Overview & Mission

The mission of the Wharton International Volunteer Program (WIVP) is to utilize its members' business skills to help those in need throughout the world. A non-profit organization managed by Wharton MBA students, WIVP seeks to mobilize the talent and experience within the Wharton community to contribute to social and economic development in emerging economies while providing MBA students with an opportunity to gain invaluable experience with international development issues.

Activities

WIVP has established and continues to build relationships with Non-Government Organizations (NGO) and other charitable institutions in developing countries throughout the world. Each year, we send teams of between two and four students overseas to work with these organizations on a variety of projects.

WIVP seeks to work with small, local organizations with limited resources and seeks to design projects that will allow these organizations to derive maximum benefit from our volunteers' business skills and experience. The projects typically last two to four weeks, supplemented by preparatory and follow-up work conducted remotely. Past projects have assisted NGOs and small businesses in areas such as strategic and financial planning, performance evaluation and information systems. See the Projects section for more information about past and future projects.

WIVP's other activities are geared towards the development and support of our overseas projects. MBA student members handle all design and scoping of projects and all club administration activities (see Organization).

Since WIVP provides students with a major portion of the funds required to participate in overseas projects, often in remote locations, a significant amount of club resources are devoted to fundraising activities. WIVP holds several major fundraising events throughout the academic year, including the Wharton Winter Ball, one of the most popular and well attended events at Wharton. The remainder of our funding comes through donations from foundations and corporate sponsors. Please see our Sponsorship section for information on how to contribute.

Organization

WIVP is managed by an executive team made up of seven officers. These officers are responsible for all aspects of club administration and for oversight of key activity areas.

WIVP Officers:

Click here for the complete list of the 2006/2007 WIVP team.

The club's activities are organized into four main committees:

• Project Scoping
• Public Relations
• Fundraising
• Events

Within each of these areas, sub-team leaders are responsible for day-to-day club administration activities and for driving specific WIVP initiatives.