event in Social Media and YouTube shorts helped us increase the number of influential attendees to 650. That night, the <y+$> raised in funds covered the cost of operations for 2 years and gave us the momentum to expand our reach from 1 to 5 cities in 2023.
Sample Charity/Volunteer and/or Entrepreneurial activities Essay (With Storytelling)
While in <location of non-profit>, I worked with a dedicated team on projects in education, healthcare, and rebuilding disaster-affected villages. Our fundraising reach was not wide enough to cover the cost. While developing the marketing plan, I realized that a celebrity's presence could make a huge difference in covering our costs.
My mission was to find a celebrity with a reputation for serving our causes. I was our team's public relations lead – a role I had never taken. After creating a list of 150 celebrities from all walks of life, I began my cold call routine with responses ranging from cursing to tentative "Yes." that quickly turned to no. I can whole-heartedly vouch for the old saying - "Perseverance pays."
My 98th call was with a man named Y, who was the agent of the popular 90s sitcom <name of the sitcom> star <actor_name>. He agreed to set up a meeting with the actor. I was elated but a little nervous about meeting this star. During our meeting over coffee, I started my pitch, highlighting our mission and the impact shining a light on our milestones would offer to the 10,000+ beneficiaries with healthcare, supplementary material for primary education, and providing skills that would take them out of intergenerational poverty. Before I had completed my plan for <year>, he said, "Yes ."
Our perseverance and entrepreneurial approach had paid off. We hosted our fundraising event on <date> at <hall name/location/premise>. The response was overwhelming, and we could cover the cost of the operations for the next two years with a single event. This was beyond our imagination.
I learned to apply my planning, marketing, perseverance, persuasion, and fundraising strategies for <non-profit> and expanded our initiative to 5 cities in 2023.
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