Nudging its way in alongside Societies Fair veterans such as Model UN, Link and Oxfam, is one of this year’s EUSA Societies newbies: The Edinburgh Group, an excitingly original student group that marries the values of social contribution with a professional, business-orientated approach.

The Edinburgh Group (TEG) offers consulting services for local non-profit organisations – completely free of charge – and is fresh from its first semester of work, eager to start on its next set of projects.

Inspired by a concept started in Berkeley University, TEG offers students a new way to get involved; reaching outside the self-contained student community in a focused and tangible manner. Members hail from across the spectrum of University disciplines, bringing different perspectives to projects, and they then work as a team to solve the problems that their client organisation is facing. After researching the area as fully as possible, the team comes up with practical solutions which the organisation will be able to use to strengthen themselves. Members jokingly refer to themselves simply as “an extra set of heads” – the idea being that TEG acts as a ‘think-tank’ for the clients, who are often far too busy doing their day-to-day work to afford the time to think ‘outside the box’. 

Last semester, The Edinburgh Group’s three projects included a feasibility study for a floundering boat-building social enterprise, a detailed five-year business plan for a door-to-door care service and a re-branding strategy for a homeless outreach programme at risk of huge funding cuts. These projects might sound complicated, but given a bit of help along the way, members are often surprised by how simple it is to use straight-forward thinking to tackle the assigned task.

TEG believes that charities and non-profit organisations require an insight that stems deeper than just isolated financial awareness. Their teams consist of people who have a true passion for charity and social contribution, a passion which is applied to responding to the sensitivities of individual organisations, thereby delivering valuable recommendations and suggestions.

Flushed by last year’s positive results, the young society is looking ahead to this year, with new clients and projects in the pipeline, emerging ties within the consulting and business sectors, and a more publicised position within the University community, hopefully resulting in wider recruitment. The Edinburgh Group hopes to offer more students the chance to get involved in projects that help tie the typically isolated University population of Edinburgh into the city’s local fabric.

For further information check out The Edinburgh Group's website.