TORONTO, October 24, 2000 -- The Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto kicks off its annual fundraising campaign for the United Way of Greater Toronto this week with the hope of breaking last year’s record setting campaign and breaking new ground in supporting the non-profit community organization.

Rotman is entering into an innovative partnership with the United Way to pilot a new form of fundraising and to provide manager training and consulting to agencies supported by the United Way. Earlier this month, Anne Golden, President and Chief Executive Officer of the United Way of Greater Toronto, came to the Rotman School to express her support for the Rotman activities.

“The Rotman School’s support for United Way is outstanding,” said United Way President Anne Golden. “From financial generosity to providing management and leadership advice for our 200 community agencies, your contribution will help people in need across Toronto.”

“Last year the Rotman School raised over $36,000 in our United Way campaign,” says Roger Martin, dean of the Rotman School. “We are trying to create the business leaders of tomorrow through our degree programs. By working with the United Way we are demonstrating that giving back to the community is an important part of leadership and showing our students that there are important social and ethical benefits in supporting the not-for-profit sector.”

The Rotman School was selected as the only educational institution to participate in the United Way @ Work pilot project that permits Rotman MBA students, faculty and staff to make donations exclusively online. It’s hoped that the project will enhance campaign results and reduce the administrative overhead. United Way @ Work is being tested this year at 10 Toronto workplaces.

A reciprocal partnership with the United Way allows managers from United Way supported agencies to enroll in “Advanced Program in Managing Strategic Change”, a Rotman Executive Program, for a reduced tuition fee. The course provides experienced managers from the private, public and not-for-profit sectors with the skills needed to handle the changes occurring in their organizations. Three managers from United Way supported agencies are selected by the United Way and Rotman to participate in each class.

“The unprecedented pace of organizational change in today’s global economy is affecting the not-for-profit sector as much as the private sector,” says Michael Hartmann, managing director, Executive Programs. “Our program equips participants with the expertise to plan and execute comprehensive change strategies effectively.”

The benefits of the program were immediately clear to recent program participants.

“Within my organization there is no room in the budget for outside consultants or to pay the full cost of this type of program,” says Kate Stark, Interim Executive Director with Homes First Society, which provides housing for some of the most marginalized people in Toronto. “Our organization is currently involved in major structural change and there has been a major change in housing policy politically. The Rotman program was exactly what I was looking for. It combined theory with classroom discussion of our real-world experiences.”

“This was a wonderful professional development opportunity for people, like myself, in the non-profit sector,” adds Anne Bird, a program manager with Family Day Care Services, a Toronto-based organization. “There is a notion that the non-profit sector isn’t real work. In fact, my organization has a budget of $25 million and faces the same day-to-day challenges as those in the private and public sectors.”

Support for the non-profit sector at Rotman also extends to the classroom. A class of Rotman MBA students demonstrates every year that there is more to their degrees than high finance and big paycheques. In Fall 1999, 27 students spent a semester enhancing their leadership skills by consulting for community organizations located in downtown Toronto as part of the “Social Entrepreneurship and Consulting in a Community Context” course, a second year elective in the MBA program.

Teams of three to four students were placed with eight non-profit and community organizations that gave each team a consulting assignment to complete based on problems confronting the organization.

“The course demonstrates to students that real life problems do not have textbook solutions. It forces them to think integratively across the functional areas to solve the problems facing the organizations,” says Ann Armstrong, a Rotman lecturer in organizational behaviour, who is teaching the course this year.

Last year participating organizations included Stop 103; AIDS Committee of Toronto; Russian Orthodox Immigrant Services of Canada; Regeneration House; St. Christopher’s House; Breast Cancer Research & Education Fund/International Institute of Concern for Public Health; 761 Community Development Corporation; and Earlscourt Child and Family Centre.

In 1999, the Rotman community, staff, faculty and students, raised over $36,000 for the United Way’s Fall Campaign, almost double the School’s goal of $20,000. The money was raised through a series of special events and a pledge drive that was highlighted by the head-shaving of Professor Martin Evans. As part of the larger Rotman campaign, MBA students raised $6,000 enroute to winning a United Way 1999 Spirit Award for the Best Student Campaign at a Post Secondary Institution. This year Rotman’s campaign goal is $40,000.

Recently ranked by Business Week in the top tier of business schools in the world, the University of Toronto’s Rotman School offers undergraduate and graduate degree programs, including the prestigious Rotman MBA, the Part-Time MBA, the Executive MBA, a first-rate Doctoral Program, the distinctive Master of Management & Professional Accounting program, combined programs with the University of Toronto faculties of Law, Engineering and Nursing and an innovative series of Executive Programs tailored to the current needs of businesses and individual managers.

Ken McGuffin
Media Relations Officer
Rotman School of Management
Voice: (416) 946-3818
Fax: (416) 978-1373
E-mail: mcguffin@rotman.utoronto.ca

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