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Strategy Challenge

Strategy Challenge

Morgan Stanley's flagship pro bono program brings together our rising talent to help nonprofits solve strategic challenges.

Our Impact

195 Nonprofits Served

195

Nonprofits Served

159K Hours Volunteered

159K

Hours Volunteered

$28M* Value of Hours Volunteered

$25M+*

Value of Hours Volunteered

15 Years of Impact

15 Years

of Impact

What’s the Challenge

Launched in 2009, the Strategy Challenge is our annual signature pro bono program, when cross-divisional teams of Morgan Stanley employees help nonprofit organizations in the New York metro area and London address key strategic questions.

  1. Program Focus

    The program focuses on challenges that have a meaningful impact on an organization’s ability to deliver on its mission.

     

    Over an eight-to-ten-week engagement, employee teams leverage their expertise to provide customized analysis and implementable action plans, along with tools for future assessments and decision-making.

  2. Expert Leadership

    The program culminates in a day-long event, during which teams present their recommendations to senior firm leadership, a panel of nonprofit sector experts, and the current year’s cohort of nonprofit leaders.

     

    Team recommendations have led to more effective business models, expanded services, productivity improvements, and more—all in service of the nonprofit's mission.

  3. Participants: Nonprofit Organizations

    Nonprofit organizations in the New York metro area and London are invited to apply; applicants are assessed through a rigorous and competitive selection process.

     

    Selected nonprofits demonstrate the mission-critical nature of their strategic question and will have conducted preliminary research to support a consulting engagement.

  4. Participants: Morgan Stanley Employees

    Business units nominate select rising talent who are then chosen for teams through a competitive selection process.

     

    Each team encompasses employees with diverse skillsets and competencies to ensure they are capable of addressing the nonprofit’s unique challenge.

     

    The Firm’s senior leaders serve as advisors to guide and support each team.

Latest Stories

2025 Participants
US Strategy Challenge
The Acceleration Project (TAP)
The Acceleration Project (TAP) is a non-profit that accelerates small business growth and empowers under-resourced entrepreneurs to create a more inclusive economy.
UK Strategy Challenge
Action for Children
Action for Children’s mission is to take action to change the childhoods of those who need help to thrive, giving vulnerable children and young people the protection and practical help they urgently need and tirelessly campaigning for lasting change.
US Strategy Challenge
Amal Alliance
Amal Alliance empowers vulnerable and displaced children through education and social development programs in both formal and informal safe learning spaces around the globe.
US Strategy Challenge
The Arthur Project
The Arthur Project’s mission is to create a replicable model that professionalizes traditional mentoring by using clinically focused mentors to work intensively with youth throughout middle school.
US Strategy Challenge
Comunilife
Comunilife’s mission is to provide vulnerable communities with housing and culturally sensitive supportive services.
US Strategy Challenge
Hit the Books
Hit the Books (HTB) brings additional educational resources to underserved communities through a sports-based development approach, with tutoring and mentorship at its core and mixed martial arts as the ‘hook.’
US Strategy Challenge
Hudson Community Enterprises
HCE’s mission is to provide training and job opportunities for persons with disabilities.
US Strategy Challenge
JobsFirstNYC
JobsFirstNYC creates and advances solutions that break down barriers and transform the systems supporting young adults and their communities in the pursuit of economic opportunities.
US Strategy Challenge
Lower Manhattan Cultural Council
Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s (LMCC) mission is to foster a vibrant, equitable arts ecosystem in Lower Manhattan and Governors Island by providing artists and arts organizations with essential resources to thrive and producing free public programming for all New Yorkers.
UK Strategy Challenge
NSPCC
The NSPCC is one of the leading children’s charities fighting to end child abuse in the UK and Channel Islands.
UK Strategy Challenge
The Outward Bound Trust
The Outward Bound Trust’s mission is to inspire young people to realize their potential through learning and adventure in the outdoors.
UK Strategy Challenge
Smart Works Charity
Smart Works Charity’s mission is supporting unemployed women to get the coaching, clothing and confidence they need to secure employment and change the trajectory of their lives.
UK Strategy Challenge
The Switch
The Switch works in Tower Hamlets to provide the vital link between business and education.
US Strategy Challenge
Volunteers of Legal Service (VOLS)
Volunteers of Legal Service (VOLS) aims to close the access to justice gap for low-income New Yorkers by mobilizing the private bar and community-based organizations.

Recent Strategy Challenge Participants

Learn about the nonprofits that received pro bono strategic advice through our program.
Recent Participants
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*In order to assign a value to the pro bono hours volunteered by Morgan Stanley employees, Morgan Stanley utilizes the U.S.-based salary values developed by the Taproot Foundation. In 2024, Morgan Stanley updated its methodology to better align the salary value with historical year information.

Data are as of June 2024 and are subject to change without notice.

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CRC  4293642 03/2025