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SMU Thrive Social Consulting
ABOUT US
Thrive Social Consulting is one of Singapore’s largest pro bono consulting organisations. Founded in 2020 and with chapters in SMU and NTU today, we focus on helping our various non-profit partners tackle their most challenging strategic problems and enable them to Thrive.
With a mission of ‘Creating Enduring Impact’, SMU Thrive Social Consulting offers our members an unparalleled opportunity to engage in real-world consulting projects with our wide network of non-profit partners.
Our client projects cover a broad spectrum of areas, including:
- Market entry strategy
- Unique value proposition design
- Financial sustainability
- Donor/Beneficiary engagement strategy
- Sustainability and social impact creation
- Impact assessment
In their time with SMU Thrive Social Consulting, aspiring consultants will go through a period of 1 semester as a trainee before graduating to become Associate Consultants (ACs). As ACs, they will then be staffed on at least 2 different projects with our non-profit partners, guided by our network of industry professionals as project advisors. Members also have the chance to lead their own project teams by becoming Project Leaders (PLs) or EXCO members.
Apart from in-depth training, SMU Thrive boasts a tight-knit alumni community, with regular networking and bonding initiatives for members to grow both personally and professionally. With a platform to gain exposure to strategy/consulting, create social impact and form tight-knit friendships, SMU Thrive is truly a space for our members to THRIVE as well!
KEY EVENTS
Some of the events you can look forward to as a Thrive member include:
- Thrive Induction:
Held in Week 3/4, to welcome all ACs into Thrive with a fun day of games and bonding! - Thrive Socials:
Networking event held during Recess Week each semester, where members get to meet past Thrive alumni who are now industry professionals in sectors such as consulting, tech, social work, public service and more, and receive personal mentorship. - Thrive End-of-Semester Appreciation:
Held after finals, to bring all members together and cap off the semester by bidding farewell to our graduating members. - Other upskilling workshops and networking events with our community of professionals!
REACH OUT TO US
GALLERY
OUR ACCOMPLISHMENTS
2021: Appointed as exclusive consulting partner for NVPC’s Design for Community Action (DCA) incubator programme
2022: Awarded the Volunteerism Award (Exemplary) at Children Cancer Foundation (CCF)’s Annual Appreciation Awards
2023: Appointed as formal Ground-Up Central member
2024: Reached a figure of 65 consulting projects completed, in partnership with over 40 prominent non-profit and social enterprise partners such as National Volunteer and Philanthropy Centre (NVPC), YMCA, CCF, Yellow Ribbon and The Salvation Army.
OUR TRAINING
| Day | Thursdays |
| Time | 7:30 pm to 10:00 pm |
| Venue | SOE SRs/GSRs |
"Conjunct has been an enriching experience that will always have a special place in my heart – journeying with partners who are deeply passionate about various social causes, teammates who not only challenge me to become better, but who also care for and nurture me in ways I will always be grateful for!"
– Seah Yi Shan, School of Business and School of Social Sciences, Year 4
"I stepped into SMU not knowing what CCA I wanted to join, but simply had a desire to try something new, and make a meaningful difference to the community. I found the perfect integration of the two passions in Conjunct Consulting. Having no prior experience in consulting was also not an issue, as there was a semester of excellent and rigorous training before we embarked on a project proper.
Looking back, I still marvel at how lucky I was to have joined Conjunct, to find like-minded friends who are as close as family, and to work on my own self development whilst also serving the community in a special way.”
- Lao Jing Hui, School of Social Sciences, Year 2
HOW TO JOIN THE CLUB?
To find out more about what being in the SMU Thrive community is all about, sign up for our upcoming infosessions held on 27 & 28 Aug HERE!
The application window for incoming trainees will open shortly after. Applicants will go through a coffee chat with Thrive’s EXCO to learn about you and so that you can better understand what value SMU Thrive provides.
Look out for more details of our recruitment timeline at our Telegram channel here!
FAQ
We welcome students from all faculties, experience levels and years of study to join Thrive as trainees! Nonetheless, we understand that embarking on consulting projects may be a new and foreign experience for many. Ultimately, we are looking for passionate individuals keen to serve non-profits and help organisations solve their most pressing strategic issues while sharpening their own skillsets. An authentic, coachable mindset is something we highly value!
We have a Training Director within the Thrive EXCO who will be in charge of weekly training every Thursday. These sessions will equip trainees with relevant issue analysis, problem-framing and sliding skills that will be applicable for your later projects as an Associate Consultant. Professional or alumni guest speakers may also be invited to conduct further upskilling sessions for trainees.
Trainees begin training in Week 3 and the training semester will be conducted over 9 weeks, with 6 weeks of content on skills such as issue prioritisation, storyboarding and developing insightful recommendations. This will be followed by 3 weeks of case competition preparation before culminating in Thrive’s Thought Leadership Case Presentation (TLCP) case competition hosted together with the NTU Thrive chapter.
Following TLCP in Week 11, trainees may then apply for AC interviews to become an official member and get the opportunity to work on our non-profits projects.
Our project teams hold weekly, in-person meetings on Thursday evenings, lasting approximately from 7.30 to 10pm. Each AC will be grouped with 3-4 fellow ACs, led by a Project Leader (PL) with prior experience of 1 project, as well as an attached EXCO member/Project Director (PD) and 2 external industry professionals acting as Project Advisors (PAs).
Outside of weekly meetings, ACs will usually be assigned individual workstreams. These include external/internal landscape research, conducting interviews/surveys and working on slide decks for presentations to the non-profit client.
Nonetheless, our tiered network of PLs, PDs and PAs will ensure workload is kept manageable for each AC to ensure your learning experience is maximised!
Yes, our Associate Consultants are always able to indicate the social causes or problem areas that they are interested in! However, projects are ultimately allocated based on availability and to maximise the growth and learning of each project team.
Continue your enchanted journey here
