Experiencing purpose first-hand

Our first projects of 2025 saw us supporting IE Business School’s bid to give 400 of its Master’s students a sense of purpose. 

The university’s ‘Purpose in Action’ experience is a fundamental building block of its ‘Purpose Accelerator’ objective. 

Over four days in January, 200 IMBA students built an extensive garden featuring pods and boardwalks at an educational centre for vulnerable or marginalised young people in Madrid. 

At the same time, elsewhere in the city, a further 200 MIM students built a learning and growing garden for children at Collegio Julian Besteiro, which supports disadvantaged families.  

Concepcion Galdon, Vice Dean, Business with Purpose, IE Business School, explained why giving their students the chance to experience purpose first-hand is so important to their Master’s programmes: 

“We believe our students are going to have better careers and more impact if they have purpose. 

“This is an invitation to all our students to be purpose driven business leaders.” 

Here’s what the students had to say:

Bill, said:

“When we first arrived, there was just a piece of land and a bunch of wood. At the end, we had such a sense of accomplishment, on top of giving back.  

“People often see a challenge and think it’s impossible, but this experience made me realise that anything is possible with the right tools and synergy.” 

Madhav, said:

“Having a sense of purpose ends up helping you, giving you a sense of perspective. This opportunity gave us hands on experience of belonging to our community.”