“Hope begins with housing,” isn’t a typical tagline for a project tied to Goizueta Business School. But this spring, students in Goizueta’s undergraduate Business Communications Strategy course partnered with 3Keys, a not-for-profit that develops and manages affordable, permanent housing with onsite support services for adults facing mental illness and chronic homelessness. The organization works with roughly 500 individuals each year.
“The midterm project with 3Keys was an incredibly hands-on experience that stands out among all the in-class projects I’ve completed at Emory,” says Dylan Singer 27BBA. “The project felt like it truly mattered, and it was a joy to work on.”
Nikki Graves, associate professor in the practice of organization and management, believes partnering with community organizations like 3Keys helps students develop empathy.
“When empathy enhances our students’ already considerable motivation and drives their efforts, the results are stellar,” says Graves. “This is the type of learning that sticks.”
Community-Based Learning with Real Impact
Divided into teams, the students were tasked with designing a communications strategy to help members of 3Keys’ board leverage their networks, influence, and resources to support fundraising efforts. Historically, the organization—founded in 1988 with help from former first lady Rosalynn Carter—has prioritized governance and internal operations over fundraising and external engagement.
Over the course of the semester, students met with several members of 3Keys’ leadership staff, including Patricia L. Duboise, director of grant initiatives, and Diane Hughes, director of supportive services, to learn about the organization’s mission, funding models, and long-term goals.
When empathy enhances our students’ already considerable motivation and drives their efforts, the results are stellar. This is the type of learning that sticks.
Nikki Graves
“Having a senior member of the company speak with us face-to-face made the nature of the project clear,” says Singer. “It created a sense of closeness to the organization and made the experience feel more personal. It felt like our solutions were genuinely needed, which was exciting.”
Building Strategies for Hope
The organization gets its name from its “three keys” approach: housing—a permanent, stable home; help—supportive services that enable residents to live independently; and hope—an environment that fosters the opportunity for a better life.
Many of the adults 3Keys serves come from hospitals, behavioral health institutions, emergency shelters, correctional facilities, or periods of unsheltered homelessness. Most begin with little or no financial resources. 3Keys’ goal is to help them transition from a period of homelessness into stable, hopeful, independent lives.
“My favorite part of the project was considering how our ideas—as a class—could help change people’s lives in the Atlanta community,” explains Jamie Eck 27BBA.
Presenting Solutions to Leadership
This spring, each team presented their ideas to faculty and Duboise. At a board meeting in April, the top two teams, along with Scott Walker, executive director and CEO of the organization, presented consolidated recommendations to the 3Keys’ board.
“Ending chronic homelessness requires more than housing. It requires strong governance, strategic fundraising, and engaged leadership,” says Duboise. “By partnering with Emory’s Goizueta Business School, 3Keys gained fresh perspective, data-driven recommendations, and innovative ideas from emerging business leaders. The students went beyond delivering thoughtful recommendations—they created ready-to-use websites, templates, and resources for nearly every project.”
Student proposals included a “Board Academy” with online fundraising training, an AI-powered fundraising assistant that identifies potential grant connections, a digital campaign featuring virtual video tours of 3Keys’ properties, a donor-specific website, an “Adopt-A-Unit” fundraising campaign, and partnerships with local healthcare systems.
My favorite part of the project was considering how our ideas—as a class—could help change people’s lives in the Atlanta community.
Jamie Eck 27BBA
“By proposing strong solutions, we had the potential to make a meaningful difference in both 3Keys’ operations and the broader community,” says Zach Peltzar 27BBA. “This dynamic raised the stakes and made the work far more fulfilling and engaging.”
The project was made possible with a $1,000 “Community Engaged Learning” grant from Emory’s Center for Faculty Development and Excellence (CFDE). These grants support both new and ongoing opportunities for faculty to incorporate community engaged learning into their courses.
“We are grateful to Professor Graves and her students for investing their time and talent in strengthening our mission,” Duboise says. “Their work helps position 3Keys—and our board—for even greater impact in the years ahead.”
