Make positive community change as a Kelley Impact Competition participant

The Social Issue: Orchard Visitor & Volunteer Tracking & Automated Engagement/Cultivation System

Every year, the Kelley Impact Competition (KIC) focuses on current social issues within the Bloomington & Monroe County community and aims to support a local nonprofit agency helping to address that issue. This year, KIC’s focus is on visitor and volunteer tracking, data management, and automated communications that drive community engagement, while stewarding volunteer and donor relations.

With nearly 1000 community orchards and food forests across the U.S., in addition to the 20,000+ community gardens in need of both annual and perennial food growing, there is a growing demand for planting more perennial edible agriculture in urban areas for communities to learn from and enjoy.

The Bloomington Community Orchard (BCO) is an all-volunteer nonprofit (501c3), devoted to growing fruit trees and other perennial edible agriculture for the community to enjoy, while growing our orcharding skills through education and experience-sharing. The publicly owned orchard is maintained by volunteers, and the harvest is available to everyone.

BCO offers a wide range of engagement opportunities including “Work & Learn Days” providing community members of all experience-levels opportunities to help cultivate the flagship Orchard site, while developing their own hands-on orcharding skills; a variety of classes on topics such as tree selection and planting, pruning, grafting, soil development, integrative pest management, and companion plantings; community festivals, which generally include Spring Planting Day (in April/May), Harvest Potlucks (in June & July), and CiderFest (in October). These programs aim to inspire communities to cultivate thriving systems of sharing and growing fruit, together.

Partner Overview: The Bloomington Community Orchard

The Bloomington Community Orchard (BCO) was established in 2009, quickly transitioning from an idea in a SPEA student’s thesis to a formalized community asset. Early success was driven by securing support from the City of Bloomington (providing land and 501c3 status) and receiving key grants, which funded the initial planting of over 20 fruit trees and provided professional arborist assistance.

The organization rapidly structured itself, holding its first public meetings in 2010 to elect a Board of Directors and formalize bylaws, followed by defining an initial three-year strategic plan in 2012 after achieving official nonprofit status. This foundational period focused on physical site cultivation through numerous planting days and establishing early educational components, such as the introduction of the Jr. Stewards Team (for youth education) and Rotary-funded educational kiosks, culminating in the first Harvest Festival in 2013, which marked the Orchard's initial harvest-production phase.

The following years (2014–2019) saw BCO mature into a significant community resource, characterized by expanded access and deep institutional partnerships. A key policy shift occurred in 2014 when BCO made all its classes free, eliminating financial barriers, and launched the Neighborhood Plantings Program to distribute free trees and other perennial edible agriculture to first-time homeowners and food banks. By 2015, the Orchard was producing substantial harvests, fueling large-scale community events like Cider Fest, which grew to over 700 attendees, and spurred the formation of student groups at IU and Ivy Tech. The organization achieved formal recognitions in 2017 by winning the Be More Sustainable Award, and again in 2024 by winning the Be More Bloomington Award.

The decade concluded with major infrastructure upgrades—including building a new shed, replacing the deer fence, and planting the first public nut grove—and the organization began consulting with other communities on starting their own orchards, demonstrating BCO’s successful evolution into a leader in subnational urban agriculture.

Information from The Bloomington Community Orchard

This new volunteer management and tracking program will align with BCO’s strategic goals in several ways.

1. Visitor & Volunteer Tracking (i.e., a system that tracks people coming and going from the BCO).
2. QR-code based “sign in” platform that allows people to indicate if they are a visitor, volunteer, or donor, and prompts for additional contact and engagement information.
3. Database of sign in responses, and flexible real-time reporting (e.g., number of visitors/volunteers, demographic info, etc.)
4. Automated email communications triggered by visitor and donor sign in data.
5. Process overview and setup plan for testing, and to share as a model with similar organizations.

“The Bloomington Community Orchard was born from simple ideas: everyone should have access to food, local food is a key element of a sustainable future, we build community through sharing space, food, and resources. What started as just a seedling of inspiration, quickly became fertilized by both local and global need, and soon became one of the most fruitful volunteer-driven sustainability initiatives of its kind.” - Amy Countryman (initial “founder” who did her SPEA thesis on the idea of a community orchard)

The Challenge

The Bloomington Community Orchard is seeking a comprehensive utilization system tracking orchard foot traffic, allows for autonomous volunteer/visitor “sign in” prompting individuals to sign up for more info, log volunteer hours, give feedback, etc., while gathering data driving an automated email engagement system. A major focus of the BCO 2026 strategic plan is recruitment, capturing site visitor engagement data, and cultivating that into volunteerism (and potential leadership roles). As a national leader in Community Orcharding, the Bloomington Community Orchard seeks a program that can be replicated on a national level for similar organizations.

Desired deliverables are provision of an off-the-grid System to Capture Foot Traffic, a Volunteer Registration Platform involving a simple, mobile-friendly web application designed to capture visitor data. Database & Email Automation utilizing a centralized backend system automatically compiling data (with reporting) and initiating trigger-based email communications based on the user's recorded activity, ensuring timely and relevant follow-up whether they are a first-time visitor, donor, or seasoned volunteer. Formalized Model Development documenting the system, from volunteer sign in, data utilization and email automation (e.g., driving visitor-to-volunteer conversion rates), and development of the project into a replicable best practice model for other similar community organizations nationwide.

Your team has a budget of up to $10,000 to

1. Develop a system to track BCO foot traffic.
2. Develop/Utilize automated registration platform.
3. Database development with built-in automations for volunteer engagement/tracking/development.
4. Develop a volunteer incentivization program (e.g., rewards based on volunteer activity).
5. Formalize a turn-key model to be replicated nationally.

Resources Available for Implementation

• Financial: $10k budget
• Human (Staff Capacity): The Bloomington Community Orchard is led by an all volunteer Board of Directors of seven members. The new volunteer management and tracking program must be sustainable with a low level of ongoing time commitment from BCO staff.
• Technological: The BCO does not have city infrastructure (i.e., we do not have electricity, internet, or water access on-site, so any technology used would need to be solar-powered).

Important Information

• BCO seeks both short-term and long-term solutions that are impactful, authentic, and tailored to address the identified issues, ensuring meaningful benefits and sustainable success.
• Be mindful of the $10,000 implementation budget. You are invited to research and recommend additional funding streams (grants, etc.), however, do not assume they will be awarded.
• Below is information from staff at BCO –this will be advantageous for you to consider as you build your proposal.
  
  

Communication

• KISI is hosting the Impact Competition, and all official communication will come from this office.
• Each team member is registered to receive the KIC Newsletter that will be sent regularly to the indicated email on the team application. These newsletters will contain important information such as registration links, documents, reminders, upcoming events, etc.
• Communication to individual teams will come from the KISI office to the team captain. It is the responsibility of the team captain to ensure that all team members receive appropriate communication.
• As it relates to the case prompt, you may not contact staff from The Bloomington COmmunity Orchard or KISI outside of the opportunities provided for you throughout this competition.
• For questions or concerns about competition logistics, email kisi@iu.edu with subject KIC26.
• Notice: You may not and should not publicly represent The Bloomington Community Orchard or KISI without written permission from said entity: For example, you should not create any social media posts or write any grants on behalf of any of the above.

*Indicates participation is required to advance in the competition.

Updated times/dates, registration, and other details will be shared in the KIC newsletter.

Prize Money

• First place: $6,000 for team
• Second place: $3,000 for team
• Third place: $2,000 for team

Implementation money to the partner 

• Up to $10,000

Prize money will be disbursed through student bursar accounts. There are no exceptions to this. The prize money will be equally distributed to all 4 students on the team by the end of the Spring semester. If a team member discontinues in the competition their portion will be forfeited.

Up to $10,000.00 in implementation money to support the winning idea will be given directly to the partner.

Teams will need to submit their full presentation & supplemental materials in an online folder in order to receive their funding.

This case competition consists of an application and 3 rounds: an executive summary, a slide deck submission, and a final presentation.

• Online application.
• A one-page Executive Summary PDF that includes an overview of your proposal and an outline of your budget of how you plan to use the seed money (up to $10,000).
• A 4-slide deck presentation (PDF or PPT) submitted online that includes more detail about the project, budget, and implementation plan.
• A 25-minute presentation, 15 minutes for presentation and 10 minutes for questions, proposing a solution to help Bloomington Community Orchard address their challenge.

Team Registration: Online submission via website. All 4 team members must be on 1 team application.

• Submit a one-page Executive Summary PDF that includes an overview of your proposal, and an outline of your budget and plans to use the implementation money (up to $10,000).
  • Teams will receive a letter-code designation from the KISI office and should identify their Executive Summary with this information. Example: Team Kelley Consultants is given “C.” They should title their document“Team C Executive Summary” instead of “Kelley Consultants Executive Summary”.
  • If you use your team name on this document you could be disqualified.
  • The team captain must submit the Executive Summary and sign the Participant Agreement by the deadline.
  • Teams that are missing any of the required information will not be allowed to advance.
• Review the rubric for judging criteria.
• Submissions will be reviewed by a large panel of judges, ranked, and the top 12 teams will advance.
  • Please note if you don’t receive an initial invitation your team still may be selected from a waitlist.
• The team captain should reply to the notification and indicate the team’s acceptance to Round 2 by theindicated date. Failure to accept will forfeit the team’s position and another team will be invited to advance.

• Teams will upload a slide deck online for review by a panel of judges.
• The slides should include project overview, budget, and implementation.
• Anything over 4 slides (5 or beyond) will not be considered.
• Review the rubric for judging criteria.
• Submissions will be reviewed by a panel of judges and the top 6 teams will advance.
  • Please note if you don’t receive an initial invitation your team still may be selected from a waitlist.
• The team captain should reply to the notification and indicate the team’s acceptance to Round 3 by the indicated date. Failure to accept will forfeit the team’s position and another team will be invited to advance.

• 6 Teams will present in a randomly assigned order, or based on the previously provided class schedules.
  • Each team is required to have a minimum of one team member in-person to present.
• 15-minute presentation followed by 10 minutes of Q&A. You should bring 6 copies of your printed budget for the judges. Presentation should include implementation, timeline, and budget.
• Your presentation must include a detailed and realistic timeline for the implementation of your proposal. The winning team should keep in mind the feasibility of implementing your solution within one year, and providing the guidance/resources to the partner to do so.
• Review the rubric for judging criteria. In addition to your presentation, you will submit a separate, detailed budget demonstrating how you would use up to $10,000 to support your idea.
• The Bloomington Community Orchard would like to share their winning proposal with other similar organizations to multiply the impact of this opportunity. Proposals that offer a general duplication plan will have priority consideration: The duplication plan should be a one-page summary of how another organization COULD implement or integrate your idea.
  • Note: The winning team will only be required to implement with Bloomington Community Orchard.

Following the competition, the students from the winning team will work with the partner and KISI to help ensure implementation of the project. You will work on and submit an implementation plan folder over 6 months (created in a shareable KISI Google Drive folder). Phase one must be submitted by April 30 of the spring semester.

• The winning team, KISI, and the partner will review the logistics of the group’s implementation plan.
• The team will be required to submit follow-up information demonstrating progress. Their work could begin as soon as the case is completed, however, will be determined based on the team's proposed timeline.
• The winning team will be provided with additional details following the case competition.

Dress Code: Recommended dress for the presentations is business casual. See this resource recommended by Kelley University Career Services for more guidance: Professional Dress – KelleyConnect.

Timeline: Your presentation must include a detailed and realistic timeline for the implementation of your proposal. The winning team should keep in mind the feasibility of implementing your solution within one year, and providing the guidance/resources to the partner to do so.

Budget: The winning team can allot up to $10,000.00 to support the implementation of their proposal. These funds will be awarded directly to the partner. Please provide the judges with a budget detailing how you suggest to use the money. It is at the judges’ discretion to choose the final amount awarded for implementation.

Duplication: Priority will be given to teams that offer a duplication plan for implementation; being able to recommend/share your solution across multiple organizations will make your idea that much more valuable and impactful.

Research & Educational Events: Teams should conduct additional research to supplement the information provided in the case. Feel free to use all available resources, including community data and IU library services. At educational events, you can use the partner as a resource in developing your solution. While these events are not required, it is strongly recommended that all or some of your team members attend. These events will be virtual.

• Note: The partner is not able to respond to questions via email, phone calls, or other communications outside of the scheduled educational events. You should NOT contact them.

• The Bloomington Community Orchard is a 501c3 nonprofit organization created 16 years ago and is devoted to growing fruit trees and other perennial edible agriculture for the community to enjoy, while growing our orcharding skills through education and experience-sharing.
• The Bloomington Community Orchard does not have a brick and mortar office, it is a volunteer run organization. The flagship Orchard is located at 2120 S. Highland Ave. (across from the YMCA), and parking is available in the City of Bloomington’s Winslow Woods parking lot.
  • The park is serviced by 4 South High Street / Sherwood Oaks bus route.
• BCO website
• BCO newsletter

This list is not comprehensive. We invite you to discover other reputable sources for understanding your topic as needed. Additional resources may be shared in the KIC newsletter as they become available/known. Multiple resources below are links that will redirect you away from this document.

Visit the Business/SPEA library for helpful resources and access to a plethora of research:https://libraries.indiana.edu/businessspea-library

Below is the judging rubric. Please note the different point ratios and how they are weighted.

• Metric: This is the area or subject that the judges are expecting to see addressed.
• Full points: Will be awarded to recommendations that clearly and thoroughly, with detail, address the metric.
• Partial points: Will be awarded to recommendations that address the metric, however, are lacking in detail.
• One point: Will be awarded if the recommendation inadequately addresses the metric.
• No points: Will be awarded if the metric is not addressed at all.

Any IUB undergraduate student, regardless of year, major, or school, may participate in this event. Teams are required to have four students. 

Each year we partner with a nonprofit agency in Monroe County to develop a case that is relevant to a pressing local social issue. Students will present recommendations to help the work they are doing in our community, with the support of up to $10,000. 

Education and professional development sessions take place virtually on Zoom. The final event is in-person at the Hodge Hall Undergraduate Center. 

The competition occurs in the spring semester of each academic year between January and March. There are a few required events and additional supplemental events.

This case competition allows you the opportunity to make a real impact in our local community. Case competitions are great experiential learning opportunities to help you develop as a person and a professional. 

There are three rounds of competition:

Round 1: Teams are required to submit a one-page Executive Summary online. The top 12 ranked teams will advance.

Round 2: In this round, teams must submit a slide deck that includes a project overview, implementation plan, and budget. Once again, the top six teams will advance.

Round 3: The top six teams from the previous round will compete in the finale, presenting their projects to a panel of judges. Typically, these presentations take place on the first Friday in March.