Can An MBA Help You Find Social Impact Jobs?

Deirdre Kane, MBA admissions director at the University of Georgia’s Terry School of Business, explains how an MBA can help you thrive in social impact jobs

How can an MBA help you launch a career in social impact?

Dear BusinessBecause,

I’m keen to pursue a career in social impact, but not sure how suitable an MBA will be in this field. I’d love to know more about how an MBA might help me in a nonprofit environment, as well as within impact driven for profit companies.

The Answer

This week’s applicant question is answered by Deirdre Kane, director of admissions for the full-time MBA at The University of Georgia’s Terry School of Business.

The world needs more do-gooder MBAs, and studying one can prepare you brilliantly to drive social innovation in your community. An MBA will develop your business acumen, which is highly coveted in nonprofit management. It also teaches you solid frameworks to help you encourage ethical, socially responsible business practice within larger for profit corporations.

Here’s how an MBA can offer you the insights and connections you need to succeed in bringing about social change through business, as well as some tips for your application:

Nonprofit organizations

Having worked in nonprofits before, I’ve experienced some of the challenges they often face from being under resourced, lacking properly trained staff, or even not having enough funding to do what they want to do.

In many ways, everything is a business problem, so if an MBA graduate comes into a nonprofit management role with that business background and mindset, they'll be able to make better decisions for the organization in terms of managing people, processes and funds.

At Terry Georgia, we’re well positioned in the Athens community, which is a hub for non-profits and philanthropy. Being able to spend time in that environment gives our students real insight when it comes to social impact work.

We also have social innovation track as part of our MBA offering, allowing you to focus in on impact-driven business. Through our social innovation board we have lots of connections within the city to set up internships at organizations committed to a range of social causes.