Dear BfE community, 

I hope this email finds you doing well! I'll keep today's newsletter rather brief. I'll start with some housekeeping. You'll notice that today's edition includes snippets from both February and March, as we decided not to send a newsletter last month. There are also fewer updates from the BfE global team this time around; going forward, to make these BfE Briefs lighter (we're already on volume #19!), only the most pertinent updates from the global team will be included. Updates from the chapters and all other sections will remain as-is.

Secondly, I wanted to express my gratitude to you all for your efforts volunteering to make this wonderful organization continue to tick. Without you, we wouldn't be able to make the indelible impact we have been on underserved social enterprises (and their beneficiaries), university students, and professionals. Please keep up the hard work as we head into springtime, and don't hesitate to connect with me to discuss BfE at any time.

My best regards,

Jordan (BfE Global President)

We've continued to make steady progress on various initiatives at the global level. Here's what the global teams have been up to:

⚙️ Technology

• Intranet Progress Updates: It has been a couple of months since our last update on the BfE Intranet development progress, so we believe it will be a good chance for us to share some cool and new features we have developed recently!
  
  • User Login - The entry point to the BfE Intranet. It has been integrated with Microsoft Azure authentication, which will be the core authentication method we are going to used for log-in. The Cyber Security team is currently working on creating Azure accounts for all members inside BfE to finish this integration process
  • Member’s Directory - A central place which allows volunteers to view all BfE members’ profiles, and gives access to admin members to make updates to their team members’ information and status easily
  • Application Assessment - The end-to-end management and review of volunteer applications submitted to BfE. This should make it easier for managers/chapter directors to go through their recruitment process

• The link to a quick video into the User Login and Member’s Directory features can be found here
• As usual, a very big thanks to all the teams involved in the Intranet design & development! 🙏 Given that we are close to the end of developing most of the features covered in phase 1, the Product and Test Automation team is also busy creating cases to test the application before it goes live

🇬🇧 Cambridge

Feb

• Engagement Updates: We have kickstarted the Spring Cohort engagements with a new BfE committee and have a team of 25+ associates and program managers working on client engagements. The orientation was amazing and had interesting insights drawn from the new team members. Below are some snippets of the event 👇

• Achievements: We are proud to share that BfE Cambridge has been recognized as one of Cambridge's fastest-growing advisory startups among the top 16 startups in Cambridge ranked by Best Startup London. Best Startup London tracks over 100,000 London-based startups and over 500,000 people who hold key positions in these companies based on their track record, executive leadership, market share, innovation, and ESG rating. More can be read on Best Startup London 🎉
• Upcoming Activities: The new team is planning a welcome dinner with committee members (leadership team) in the first week of March and a BfE Cambridge quarterly meet-up at the end of March after mid-project reviews are completed

Mar

• Engagement Updates: We have completed 5/6 projects have completed their final project review. 3/6 have completed their final calls with 1 still left to be completed early next week
• Upcoming Activities: We are planning a committee dinner to interact and socialize on a more regular basis

🇺🇸 New York

Feb

• Outreach: Deloitte sponsored a Logical Structuring Workshop for the BfE NY associates to help support our work with social entrepreneurs and offer an exclusive networking opportunity with working professionals
• Engagement Updates: Our Consulting and Finance Advisory (FA) teams had introductory calls for all three incubation teams and are making steady progress with their deliverables
• Capacity Building: For the first time ever, we hosted a mandatory outreach training to teach Startup Recruitment, Growth & Partnerships, and Comms associates how to network, form various types of partnerships, and present BfE to external stakeholders 💪

Mar

• Outreach: The communications team posted our first client highlight on our @BfE.ny Instagram page. Meanwhile, the Growth & Partnerships team is working on a chapter-wide mentorship program for this semester, and the Startup Recruitment team has developed a new timeline for due diligence given new guidelines from the global team
• Incubation: Our three incubation teams made considerable headway in creating their mid-engagement deliverables, with mid-engagement client calls all scheduled for the last week of March or the first week of April. Regular client and mentor check-ins have continued for the past few weeks, and the clients are pleased with the quality of the progress

🇸🇬 Singapore

Feb

• Engagement Updates: We have successfully kicked off our Consulting and Finance Advisory (FA) engagements!
• 2023 Townhall 1: We held our first Townhall for 2023, where we invited former BfE Consulting Director, Deborah Khoo, to share more about her experience in BfE and how it had helped her as an Associate Consultant at Bain

Mar

• Outreach: We concluded Townhall 2 and invited Iris Zhao as a guest speaker to share more about her experience at McKinsey and her entrepreneurship journey
• Advisory: The Consulting and FA teams are scheduling their mid-point calls with their respective clients
• Leadership: The BfE Singapore Leadership Team will be scheduling coffee chats with BfE members over the course of April

🇨🇦 Vancouver

Feb

• Engagement Updates: Both of our engagement teams are in full swing, and preparing for our mid-point deliverable calls scheduled for early March!
• Outreach: We also hosted our first event of the semester, held for the greater Vancouver student community virtually. Titled “Let’s talk about ESG”, we had guest panellists from a range of private and public companies come and share their experiences working in the ESG space, as well as their thoughts on future trends in the industry

Mar

• General Updates: We held our March townhall in person and had a few team socials throughout the month. Most recently we hosted a Brentwood Rec Room social. See a picture from our townhall below! 📷
• Incubation: Both our Consulting and FA teams held their mid-point deliverable calls in March and received great feedback from our founders. Currently the teams are working towards their final deliverable calls, scheduled for mid-April. Great job and a big congrats to our Incubation teams for their success so far!
• Outreach: Our outreach teams are coordinating the launch of our April event, Impact Career Fair. It will be our first in-person event and will bring together students from all faculties to network with a panel of experienced industry professionals from various sectors in social impact. The goal of the event is for students to learn more about what impact-driven work is available to them throughout their undergraduate and postgraduate journey

🇮🇳 New Delhi

• Engagement Updates:
  • The New Delhi Chapter conducted meetings for all 3 of its current engagements to finalise approaches for the projects, and discussed the same with project mentors
  • The Chapter also paused engagements for three weeks from 20th February until 13th March when  most of our team was busy with examinations

There are no upcoming events in April, but stay tuned for future events happening in May!

We are so grateful for the outstanding contributions made by the following BfE members this month. Thank you and well done! 👏

• 🇬🇧 From BfE Cambridge: 
  • Shoutout to Brendan, our VP of Incubation, for doing an excellent job at maintaining client relationships and taking the initiative to coordinate the requirements of the clients at a customized level. He manages the team and directors work amazingly under him
  • Shoutout to Kyle, VP Outreach and Sarah, G&P Director for working hard and arranging the upcoming event Celonis x Bridges for Enterprise 🙌 🎉
    

Reads:

• Some Things Have to Die for Others to Live: Why Scaling Down is Just as Important as Scaling Up in the Transformation of Global Food Systems (Next Billion)
• SA’s tech startup ecosystem is slowing down: Can a Startup Act resurrect it? (TechCabal) 
• Closing the hype gap: The $1M fund catalyzing ‘crypto for good’ projects across the continent (TechCabal)
• How Bangladesh’s first and only unicorn used “human ATMs” to promote financial inclusion (Rest of World)
• Fit for the Future: Breadwinners on impact measurement that makes a difference (Pioneers Post)
• Greenwashing: Understanding, avoiding, and moving beyond it (Impact Alpha)

Roles:

• Global Academy Manager @ Bridges for Enterprise, Apply here
• Global Academy Volunteer @ Bridges for Enterprise,  Apply here
• CVA Communications Officer (Ireland) @ RedRose 
• Project and Programme Officer (Ottawa, Canada) @The Refugee Hub
• Planning, Monitoring, Evaluation, & Reporting (PMER) Coordinator (Kolkatta, India) @Mennonite Central Committee
• Finance and Administration Officer (Mumbai/ New Delhi) @Viamo
• Programme Coordination Officer (Cambridge) @ TRAFFIC
• Programme Coordinator (Birmingham, hybrid) @ Islamic Relief
• Program Associate, Africa & Eurasia (New York) @ HIAS
• Intern - Information Management, I (New York) @ United Nations

Leave your thoughts in the form below!

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