Accounting for Government & Not-For-Profit Organizations

Final year Master of Accountancy students will utilize their knowledge and skills to address business challenges related to not-for-profit and governmental accounting. The scope of these projects can be tailored to fit the needs of community partners. Students in this course have both a strong academic background and come with industry experience.    

Please note: This course recruits multiple Not-for-Profit and Government Organizations who will have a dedicated team working with them on their needs. 

You will be a good fit for this project if you need assistance with any of the following:   

• Funding problems, and how to address them   
• Capital structure (fees, funding, donations)   
• Cost and fee structure   
• Fiscal sustainability   
• Accounting systems review 
• Pandemic recovery related challenges (i.e.: revenue challenges, fee/funding challenges)    

As this is a final year course for our Master of Accounting students, other areas of business could be integrated to find a fulsome solution.  

MBA students will work with you to better understand and utilize your data to improve your services offered. Students in this course gain an understanding of advanced business analytics while utilizing descriptive and predictive modelling techniques and will use current data mining software to apply such techniques. The scope of this project can be tailored to fit the needs of community partners. An ideal partner would have access to between 1,500 to 10,000 text based entries in a dataset for students to work with. This is not required, but will enhance the project greatly.

You will be a good fit for this project if you need assistance with any of the following:   

• Analyzing restaurant reviews to better understand customers and their needs 
• Identifying potential donors to organization to solicit new/returning dollars more efficiently 
• Taking employee/member survey results to the next level by finding patterns in responses 
• Developing a predictive model to retain/attract clients/employees/donors 

Fourth year and MBA students will work with Community Partners to address their business strategy needs. Strategic Planning projects are beneficial for your organization if you are looking into expansion, growth, or you are at a crossroads that impacts the future of your business/organization.      

This project is a fit for your organization if the following topics are of interest: 

•  Understanding an organization’s relative position in each industry through the assessment of:  
  • Relevant external factors and trends, including political, social, legal, and environmental trends 
  • Existing and emerging competitive forces in the industry, including, other similar organizations, suppliers, and buyers 
• Identifying opportunities for growth and expansion including:  
  • New social and geographical market segments 
  • Innovations or additions to existing service/product portfolio    
  • Strategic partnerships (incl. mergers and acquisitions)  
• Determining relevant structural aspects that will help with the execution of a proposed strategic plan:  
  • Top management and leadership changes 
  • Allocating resources and capabilities 
• Pivoting strategic plans in the face of disruptive events: 
  • Revising your vision and long-term goals 
  • Developing scenarios of the future 
  • Implementing social and environmental goals 

Interested Community Partners will be asked to complete an additional information survey regarding your organization to determine fit and eligibility. The survey will be sent after you submit the form below.  

Second-year/MBA students in an Organizational Behaviour course will work throughout the semester to provide recommendations that align with their course content to support the Community Partner’s needs. Course content will be aligned with identified needs, so please indicate areas of greatest need from the list below:   

• Motivation strategies for staff.   
• Adapting to change – transitioning back to the office, changes in the org, coming back into different roles.   
• Internal community strategies.   
• Addressing burnout in your organization – ways to improve and alleviate.   
• Managing changing with your organization (leadership or reporting structure).  
• Workplace culture & environment.   
• Workplace stress – strategies for improving.  

Marketing Plans

Second year students will be working with your business to create a one-year marketing plan.  students will review current marketing activities and provide feedback and recommendations using concepts from the course.  

This project is a fit for your organization if you are in need of the following:   

• SWOT Analysis.   
• PEST Analysis.   
• Competitive Analysis.   
• Environmental Scan.   
• New customer segmentation and analysis.   
• New marketing strategies for a product or service.   

Consumer Behaviour

Fourth-year & MBA students will be working with your not-for-profit, small for-profit, or wine industry business on a consumer behaviour project. Teams of students (4-5) will work with a community partner to analyze a problem or challenge that organization is experiencing with their clients/consumers and provide recommendations to improve their customer’s experience. Project examples include: 

• An organization may be experiencing a drop off in attendance at its major fundraising event and want to understand the reasons why and how to address the decline. 
• A business might find customers only walk through the front half of the store and not to the back half and want to know why. 
• A business has brick & mortar and online sales lines and wants to better understand why customers favour one over the other. 
• A business/organization may have a product/service that does not seem to be meeting its potential and want to know why more customers/ clients aren’t buying or participating. 
• A business may want to improve customer experience in their shop/service-centre and a team could pose as “secret shoppers” to observe and then make recommendations. 

In this project, Year 4 students will work on either a Google Ads campaign or Social Media Marketing campaign and one other internet and social media activity (e.g., search engine optimization, website design, email marketing, social media strategy, online advertising) based on a discussion between the community partner and the student team.   

In order to be eligible for this project:    

• It is beneficial to have a Google Ads or social media account set up and active. (If you do not have one, you must agree to have the student team to create an account on behalf of your organization.)   
• You must have an active website and social media channels.   
• You must be able to provide access to your Google Ads or social media account so that the students can run and analyze the campaigns.   
• You must be able to provide or manage access to your website in a timely manner so that the students can install tracking code on the webpages to obtain insightful web browsing activities.   

While experiential projects typically do not have a dollar amount attached to them, in order to be eligible for this part of the project you must be able to commit a minimum of $100 dollars so that your group can run a Google Ads campaign or Social Media Marketing campaign for two weeks.   

Fourth-year & MBA students will work with your organization to evaluate your sales performance and assess the profitability of your products and services. Students will also assist with sales planning and forecasting and study the functions necessary to manage sales effectively. They will help companies estimate market potential and create a plan for improving customer interactions and recruitment, as well as selecting, training, and motivating salespeople.

Fourth-year students will design or redesign desktop and mobile responsive websites for non-profit organizations, small businesses, or professionals, preferably from the Niagara region. Depending on the project scope, two or three teams have worked together for elaborate projects such as shopping or appointment booking websites. Each student consultant team works with their client throughout the term. Students must complete their projects by early December.

Fourth-year & MBA students will build information systems/ database projects for non-profit organizations or small businesses, preferably from the Niagara region. Each student consultant team works with their client throughout the term to collect their client’s requirements, design a new information system, redesign their business process, design training material and implement the new system. Students must complete their projects by early December. Examples of past projects include CRMs, volunteer or donor online databases, learning management systems, inventory systems, and online stores.

Third-year students will conduct a marketing research project that involves secondary data research and survey studies to provide decision-making information to a Community Partner.    

This project is a fit for your organization if:   

• You want to better understand customers buying behaviours, preferences, and demographic composition.  

• You want to identify a target market and potential partnerships in your sector.  

• You are looking for customer insights to better meet their needs and improve customer experiences.  

• Additional support in identifying appropriate media channels for the content you’re creating.  

The Community Partner would be required to meet with student teams and provide access to the customer pool (if applicable) for focus group and the survey study.