SuitUp Business Competition

Lauren Reilly is the Executive Director of SuitUp, a non-profit organization that increases career awareness through business competitions with students from underserved communities. She joins SuitUp after serving as the Chief Learning Officer for Practice Makes Perfect, a nationally recognized summer learning organization. She is a Teach for America alum and NY certified teacher, having taught both MS and HS in the Bronx and Harlem. Lauren has received the Gratitude Network Fellowship, the Student Success Network Fellowship, and a founding participant in the Global Good Fund LEAP Program. In addition, Lauren was recognized by the Obama administration as a White House Champion for Change for her work in summer learning and was selected as one of 17 worldwide organizations to participate in Santa Clara's Miller Center's GSBI Women-led Accelerator. Lauren graduated with a MA in Education from Fordham University and a BA in History from Vassar College.

In underserved communities, there is a disconnect between academic success and future career possibilities. It’s not that students don’t know what they want to be when they grow up, it’s that they don’t know what they CAN be.  Through SuitUp, student teams are introduced to the “corporate world” where they will engage in a business competition simulation in a real corporate setting, with real corporate volunteers, and a real corporate challenge. Through the competition, they learn about various careers, the college paths to those careers, and what it feels like to be a true CEO. This project will elevate humanity because it will increase future diversity in the workplace. SuitUp's curriculum is aligned with the UN's SD Goals (4&5) will ensure that all students, regardless of race, sex, or socio-economic status will have the awareness, access, and opportunity to go to the college and select the career of their choosing. 

In the US today, ~60% of students are not prepared for the realities of college and workforce. This is even more prevalent among students from low socio-economic communities (SES), where minority students struggle to connect academic success with viable future work opportunities. 

• 50% of low SES students that enroll in a 4-year college receive a bachelor’s degree (in comparison to 77% of students of high SES).
• Even those students of low SES who perform in the highest national quartile in high school, have a reported lower graduation rate of 41% in comparison to 74% of their affluent counterparts.

While high school guidance counselors have been tasked with closing this college/career readiness gap, they are overworked and stretched thin.

• The national average student to counselor ratio is 491:1 (although the recommendation is 250:1)
• The US Department of Education shared that 850,000+ students receive no access to guidance at all—many of which come from urban communities. 

SuitUp partners with companies across different industries to run business competitions with students, grades 5-12, from underserved communities.

• Corporate volunteers act as ”coaches” to teams of 8-10 students to solve a real business challenge, like creating a new product for Nike or solving a community problem with Instagram.

• With support from their coaches, students focus on the marketing, strategy, finance, and design of their solution before pitching their idea to a panel of judges for a cash prize. 

• SuitUp staff take the burden off both schools and companies to facilitate this experience and handles all the logistics, customization of competitions, and facilitation.

Students/Schools receive:

• Access to a variety of skills, companies, and career paths not taught in traditional schools (88% can see themselves using the skills they learned in a future career) 

• Mentors from different backgrounds (98% liked their corporate coach)

• A tangible way to connect academic skills with future careers (93% of student like learning more in school after participating in SuitUp) 

Companies receive:

• A skills-based volunteer opportunity for their employees

• A recruiting opportunity to work with undeserved schools which will

     allow for further future diversity in their industry

• An opportunity for employees to develop/practice professional skills

SuitUp’s beneficiaries are students, grades 6-12, from underserved US communities. They are primarily African American and Hispanic and come from neighborhoods like Brownsville, Brooklyn or Compton in LA. SuitUp consistently hears from its partners that schools struggle with college and career awareness and readiness. With SuitUp, schools don’t have to use funding, are able to send 40-100 students to participate, and see immediate change in academic motivation and attitudes towards teachers/school. We are providing a tangible connection between the students’ work in school and a future career path.

Additionally, students receive the opportunity to see a corporate office and have 1:1 mentoring from a corporate volunteer. Students need SuitUp because it shows them that no career path is out of reach and even if you don’t look like your coach, you are more than able to sit in their seat one day. Before SuitUp, students didn’t know what a media director did at ViacomCBS—or if they did—couldn’t envision the path to get to that career. After competitions, students ask coaches to look out for their resumes after they graduate from college. This shift in mindset changes life trajectories and shows students that nothing is outside of their grasp.

SuitUp’s programming is increasing career awareness and preparedness for students who are underrepresented in both higher education and many industries across the US. SuitUp also provides a direct pipeline for corporations to hire SuitUp students in the future—thus increasing diversity in the workforce.

In addition, SuitUp is elevating the understanding of what it’s like to be a black or brown student in an underserved community. By bridging the gap between the world of corporate America and urban education, SuitUp can level the playing field and be a true vehicle for social mobility. 

SuitUp began in 2014 with a Teach for America teacher in Harlem (Casey Miller) and a financial services professional at UBS in Manhattan (Zach Graumann). Both were unwilling to leave their full-time jobs, but saw two distinct problems in their industries-- the lack of career awareness and preparedness for students in low-income areas, and a broken volunteering model in corporate America. The third founder (Lauren Reilly) had worked as both a teacher and in the non-profit sector and saw the challenges associated with running an education organization with traditional philanthropy (grants and individual donations).

These three individuals came together to create the current SuitUp program where there is a true value proposition for both beneficiaries—the students/schools and the corporate/corporate partners. Corporations would pay for a volunteer day run entirely by SuitUp (thus relieving them from planning and facilitating) and students would receive a once in a lifetime experience working with top professionals from firms across the US in a fun, engaging business competition that taught true life and professional skills. Lauren Reilly started as SuitUp’s first full-time employee in 2018, building and running the day to day operations and Casey and Zach remain on the Governing Board.

I am passionate about providing opportunities in career awareness for students due to my own upbringing and teaching in the Bronx. Growing up as the daughter of two professors, I knew from an early age the possibilities I had as I thought about colleges and careers. In addition, I was invited to the back of my parents’ classrooms and dinner parties with many professionals. At the time, I never knew what a privilege this was.

It wasn’t until I got to college and started working in the Poughkeepsie school system, and then when I was teaching in the Bronx, that I saw the inequities in the education system. Simply because of the zip code my students were born into and the color of their skin, they were at a severe disadvantage as they began to think about their future after school.  Because of this reality, I started SuitUp to be an equalizer and provide students with opportunities that would level the playing field. Just like I felt at ease in the working world due to being surrounded by professionals at an early age, I wanted to mirror this experience for all students through our fun business simulations. 

I’ve always said that I come from both the business world and the world of urban education. Because of who my parents are (Business school professor/Dean) and my husband (financial services professional), I saw firsthand how both places lacked diversity and access for those who didn’t grow up in "the corporate world." Perhaps because of this background, after college I joined Teach for America and taught at both the middle and high school level in in the Bronx and Harlem to pay forward many of the opportunities I had growing up. As a history teacher, I championed college  readiness, providing students with additional curricula to ensure all my students had every tool at the ready to apply to college. After teaching, I transitioned to the non-profit sector to build a non-profit that eliminated the summer learning loss for students in low-income communities of NYC—seeing that traditional schooling could not fully address the opportunity gap that plagues low-income families. In addition, I have led professional development training sessions for new teachers to help them better reach students from underserved communities. Through these experiences, I feel uniquely positioned to execute on SuitUp’s mission and vision. I have experiences with both sectors, have taught and trained staff at the high school, collegiate, and professional level, and have built another non-profit from 2 employees to 25. 

When COVID-19 spread across the US, our team was at a loss. How were we to execute our in-person competitions when everyone was working from home? With only 3 months of runway, we knew we couldn’t “wait it out” and make it through this challenging time. On top of this, the Black Lives Matter movement was making it clear the systemic racism facing our students on a daily basis.

In order to continue serving our students, we created “SuitUp at Home,” a week-long virtual program in which our corporate partners and students could engage in our competition via Zoom. This program pushed our team to think innovatively and figure out how to reach our students when schools were at a loss in how to engage students remotely. Although SU@H was originally created as a stopgap, we are now building this program as a full-time alternative. Prior to SU@H, students would have to wait until their school signed up to participate. Now, students can signup individually and participate in 4+ competitions/month. This shift in programming will actually strengthen our relationships with our kids and more importantly—allow them more opportunities to engage with our corporate partners and career readiness curricula.

In 2019, SuitUp had the opportunity to run a 500-person competition. SuitUp’s other founders felt the event was too big to execute with our small team. To get everyone onboard, I would have to create a shared vision and delegation strategy. If this wasn’t a true shared vision, we would not be able to execute. I knew my strengths lay in training and building strategy, whereas my Program Manager could execute on anything as long as she had time to internalize and ask questions. I presented the idea of hiring three facilitators and fifteen support staff to act as contractors and run three competitions simultaneously and then the winners of each competition would compete in the finals. By breaking down the staffing structure, training plan, and delegating bite-size action steps, as well as communicating my belief in our organization and my teammates, they were no longer apprehensive. Instead, the team was excited to make such a large impact. By being organized, confident, and thinking big, my team (1 FT staff-member and 18 contractors) led a 550-person SuitUp competition with 98% of students sharing that they could see themselves using the skills they learned during their competition in a future career.

SuitUp’s program is unique in its customizable programming, low lift for all stakeholders, clear benefits to both students and volunteers, and ability to be virtual or in-person. First, SuitUp has been able to customize all competition themes for a variety of industries. This includes sports (Nike/Adidas), hospitality (Loews Hotels), restaurants (Buffalo Wild Wings), retail (Louis Vuitton/Coach), technology (Snapchat/Beats by Dre), TV networks (NBC/ViacomCBS), and more. SuitUp also can customize the competition in regards to timing, content, number of volunteers/students, etc. 

Second, SuitUp is a low-lift for all stakeholders as SuitUp staff handles all the logistics and facilitation. This allows schools to focus on what they do best (academic content) and instead let SuitUp focus on career awareness and preparedness. SuitUp makes it a low-lift for companies as well, making it easy for them to say yes to working with our students. We just ask them to provide a list of volunteers and a small fee to cover the cost of running and event. Another innovative feature  is that both volunteers and students receive benefits. Students gain extensive college and career awareness and preparedness curricula, but corporations also benefit too—specifically in practicing professional skills and furthering future diversity in their workplace.

Lastly, SuitUp can be in-person or virtual. While our in-person events are great for partners and schools, during COVID-19 these events have all been cancelled. By having virtual competitions,  individual students can sign up for as many competitions as they want and work with other students across the US!  

SuitUp data to support our Theory of Change includes the number of students (8,000+) and corporations (150+) who have participated in our programs, the impact data we have collected from all stakeholders, and the case studies we have done to support our program findings. 

SuitUp measures its program success through surveys from both volunteers and students. These metrics include:

• # of volunteers and # of students served
• % of volunteers who believe they made a positive impact 
• % of students who believe SuitUp’s activities are helpful for their future career 
• % of students who can see themselves having a career that uses the skills they learned today 

In 2016, SuitUp launched a study with Columbia's Teachers College to see the impact of SuitUp programming on students. Using the School Attitude Assessment Survey–Revised (SAAS-R), the five factors of academic achievement were measured. After a statistical analysis of the difference in student pre-test and post-test scores, a significant positive increase was found in academic self-perception (Mdn = .14), z = 3.783, p < .0005, attitudes toward teachers (Mdn = .29), z = 4.111, p < .0005, attitudes toward school (Mdn = .40), z = 4.036, p < .0005, and motivation and self-regulation (Mdn = .10), z = 3.033, p < .002. Thus, four of the five factors of academic achievement were increased in students who participated in a SuitUp business competition. 

SuitUp has currently served 8,000 students to date. SuitUp plans to serve an additional 4,000 students in 2020 and SuitUp projects to serve 12,000 students a year by 2025. 

SuitUp’s social impact goals for 2020 are the following:

Serve 4,000 students in 60-100 competitions, hiring 3 part-time staff. SuitUp wants to double the number of students served in 2019. This will include expanding our programs team to include 3 additional contractors to support with student engagement and management. 

Launch, Pilot, and Run 40 Virtual SuitUp at Home Programs. The SuitUp at Home program launched in May of 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. SuitUp will finish its pilot programming by August 15th and plans to serve an additional 2,000 students with its virtual competition.

Launch the Preferred Program Partner Program for 20 School Partners. There are specific SuitUp partners that are mission-aligned and work closely with SuitUp. SuitUp’s program team launched the PPP program to build deeper relationships with school partners that work with SuitUp 5 times per year or more.

Increase all student data metrics by 5%. SuitUp does extensive data collection at our competitions. SuitUp strives to increase the following metrics to:

• 95% of students liked their SuitUp Corporate Coach and Competition
• 90% of students like learning more (in school) after participating in SuitUp
• 95% of students learned something new during their SuitUp competition.

SuitUp’s goals in the next 5 years are to replicate its programming nationwide and saturate target markets in at least 2 major cities in the US besides its headquarters in NYC. 

One of the biggest barriers that exists for SuitUp are a lack of investment. As SuitUp is a non-profit, it is challenging for SuitUp to receive investment capital or any “growth funding” to scale the team. As a full-time team of 3, our staff wears a lot of different hats and has to rely on the revolving door of contractors and volunteers to execute on our programs. While this is doable in the short term, it does hinder our ability to scale and execute as efficiently as we’d like to.

Another barrier that exists is the current pandemic in the country. SuitUp’s primary program is our in-person business competitions. While we have pivoted to offer virtual programming, SuitUp’s main revenue source (both in-person competitions and our annual gala) will not be secured for 2020 and into 2021.

The last barrier to accomplishing our goals is making sure that corporate partners understand the purpose and importance of our programming. With the lack of diversity in the workplace across all industries and the lack of social mobility provided to our black and brown students across the US, corporations need to see this as just as big a problem as we do. SuitUp is not just a nice “volunteer experience,” but instead is truly a vehicle to change life trajectories for underserved populations.

In order to work around financial constraints, in the short term our team has been working diligently to pull from local colleges to support our entrepreneurship programs and business development efforts. SuitUp has also built out a Corporate Leadership Board (as a “junior board”) of young professionals that can add capacity for larger scale or strategic initiatives. In addition, SuitUp is putting together fundraising plans and a strategy deck to launch a $100,000 growth fund. 

The next barrier we face is the pandemic. While we can't put a stop to it, we have began to think more creatively to serve our students both in-person and virtually. Our new virtual program was launched in May of 2020 and is now a new arm of the SuitUp organization. We have worked quickly to learn the technologies (like Zoom and other platforms) to execute our programs and built deeper relationships with our school partners to address the needs they have for remote learning. In addition, we have redoubled our efforts to secure corporate partners so that we can continue serving as many students as we have with our in-person events.

In order to spread awareness and educate corporate partners on the monumental impact of our programming, SuitUp will need to increase its marketing and social media spend. In addition, SuitUp will need to present at CSR conferences, hold thought-leadership summits, etc. to share the importance of skills-based volunteering with youth as a way to ultimately further future diversity in the workplace.  

SuitUp partners with schools, youth organizations, and other non-profits across the country to provide their students with our free SuitUp business competitions. All we ask of our partner organizations is to provide us the student names and make sure a parent has signed off on our program and they are allowed to participate. SuitUp handles the rest of the logistics. A few of our nationwide partners include: YMCA, Boys and Girls Club, KIPP, Breakthrough, Boston Cares, and more. 

Value Propositions for Both Beneficiaries

School Partners

For schools and youth organizations that need college and career awareness and readiness curricula, SuitUp plans and facilitates free real-world business competition simulations that provide students with corporate mentors, real world-applicable skills, and a true look into what it is like to be in the “C-Suite.” Unlike other entrepreneurship organizations, SuitUp programming is hosted at corporate offices, has a 2:1 student to volunteer ratio, and mirrors the real world in that there is a “business pitch” and cash prize for the winning team.

Corporate Partner

For corporate partners that need a volunteer day or desire to increase employee engagement, SuitUp plans and facilitates customizable business plan competitions that provide companies a fun, impactful, low-lift, skills-based volunteer opportunity that furthers future diversity in their industry and own corporation. Unlike other volunteer organizations, SuitUp programming is customizable, offered virtually and in-person, provides unique impact reporting, and is consistently innovating to make competitions fun and easy to participate in. 

Business Model

SuitUp's business model purposely provides value to both our students and our corporate partners in order to close the opportunity gap in low-income communities and further diversity in corporate America. SuitUp charges companies $2,500+ per competition and provides one Program Manager to facilitate competitions with support staff to handles all planning and logistics. A qualitative and quantitative report is generated after every competition to demonstrate impact. 

SuitUp’s current business model is fee-for-service. SuitUp charges corporate partners between $2,000-$5,000 per event. This allows SuitUp to cover the cost of running the event (facilitation, school sourcing, competition materials, handbooks, cash prizes, lunch, printing, etc.) as well as its general operating expenses. The average event costs partners ~$2,500. At scale, SuitUp can be a sustainable organization and won’t have to rely on traditional philanthropy such as grants or individual giving. SuitUp will hire a Program Manager for every 60 competitions (bringing ~$150,000). This will cover the cost of their salary (even after taking competition expenses out—~$50,000) and still allow for funding to support operating expenses.

While SuitUp is building out its infrastructure, the organization will need philanthropic support to grow the operations team and brand. To support this growth, SuitUp has focused on one large fundraising event in November each year—the Suit Up for SuitUp black tie fundraiser. SuitUp also receives charity spots for the New York City Marathon and has a couple of individual donor campaigns throughout the year.

SuitUp receives its funding from corporate partners, grants, individual donors, and our annual fundraiser. The following revenue sources and amounts are from fiscal year 2019 (January-December):

Earned Income: (from Corporate Partners such as Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Index Exchange, UBS, Ares Management, IBM, etc.): $176,000

Individual Donations: $8,417

Corporate Donations: (matching gifts and other corporate grants) $8,194

Grants: (Trimble Family Foundation and the Gratitude Network) $1,350

Fundraising Events: (November, 2019 Suit Up for SuitUp Black Tie Gala)  $113, 919

Board Contributions: $9,901.98

SuitUp strives to raise $200,000+ in philanthropy to expedite its growth. SuitUp was founded in 2014 and through 2017, SuitUp was a solely volunteer-run organization. SuitUp hired its first two full-time employees in 2018 and 2019 after saving funds for 5 years. This addition of two full-time staff has tripled the number of students served to over 3,000. At SuitUp’s current pace, it expects to have saved enough to add another full-time team member in 2022. With $100,000 by 2021, SuitUp will be able to add two new team members by Q2 of 2021, pulling forward its ability to serve 9,000+ students – a scale it would not expect to attain until 2024.The impact of a $100,000 grant will last beyond the first year, unlike traditional non-profits as each staff member is a revenue-generating employee. Both employees will be able to execute ~50 competitions (each serving ~2000 students) and thus, each employee will bring in ~$125,000 in earned income. Taking out the cost to run those competitions ($95,000) and their salaries ($100,000), SuitUp can “reinvest” $55,000 into our operations. This is a run-rate return on the original grant of 55%. SuitUp would then use the additional $100,000 in business development efforts to hire a staff member to secure additional corporate partnerships and update our technology platform for SuitUp at Home. 

SuitUp’s expenses for 2020 are approximately $380,000. This includes:

$17,564 in Operations (office supplies, technology, transportation, printer, etc.)

$7,473 in Marketing (software, materials, digital marketing)

$1,112 in Finance (accounting, banking fees, and bookkeeping)

$149,000 in Human Resources (payroll, payroll taxes, benefits, bonuses, etc.)

$157,785 in Programming (staff, meals, prizes, transportation, materials, etc.)

$157,785 in Programming (program staff, contractors, meals, prizes, transportation, printed materials, etc.)

SuitUp is applying for The Elevate Prize to have access to professionals who can support in my professional development as a leader as well as support for marketing and promoting the work SuitUp is doing. When I think of the word “elevate” I think about taking something great and lifting it off the ground. Although SuitUp is a young and small team, we have a scalable model, a strong value proposition, a sustainable revenue model, and a powerful theory of change/impact model. With guidance from executives who have scaled businesses before, SuitUp could truly become part of every underserved community across the US.  The Elevate prize would also support SuitUp in achieving its goal of furthering future diversity in the workplace. If the Black Lives Matter movement has taught us anything, it’s that systemic racism is still very much at play in our society. SuitUp is laying the foundation for corporate partners to begin seeking future employees as we give students the opportunity to showcase their talent to potential employers as early as middle school.Through SuitUp, corporations can begin to heal some of the wounds and build up the next generation of black and brown children.  

Funding

As discussed earlier, SuitUp would benefit from capital to expedite SuitUp's growth and impact. Because of SuitUp's funding model, all funds provided would enable SuitUp to become a sustainable non-profit and not seek traditional philanthropy each year.

Marketing/Media Exposure

SuitUp's staff is comprised of non-profit leaders and former educators. Marketing and sales are areas that are new to the team. SuitUp would benefit from guidance in how to best market ourselves (especially in digital marketing) as well as a traditional sales strategy with metrics. 

Mentorship

SuitUp would also benefit from help creating long-term growth plans--focusing on milestones, organizational chart, and financial modeling. SuitUp would also benefit from executive coaching and leadership development as our team grows exponentially. 

SuitUp would love to partner with more black-owned businesses and businesses with men and women of color in leadership positions. When we tell our students they deserve a seat at any table and they truly can be the next CEO of a major company, it's hard when they don't look like anyone they're meeting at our partners' offices.  So often, many of our corporate partners are predominantly white men. Some of our most impactful competitions and partners have been with diverse firms like ViacomCBS, Tapestry, and Segment. It was so powerful when we worked with Tapestry and the students had an opportunity to meet Jide Zeitlin. We’d love to replicate that experience more often with our students by working with companies that celebrate and champion diversity. Some examples include: Lowes, Merck & Co, TIAA,  Accenture, Target, Kellogg, etc. who are all celebrated as having diverse talent.