The impression often given of the MBA is that it is all about money, whether the aim is to secure a salary increase or a job on Wall Street. Dig a little deeper, though, and you will find that many business school students supplement a hectic academic schedule with unpaid voluntary work.

Some MBA students are heavily involved in volunteering throughout their programme. Zach Barfield is studying for a modular executive MBA with a specialism in film business at Cass Business School in the City of London, and runs his own company, Stuffed Animals Media, a global virtual studio. Yet he still finds time to help a number of charities.

“I do a lot of work for Asthma UK as a speaker, as a volunteer at summer camps and helping with fundraising,” he says. “I am also a business mentor for The Prince’s Trust; vice-chairman of the New Producers Alliance, a charity and organisational body for independent film-makers, and I sit on the international advisory board of Global Angels, a children’s charity.”

It sounds exhausting and although Barfield acknowledges that the MBA workload is fairly heavy, he is passionate about his voluntary work and determined to keep contributing.

His studies are also useful for his charitable activities. “Although most MBAs are geared to the bigger corporate environment, a lot of principles can be used in the voluntary sector,” he says. “They can be used to help charities to analyse and operate in a more cost-efficient way and to use assets more effectively.”

Other MBA students turn to volunteering once their studies have finished. Yves Néron-Bancel, who is a paraplegic after a skiing accident, finished a masters in management at the Community of European Management Schools last year before setting out to ride a handbike 2,800 miles (4,500km) around the Nordic countries to raise money for charity.

He says: “I wanted to show that being handicapped is not the barrier to achievement that some people imagine. I also wanted to raise some money for the Institute for Brain and Spinal Cord Disorders, which conducts research. I travelled 2,300 miles to the North Cape [in Norway] unassisted, before having to stop after breaking my arm in an accident.”

Néron-Bancel’s management studies proved invaluable in helping him to raise €45,000 (£36,000) for the institute. “The masters helped with preparing and marketing the project, as did the network that I built up while studying.”

For MBA graduates who want to use their skills and knowledge for a good cause, there are less physically strenuous alternatives – The Cran-field Trust, for example.

“We provide free management support to the voluntary sector in the UK,” says Amanda Tincknell, chief executive at the trust. “We have a register of about 650 volunteers, including some 400 MBAs, all keen to use their skills and time to help voluntary organisations.”

The trust sets up and manages the projects. Volunteers spend between five and seven days of their time, spread over several months, so it fits around work and other commitments.

“Typically they would be helping charities with tasks such as writing a business plan, developing marketing activities and dealing with HR issues,” Tincknell says. “They will have a lasting impact on the charity.”

African adventure

Kerry Watts, lead nurse for medicines management at Northumbria Healthcare NHS Trust, is studying on Durham Business School’s two-year part-time executive MBA programme. She also devotes time to helping the Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre, in the foothills of Mt Kilimanjaro.

On a trip to Tanzania in 2005 she found a desperate need for emergency medical assistance. She later returned to the country to set up a triage desk at the centre to treat patients according to medical priority and she has helped with fundraising and writing business plans.