The American Cancer Society (ACS) is looking to nationally scale the Associate Board of Ambassadors (ABOA) strategy they’ve developed in Chicago. The ABOA in Chicago is the largest and most successful board of young up-and-coming leaders that are committed to serving ACS through fundraising and events. The Chicago ABOA currently includes 155  young professionals who raise $500,000 successfully each year. The leadership team in Chicago is excited to work with you to assemble a launch playbook for ABOAs in new markets. They expect you’ll help them analyze why the strategy has been successful in Chicago, how to jumpstart the ABOA program in new markets, identify the markets that are most ripe for an ABOA, establish a set of expectations and rewards for new cities, and ultimately help shed light on how the ABOA strategy will impact the ACS in the mid-to-long term. We have initial work done on analyzing ABOA data trends. Students will have the opportunity to review this data, the analysis and initial projections for ABOA expansion. We will also put students in touch with our Data & Technology innovation pod so they can be included in critical discussion regarding how data is used to further expand the ABOA’s efforts. In addition to data analysis, we would like students to work with our ABOA executive directors on establishing an ABOA playbook that incorporates best practices for new ABOA chapters in other markets. Students will gather both qualitative and quantitative data to draft this playbook. We also ask that students will examine the current climate due to COVID-19 and propose problem-solving solutions that will allow the ABOA’s fundraising strategies to continue to thrive. Students should also take their analysis of the effects of COVID-19 and apply them to an overall ACS strategy that will help the organization understand options to help recuperate from the damages experienced during this pandemic. In short, here are the 3 main goals associated with this project:

1. Analyze membership and fundraising data with the ABOA
2. Create an ABOA playbook to determine best practices that will support new ABOA chapters launch in new markets
3. Propose solutions to help the ABOA and ACS recover from the effects of COVID-19