People don’t always associate the business world with charity. However, students at the W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University are taught to understand that charity work is vital to your real, genuine success in life. This week, the nonprofit Chicanos Por La Causa (CPLC) Parenting Arizona is honoring the school for its extensive work on behalf of the children’s charity.
“We’ve had a never-ending stream of generosity from the W. P. Carey School of Business,” says Julie Rosen, executive director of CPLC Parenting Arizona, a statewide program that works to ensure a positive and safe environment for all children. “Not only have students, faculty and staff provided monetary gifts and special events for the families we help, but professors and students have also done pro bono work, providing valuable business advice to help our organization touch more lives.”
W. P. Carey MBA students have adopted CPLC Parenting Arizona as a primary charity. The group is aimed at preventing child abuse and neglect by providing statewide multi-cultural family support services.
Associate Professor Dan Brooks’ class of consulting scholars recently revamped CPLC Parenting Arizona’s website, so the nonprofit can now offer services like parenting classes online to its many recipient families who live in remote areas of Arizona, including Native American reservations. Professor James Ward’s marketing class did a complete, free analysis of CPLC Parenting Arizona’s donor relations strategy. Rosen says the nonprofit received so much good information, it will take a year to finish implementing everything.
“They have shown us how to make our outreach much more positive and targeted,” says Rosen. “We could never afford to pay for the advice and assistance provided by the W. P. Carey School of Business. They just offer amazing access to business experts and caring students.”
For the last couple of years, the school has thrown a December holiday party for families receiving assistance from CPLC Parenting Arizona. Gifts were provided to dozens of children. Last year, students and staff also threw a Halloween party, complete with trick-or-treating stations and cookie decorating. School representatives and students have also held spring cleanup events to paint and spruce up the charity’s offices. Even the winning team from a recent softball event held by the school donated about $2,000 in prize money to the nonprofit.
“Our students, faculty and staff members are always coming up with ways to support CPLC Parenting Arizona because it represents such a great cause,” says W. P. Carey School of Business Dean Robert Mittelstaedt. “They emphasize healthy parenting and provide services to families at risk for violence toward children. We have the shared goal of improving young people’s lives.”
CPLC Parenting Arizona is part of Chicanos Por La Causa, Inc., one of the largest nonprofit organizations in Arizona and one of the largest Latino community development organizations in the country. Its chief operating officer, Martin Quintana, is an active board member of several community organizations and a W. P. Carey School of Business Homecoming Hall of Fame member, who graduated from the school’s nationally recognized executive MBA program. Several other top representatives at Chicanos Por La Causa have also been through the school’s executive MBA program, and the school is actively involved in helping to cultivate new board members to ensure the nonprofit’s success.
The W. P. Carey School of Business will be honored at CPLC Parenting Arizona’s “Champions for Children” Luncheon on Friday, March 16 at the Arizona Biltmore Resort’s Grand Ballroom in Phoenix. The other honorees at this year’s event will be Bank of America, Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery and former Arizona Diamondbacks baseball player Luis Gonzalez.
