MBA Students Develop New Marketing Strategy for Caritas Communities

On August 15, students in the Curry College MBA program delivered their capstone project to the leadership of Caritas Communities. The students worked as consultants for Caritas, a non-profit organization that provides affordable housing to low-income individuals in the Greater Boston area. 

Under the guidance of faculty, the cohort of 16 students established a marketing strategy that included a pre-screening function to help potential applicants determine whether they were eligible for Caritas housing. In addition, they developed a marketing toolkit to help Caritas advertise more effectively and created a new credit-based internship program for undergraduate students at Curry College who are interested in working at Caritas. 

The students concluded that their advertising plan coupled with an increase in resident services would reduce vacancies by 50-60 percent, which was a key objective for Caritas executive director Mark Winkeller. 

"I am astonished at how much quality work went into this project, and I am pleased with our relationship with the Curry College MBA program," Winkeller said. "The students provided Caritas with a lot of value added, much of which we would never get done by ourselves." 

The cohort included: Sean Casey; Kelly Clevesy; Francis Connell; Paulack Dumornay; Rosangela Moreira; Heather Nickerson; Meagan Roach; Matt Schricker; Caleb Tong; Tyler Chasnov; Jessica Celia; Mathew Hughes; Michael Kelley; Rodd Ligols; Michelle Parsons; and Kyrie Williams