Young Consultants donate their expertise to CSR Project

Great achievement for our Young consultants on the CSR front. Angelos Illman from Atkins and Chris O’Connor from Vendigital have successfully completed a CSR project for Marina Megafauna Foundation (MMF), a not-for-profit organisation that works with governments and communities around the world to provide effective strategies for protecting threatened marine species and critical habitats through Research, Education and Conservation.

MMF plays a major part in preserving the most biodiverse marine habitats on the planet by thinking global but acting local in communities across the Americas, Western Indian Ocean and Southeast Asia.However, due to MMF’s global network, the process of onboarding new volunteers was disorganised with disjointed documentation and processes. The aim of the project was to improve the onboarding experience for MMF’s volunteers as well as standardise and streamline the process.


Speaking about the project, Chris O’Connor from Vendigital said:

“Working with the MMF has been a great opportunity for me to learn more about the non-profit sector, further develop my consulting skills and help a great cause I believe in. My project concentrated on improving the systems in place for onboarding volunteers, an integral part to MMF operations. We identified bottlenecks and designed tools for better efficiency in the process. This provided a better experience for volunteers while also dramatically reducing the resource required to onboard volunteers. I would highly recommend getting involved in Young MCA’s volunteers scheme, whether it be to upgrade your skillset or help a great cause you believe in. “


Angelos Illman  from Atkins added:

“It’s been a great opportunity to use the skills I’ve learned in consulting to help an organisation that is making a real positive impact in the world. Working with the MMF team and previous volunteers, we redesigned the onboarding process, introduced a new system and created an onboarding pack, improving the experience both for the volunteers and for the MMF team. After seeing the improvement, the MMF team are now using the onboarding process for all new staff, as well as the volunteers. The work has been very rewarding, has given me a chance to put my consulting skills into practice and also learn more about working in the not-for-profit sector. I’ve enjoyed working with the MMF so much that I’ve decided to continue working alongside them on a new project, developing their marketing strategy. There are lots of opportunities provided by the Young MCA and I highly recommend you get involved!”

Aline Oliveira, Project Coordinator for MMF, said:

Chris and Angelos did an amazing work not only compiling all the information in one single document, facilitating and reducing the number of emails to volunteers during the process but also by creating and introducing to MMF a master volunteer Tracking System that will allow us to have a better overview and tracking of our current, past and for future volunteers.”

If you you would like to get involved with Young MCA CSR work, please email Lorraine.nicolson@mca.org.uk for more information.