Publications

March 2023
Case

Between Two Minds: The Staglin Family

By: Lauren Cohen, Ronnie Stangler and Grace Headinger

Garen Staglin, Founder and Chairman of One Mind, reflected on his life’s work in brain health. As he contemplated stepping down in the next few years, he weighed how to pass along this legacy to his son, Brandon Staglin, the impetus behind and next generation of the... View Details

Keywords: Nonprofit Organizations; Well-being; Management Succession; Family Ownership; Mission and Purpose; Health Industry

26 Nov 2001
Research & Ideas

Women Entrepreneurs Use Springboard for Funding

is the opportunity for these wonderful entrepreneurs to earn and return to those investors." Organized by the Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit Springboard Enterprises, in tandem with the Center for Women & Enterprise, a... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

November 2010 (Revised January 2011)
Case

The Tzu Chi Foundation's China Relief Mission

By: Herman B. Leonard and YiKwan Chu

Tzu Chi is one of the largest charities in Taiwan, and one of the swiftest and most effective relief organizations internationally. Rooted in the value of compassion, the organization has many unusual operating features -- including having no long term plan. This case... View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Crisis Management; Service Delivery; Mission and Purpose; Religion; Natural Disasters; Nonprofit Organizations; Welfare; China; Taiwan

Article

How Social Entrepreneurs Zig-Zag Their Way to Impact at Scale

By: V. Kasturi Rangan and Tricia Gregg

This article provides guidance to social entrepreneurs and their funders as they seek to advance the enterprise from startup to scale. It focuses on the evolution of four social entrepreneurs and their decision-making paths as they attempt to scale their respective... View Details

Keywords: Systemic Impact; Scaling; Strategy Process; Nonprofit Organizations; Social Entrepreneurship; Growth and Development Strategy

March 2009 (Revised August 2010)
Case

The Posse Foundation: Implementing a Growth Strategy

The Posse Foundation selected high-potential, non-traditional students to attend selective colleges as part of a group of 10 from the same city. The organization had developed an ambitious growth plan, but because it focused on the most selective colleges, the pool of... View Details

Keywords: Diversity; Higher Education; Social Entrepreneurship; Growth and Development Strategy; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Personal Development and Career; Partners and Partnerships; Nonprofit Organizations; Education Industry

Find at Harvard

21 Apr 2011
Research & Ideas

Searching for Better Practices in Social Investing

In order to garner the capital necessary to foot the bill for social change, nonprofits need to think less about traditional grants and more in terms of innovation--and so do the organizations that fund them. This was a key message from... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Financial Services

September 2024
Case

Open Door Legal: Universal Legal Access

By: Brian Trelstad, Taylor Greenthal and Sarah Mehta

This case is about Open Door Legal (ODL), a San Francisco-based civil legal aid nonprofit. CEO Adrian Tirtanadi founded the organization in 2012 with a mission to achieve universal access to legal representation for all city residents. By 2024, ODL had opened four... View Details

Keywords: Social Entrepreneurship; Law; Growth Management; Nonprofit Organizations; Civil Society or Community; Business Model; Expansion; Legal Services Industry; United States; California; Los Angeles; San Francisco

October 2023 (Revised May 2024)
Case

Governance and Growth at GenUnity

By: Brian Trelstad, Paul Healy and Annelena Lobb

Jerren Chang, CEO and co-founder of GenUnity, had to choose a strategy to scale his civic engagement-focused nonprofit. Based in Boston, Chang could grow the organization there or begin to expand to other cities. He also had to select candidates for a board of... View Details

Keywords: Growth and Development Strategy; Nonprofit Organizations; Expansion; Governing and Advisory Boards; Boston

November 2020 (Revised November 2020)
Case

Daily Table

By: José B. Alvarez, Zeynep Ton and Annelena Lobb

Daily Table is a case about a grocery chain with two outposts in Boston neighborhoods Dorchester and Roxbury. Its mission is to provide healthy food at lower prices to people in lower-income neighborhoods. The case explores Daily Table’s responsibility to its employees... View Details

Keywords: Grocery; COVID-19 Pandemic; Food; Nonprofit Organizations; Employees; Wages; Employee Relationship Management; Boston

05 Oct 2009
Research & Ideas

The Vanguard Corporation

were going to succeed and prosper needed to manage risks better, have a stronger sense of purpose to motivate their employees, and satisfy a public already agitated about scandals such as Enron in the corporate world. What I didn't see... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

02 Apr 2015
Research & Ideas

Digital Initiative Summit: The Business of Crowdsourcing

example. Many nonprofits and other organizations can't afford to hire data scientists, so DrivenData taps into college students and professionals who are looking to work with real-world data sets. For instance, the company is seeking a... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

March 2011 (Revised January 2013)
Teaching Note

ProPublica (TN)

By: Michel Anteby and Ryan Johnson

Teaching Note for #410-140. View Details

Keywords: Markets; Finance; Competency and Skills; Knowledge; Nonprofit Organizations; Resource Allocation; Decision Choices and Conditions; Journalism and News Industry

20 Mar 2000
Research & Ideas

No Place Like Home: America’s Housing Crisis and Its Impact on Business

imbalance. (photo: Webb Chappell) With the federal government's involvement diminishing, nonprofit organizations that specialize in public-private financing for housing and holistic community development have come to the fore. Laurie J.... View Details

Keywords: by Garry Emmons; Construction; Real Estate

29 May 2020
Op-Ed

How Leaders Are Fighting Food Insecurity on Three Continents

according to the Nwunelis. Sahel Capital Agribusiness Managers, where Mezuo Nwuneli is the managing partner, provides capital and technical assistance to food and agriculture-focused small- to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) through the... View Details

Keywords: by Howard Stevenson and Shirley Spence; Agriculture & Agribusiness

07 Aug 2009
What Do You Think?

Why Can’t Americans Get Health Care Right?

Freyd); profit-oriented risk managers and payment processors such as insurers (R. MacKenzey, Emre Erkut, and others); specialized service providers (including malpractice lawyers) at various points in the channel (C. J. Cullinane, Michael... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett; Health

August 2011 (Revised July 2014)
Case

Earl Martin Phalen: Ready to ROAR?

By: Noam T. Wasserman, Julia Taylor and Yael Braid

Earl Martin Phalen is in the midst of starting his second non-profit organization, Summer Advantage, by implementing the lessons he learned from BELL, the non-profit he had founded and run for the prior 15 years. His aspirations for Summer Advantage were to make it... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Governance; Nonprofit Organizations; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Selection and Staffing; Leadership Development; Financial Management

16 Oct 2019
Research & Ideas

Read Our Most Popular Stories of the Quarter

performance. (10,251 visits) These Aren't Beach Books, but Managers Should Read Them Anyway Recent books by Harvard Business School scholars that can boost your career and improve on-the-ground management... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

23 May 2019
Book

These Entrepreneurs Take a Pragmatic Approach to Solving Social Problems

In 1908, Harvard Business School’s first dean, Edwin Francis Gay, welcomed the School’s inaugural class of 59 students by saying that HBS was challenged with encouraging its students to have the “intellectual respect for business as a profession, with the social... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Green Technology

November 2002 (Revised March 2006)
Case

ApproTEC Kenya: Technologies to Fight Poverty and Create Wealth

By: V. Kasturi Rangan

ApproTEC markets a range of technologies to improve the income of subsistence farmers and other small-scale entrepreneurs in East Africa. Having achieved considerable success in its first eight years, the two founders/entrepreneurs are seeking ways to scale the impact... View Details

Keywords: Social Enterprise; Development Economics; Poverty; Information Technology; Entrepreneurship; Nonprofit Organizations; Growth and Development Strategy; Kenya; Africa