Publications

February 2015
Case

Abby Falik at Global Citizen Year

By: Robert Steven Kaplan and Lauren Barley

Abby Falik, founder and CEO of Global Citizen Year (GCY), quickly read through the most recent news updates regarding the Ebola crisis in West Africa as she prepared for her board call on July 31, 2014. Based in Oakland, California, GCY was a five-year-old... View Details

Keywords: Not-for-profit; Public Service; Developing Countries; Secondary Education; Nonprofit Organizations; Higher Education; Developing Countries and Economies; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving

26 May 2020
Cold Call Podcast

Can the ‘Cummings Way’ Live On after the Founder Retires?

Keywords: Re: Christina R. Wing; Real Estate

September 2017 (Revised February 2018)
Case

Becton Dickinson: Global Health Strategy

By: Mark R. Kramer and Sarah Mehta

Becton, Dickinson and Company (BD) was a medical technology firm headquartered in Franklin Lakes, New Jersey, with 43,000 employees and 2016 revenues of $12.5 billion. For several years, the company had pursued developing products that created shared value, defined as... View Details

Keywords: Shared Value; Creating Shared Value; Odon Device; Medical Technology; Value Creation; Values and Beliefs; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Health; Health Care and Treatment; Health Testing and Trials; Emerging Markets; Social Issues; Competitive Strategy; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry; Africa; Asia; Middle East

01 Dec 2012
News

HBS Gift Planning

family in the future. Under current IRS valuation methods, the portion of a charitable lead trust gift that will be transferred to family can be discounted, meaning that significant gifts can be made with little or no gift View Details

16 Mar 2018
News

Douglas Spreng (MBA 1967)

and business through decades of change.” As his 50th reunion approached, Spreng considered what legacy he wanted to leave at HBS. In addition to including the School in his will, he established a charitable... View Details

Simulation

The Heinz Endowments: Bringing the Arts to Life

By: Gerald Zaltman

Keywords: Arts; Business and Community Relations; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving

June 2008 (Revised July 2008)
Case

The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis

By: Robert Steven Kaplan, Christopher Marquis and Brent Kazan

Marc Buoniconti is the co-founder of the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis, a nonprofit medical research organization. The project was founded in 1985 by Marc and his father Nick, a former Hall of Fame football player, when Marc suffered a spinal cord injury. In 2007,... View Details

Keywords: Investment; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Health Testing and Trials; Leadership; Growth and Development Strategy; Mission and Purpose; Research and Development; Nonprofit Organizations; Health Industry; Miami

2010
Working Paper

The Limits of Nonprofit Impact: A Contingency Framework for Measuring Social Performance

By: Alnoor Ebrahim and V. Kasturi Rangan

Leaders of organizations in the social sector are under growing pressure to demonstrate their impacts on pressing societal problems such as global poverty. We review the debates around performance and impact, drawing on three literatures: strategic philanthropy,... View Details

Keywords: Development Economics; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Leadership; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Performance Expectations; Nonprofit Organizations; Social Issues

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May 2022 (Revised May 2024)
Case

The Freedom Fund (A): Ending Modern Slavery

By: V. Kasturi Rangan and Courtney Han

The Freedom Fund founded in 2013 to end modern slavery had raised more than half its intended target (by 2025) of $200 million. In 2021, impressed by its decentralized-partnering style of operations, philanthropist MacKenzie Scott awarded the Fund a gift of $35 million... View Details

Keywords: Social Issues; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Spending; Decisions; India; Thailand; Ethiopia

01 Dec 2011
News

FAQ

Investing in HBS What Keeps HBS Ahead? You Do! The Personal Touch Donor Spotlight Research With Impact: Changing Global Health Practices Why is this a good time to establish a charitable lead trust? Record low rates used in determining... View Details

2006
Chapter

Corporate Philanthropy: Taking the High Ground

By: Michael E. Porter and Mark R. Kramer

Keywords: Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Social Entrepreneurship; Ethics

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March 2009 (Revised July 2014)
Case

PNC Financial: Grow Up Great (A)

By: Christopher Marquis, V. Kasturi Rangan and Alison Comings

In 2003, PNC Financial focused its corporate citizenship and philanthropic resources on a ten-year, $100 million investment in early childhood education called PNC Grow Up Great. The case tracks the origination of Grow Up Great, how it was developed and implemented... View Details

Keywords: Early Childhood Education; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Leadership; Brands and Branding; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Organizational Structure; Business and Community Relations

December 2016
Case

Public Mission, Private Funding: The University of California, Berkeley

By: William C. Kirby and Joycelyn W. Eby

UC Berkley, long known as one of the leading public universities in both the U.S. and the world, has seen turbulent times recently. While student enrollment and costs have increased steadily in recent years, the school, which has been fiercely proud of its public... View Details

January 2013 (Revised October 2015)
Case

Pittsburgh

By: Eric Werker, Meg Rithmire, Benjamin Kennedy and Andrew Knauer

The case narrates the development of Pittsburgh from the 1940s to 2012. It analyzes the collapse of the steel industry in the early 1980s, the city's subsequent decline, and the city's later re-emergence as a hub for higher education, the tech sector, and the... View Details

August 2024 (Revised February 2025)
Case

Novo Nordisk Foundation

By: Debora L. Spar and Julia M. Comeau

In 2024, Novo Nordisk A/S was one of the most profitable firms in the world, thanks largely to just two GLP-1-based drugs, Ozempic and Wegovy. Unusually, this incredibly profitable firm was controlled not by individual private shareholders, but by a non-profit... View Details

Keywords: Pharmaceutical Companies; Diabetes; Obesity; Foundation; Non-profit Management; Profit; Corporate Governance; Business or Company Management; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Expansion; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Nonprofit Organizations; Pharmaceutical Industry; Denmark; Europe

06 Sep 2024
Blog Post

Harvard Business School Announces 2024 Goldsmith Fellows

Finance, scaling an impact investment in Anchorage, Alaska to become the state's largest permanent supportive housing program, and designing and launching an impact fund-of-funds to mobilize passive View Details

April 21, 2016
Article

Warren Buffett’s Risky Final Bet

By: Josh Baron and Rob Lachenauer

Keywords: Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Risk and Uncertainty; Leadership

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