5th Annual Business+Impact Showcase – 2022

The +Impact Studio at the Ross School of Business is a campus hub for impact creators and innovators. Launched within the Business+Impact Initiative in 2019, our mission is to bring impactful ideas to life using business knowledge, design tools, and research expertise. The +Impact Studio encompasses a collaboration space, an interdisciplinary graduate course, a design lab for impact-focused ventures and projects, and workshops and events. Our model activates the vast expertise and research insights from across campus to support the development and launch of powerful, impactful concepts.

180 Degrees Consulting is the world’s largest consultancy focusing on social enterprises, nonprofits, and international focused Fortune 500 companies. We provide organizations around the world with high quality and affordable consulting services. 180DC works with organizations to develop innovative, practical, and sustainable solutions for the challenges they face.

At the 180DC Michigan branch, we are driven by a passion to help these organizations solve unique challenges so they can make the greatest social impact in their respective communities. Our members share a common goal of taking part in consulting work that is not only challenging, but meaningful and rewarding. Finally, more than a student organization, we are a family that spends time together through a variety of social events throughout the year.

We accept applicants at the beginning of both Fall and Winter semesters. To learn more about joining, please visit our website!

BLUElab is a student organization composed of four active project teams that are united through a sustainable, socially engaged design process. We believe that design is about people, and that the best designs are sustainable, taking into account all social, economic, and environmental impacts. For these reasons, our project teams are multidisciplinary and emphasize collaboration with local and international stakeholders to ensure that identified needs (typically in the areas of agriculture, education, energy, resource management, and water) are appropriately addressed. We offer students the opportunity to hone their interpersonal skills, engage in social responsibility, participate in an interactive design experience, and develop as servant leaders.

Check out our website for more info, as well as the interest form and Instagram to stay in the loop with recruitment!

 Blueprints For Pangaea is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization providing sustainable solutions to inefficient health care resource distribution. With the support of our supplier and distributor partners, we reallocate excess, unused medical supplies from U.S. hospitals to those overseas in need.

Through this sustainable, scalable model, we redistribute precious resources from areas of great surplus to areas of great need, minimizing domestic inefficiency while mobilizing accessible health care in emerging communities.

We accept applicants at the beginning of the Fall and Winter semesters. To learn more about joining, visit us at www.blueprintsforpangaea.org or reach out at contact@b4pglobal.orgAccordion Content

Michigan Ross seeks to build a better world through business. Business+Impact is the central hub for these efforts, providing ideas and solutions to address the global challenges of our generation. We aim to embed impact deeply into every core activity of Ross, including teaching, research, and outreach. As such, impact is not a silo, but an integral part of the DNA of our business school. 

Ross already has a strong reputation for impact, with centers and institutes focused on worldwide challenges, and one fifth of incoming students expressing an interest in impact careers. But as we go forward, in addition to our existing programs and Impact Gateway, we will pursue the creation of a new +Impact Studio for coworking, a social innovation series to disseminate impact research, and deeper engagement with Detroit.

Business+Tech is building a stronger and more connected tech community at U-M and beyond. We generate innovative context to expand tech literacy and curate action-based learning opportunities to advance tech competency. Open to students from all schools/colleges, our programs incorporate competitions, panels, speakers, and networking events that support those looking to pivot into tech or start a career at a tech company. Interested in learning more? Email Emilee Studley, Business+Tech Program Manager at studleem@umich.edu.

The Center for Positive Organizations is the leading global center for the science of designing and sustaining thriving organizations. Located in the Ross School of Business, we are the launchpad for those looking to build thriving organizations and careers. We offer world-class curriculum, learning experiences, and programs that lead to work filled with meaning and positive contributions. Our students gain the knowledge, tools, and resources to change the business world for the better. We are a Center of visionaries and revolutionaries.

To learn more about our student programs, visit the Students section on our website by selecting “Students” from the “Learn” dropdown menu.

Socially Engaged Design is human(ity) centered – not just user centered.   We consider broad contexts through an equity-centered lens that impact the practice of engineering, including social, cultural, political, economic, and environmental factors that can completely change the design of solutions.  Further, we push designers to analyze how their own identities and cultural context shape their approach. The Center for Socially Engaged Design provides students the necessary space and tools to think more critically about design. Whether you’re currently in a course, working solo, or on a co-curricular team — or you have an idea you’d like to explore, C-SED can help.

We are the UM student chapter of Citizens’ Climate Lobby. CCL is a nonprofit, grassroots, international organization. Its mission is to create the political will to pass a federal climate action policy, Carbon Fee and Dividend, which we see as the best first-step to solving climate change.

The goal of our student chapter is to create the political will on campus for this climate change solution. We will accomplish this through grassroots outreach, education, partnerships, media, and lobbying. Our approach to advocacy centers around nonpartisanship, respect, and pragmatism.

Ultimately, we use these advocacy efforts to build positive relationships with our elected officials so that we can move the needle on climate action at the federal level.

So please, join us! As a member of this student group, you can be part of the solution to climate change.

Formerly Community Consulting Club, CCC provides pro-bono business experience to local non-profits through a case competition. Teams of 5-7 students will work through a 10-week engagement for their nonprofit partner. Their projects will culminate in a case competition in December judged by a panel of Strategy& consultants, with the winning team’s nonprofit receiving a monetary donation.

In addition to the consulting engagement, our club works to increase participants’ exposure to consulting firms that complete impact driven work. This year we will be bringing in a variety of firms for small group sessions with our members.

We believe in a work hard, play hard mentality! After the case competition is finished, we will hold a gala for our members at the University of Michigan Museum of Art (UMMA)

Launched by Ross School of Business MBA students in 2010, the Detroit Initiative at Ross connects University of Michigan students with Detroit’s vibrant and evolving business landscape. Through on- and off-campus events, an annual Impact Conference, student-run consulting projects, and a mentoring program, DIR promotes the city’s assets and encourages University of Michigan students to experience, engage with, and commit to the revitalization of the Motor City.

The Detroit Neighborhood Entrepreneurs Project is a program of the Ford School of Public Policy’s Center on Finance, Law & Policy. DNEP brings together neighborhood-based Detroit businesses with University of Michigan faculty-supervised student teams from Ross, Law, Stamps, and Information to provide a learning experience for students and solve business’ legal, financial, marketing, operational, design, and technology challenges.Through semester-long courses, an internship program, and year-round programs, we are supporting minority-owned businesses in changing Detroit neighborhoods.

The Erb Institute is a partnership between the Ross School of Business and the School for Environment and Sustainability (SEAS) at the University of Michigan. The institute’s mission is to create a socially and environmentally sustainable world through the power of business. We do that through research, teaching and business engagement—all focused on preparing and supporting bold business leaders who can adeptly transform companies, industries and entire economies for systemic sustainability.

The institute was founded 25 years ago as a dual-degree program in which graduate students receive their MBA from Ross and their MS from SEAS. In 2020, the institute expanded its educational programming to undergraduate students with the creation of the Erb Undergraduate Fellows program. Today, the institute has grown to include scholarly and applied research on business sustainability, as well as direct business engagement to turn ideas into action through on-the-ground projects with companies, social enterprises and nonprofits committed to business sustainability.

Ross is known for its collaborative culture and engagement in social impact. No other initiative exemplifies this better than the student-led Give-A-Day Fund. Launched in 2012, the Fund is a first-of-its-kind initiative among U.S. business schools. The Give-A-Day Fund engages Ross MBAs with the social impact community by providing financial assistance to students interning with impact organizations, which often provide interns with little to no salary. As its name implies, MBA students are asked to donate a day of their summer internship salary to make this support possible.

Since 2006, the Graham Sustainability Institute has worked to mobilize the passion of scholars, partners, and decision-makers, bringing world-class research to real-world sustainability challenges. Today, with a focus on climate change and water resources, we continue to facilitate engaged research, develop sustainability leaders, and inform policy and practice. Our emphasis on interdisciplinary, cross-sector partnerships leads to well-informed solutions that are practical, measurable, and widely applicable.

Graham’s Dow Distinguished Awards Competition provides student research funding of up to $30,000 over one calendar year for interdisciplinary graduate student teams to pursue applied solutions to sustainability challenges at the local, national, or global level.

The Graham Sustainability Scholars Program is a competitive sustainability leadership development program open to U-M undergraduates. Graham Scholars learn to incorporate sustainability into the campus, their lifestyle, their discipline, and the broader community through rich co-curricular experiences that include managing an interdisciplinary sustainability project with a local organization, honing leadership, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills, and completing a sustainability-focused summer field experience.

Graham will be accepting applications for both programs soon! Please contact ahaddad@umich.edu for details.

The Impact Investing Group is a 501(c)3 nonprofit and student-led organization at the University of Michigan providing financial & consulting services to local Ann Arbor and Detroit microbusinesses to empower entrepreneurs, aid in community revitalization, and foster inclusive and sustainable financing.

The Michigan Impact Investing Symposium provides Ross School of Business, School of Public Policy, Program in the Environment, and all other interested undergraduate students at the University of Michigan a space to learn about impact investing and the career opportunities that exist within it. For the past 2 years, we have put on a symposium featuring industry leaders to speak on panels, hold coffee chats, and provide other networking opportunities throughout the event. This year, in addition to the symposium, we aim to hold biweekly educational meetings to inform and empower our general members during the Winter semester.