Worcester Students Create Fundraising Ideas For Local Nonprofit

WORCESTER, MA — Students in Worcester helped create fundraising solutions for a local nonprofit addressing food insecurity.

Graduate students in Clark University’s Master of Science in Project Management program took part in a PM Challenge, a competition that asked them to create practical project plans for a Worcester nonprofit. Two students,Pooja Pithva and Prakash Jha won first place for their project, $10 Feeds Dignity.

Pithva and Jha's proposal focused on increasing recurring donations through an updated website and expanded social media outreach. The school said you can find out about other students who participated in the challenge here.

The multi-round challenge focused on The Mustard Seed, a local nonprofit that provides meals and food assistance to vulnerable community members, including older adults, people experiencing homelessness, veterans and others in need.

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Students worked in teams to develop fundraising solutions designed to help strengthen The Mustard Seed’s capacity. The goal was to support the organization’s ability to continue purchasing food, expand its reach, and better serve Worcester residents facing hardship, according to the school.

Participants were given two weeks to create and present low-cost, community-driven fundraising strategies that could be implemented within six months. The challenge also asked students to address outreach, donor engagement, sustainability, and ways to capture “the human side of food insecurity.”

“It really opened our students’ eyes to the growing need for skilled project managers in the nonprofit sector and provided them with a meaningful opportunity to solve real stakeholder needs at The Mustard Seed," said Mary M. Piecewicz, director of the Master of Science in Project Management program. "It was incredibly rewarding to watch our students share their knowledge with this organization and provide ideas for how they could expand their reach and amplify their impact.”

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Six graduate students organized the challenge. Judges were Mike Beneditti, house and volunteer coordinator at The Mustard Seed; Ray Davis, PMP, assistant director of engineering at the City of Worcester and a member of the MSPM Advisory Council; and Aakash Garg, CFA, PMP, program manager in the Enterprise Project Management Office at Commonwealth Financial Network and a member of the program’s Advisory Council.

Clark University said its Master of Science in Project Management program has operated since the spring of 2021 and is accredited by the PMI Global Accreditation Center for Project Management Education Programs. The program is also STEM-designated.

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