Publications

Read Now

19 Oct 2017
Research & Ideas

How Charitable Organizations Can Thwart Excuses for Not Giving

how much good the donation will achieve. “That gives you some moral wiggle room to pursue the more selfish action,” says Exley, an assistant professor in the Negotiation, Organizations & Markets Unit at... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

01 Dec 2015
Research & Ideas

What to Do When Your Organization Has Dueling Missions

social enterprise (WISE), a type of organization that helps people transition back into the labor market after long-term unemployment. It also exemplifies what organization theorists call a hybrid: Rather... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

19 Dec 2023
Research & Ideas

$15 Billion in Five Years: What Data Tells Us About MacKenzie Scott’s Philanthropy

organizations from our analysis, including: Sponsored programs (initiatives of legally separate nonprofits or fiscal sponsors) Organizations registered outside the US Recipients of restricted gifts, View Details

Keywords: by Matthew Lee, Brian Trelstad, and Ethan Tran

30 Nov 2015
Research & Ideas

Donors Are Turned Off by Overhead Costs. Here’s What Charities Can Do

Several organizations have adopted the idea of overhead-free donations, Keenan says, noting that charity: water is one of them. The organization depends largely on professional philanthropists to cover... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

Donors are Turned Off by Overhead Costs. Here's What Charities Can Do

Elizabeth A. Keenan and colleagues find that charitable donors are willing to stomach the idea of overhead costs—as long as they know someone else’s donation is covering them. A field study helped one organization nearly triple its solicited donations. View Details

13 Dec 2011
Working Paper Summaries

Charitable Giving When Altruism and Similarity Are Linked

Keywords: Service

06 Oct 2020
Video

Black Founders: Kevin Chenault, MBA 2021

22 Feb 2000
Research & Ideas

Social Capital Markets: Creating Value in the Nonprofit World

challenges: selecting the mostworthy recipients of funding, relying on young organizations to implementideas, and being accountable to the third party whose funds they areinvesting. They identify relevant venture capital practices — such... View Details

Keywords: by Anne Kavanagh

2008
Article

Entrepreneurial Ventures and Whole-body Donations: A Regional Perspective from the United States

By: Michel Anteby and Mikell Hyman

Human cadavers are crucial to medical science. While the debate on how to secure sufficient cadavers has focused primarily on donors' behaviors, procuring organizations' roles in increasing donations remain less explored. The United States offers a unique setting in... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Behavior; Programs; Nonprofit Organizations; Business Ventures; Health Testing and Trials; Demand and Consumers; Supply Chain; For-Profit Firms; Organizations; Training; United States

Find at Harvard

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07 Jun 2021
Book

9 Tips from an Expert Fundraiser: Help Donors 'Invest in Their Passion'

regard, helping to open and secure support. "It is hard work and absolutely vital if the organization is to succeed." McFarlan has spent the past 40 years serving on social enterprise boards, helping View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost

June 2018
Case

Feeding America (A)

By: Scott Duke Kominers and Alan Lam

This case describes how Feeding America, the third-largest nonprofit organization in the U.S., designed a marketplace for allocating donated food across its network of food banks. It considers the promises and pitfalls of using market-based allocation in the context of... View Details

Keywords: Social Enterprise; Nonprofit Organizations; Food; Resource Allocation; Fairness; Performance Efficiency; United States

October 1998 (Revised November 1998)
Case

Newman's Own, Inc.

By: James E. Austin

Describes the creation and evolution of this food marketing corporation. All its after-tax profits are donated to charity by Paul Newman, the distinguished actor and social entrepreneur. The company has grown into a $100 million enterprise and donated cumulatively $89... View Details

Keywords: Social Entrepreneurship; Food; Organizations; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Problems and Challenges; Competitive Advantage; Food and Beverage Industry

17 Jan 2013
News

Social Impact Investing Will Be the New Venture Capital

21 May 2018
Blog Post

Harnessing The Power of Collaboration to Create Opportunity in Chicago

donated to nonprofits, Accion Chicago is a nonprofit organization whose purpose is to build communities through entrepreneurship. We all know that small business is the growth engine of any economy. This is... View Details

Keywords: Nonprofit / Government

January 2013
Case

Omidyar Network: Pioneering Impact Investment

By: Michael Chu and Lauren Barley

Omidyar Network, having deployed to date over $500 million in ways ranging from donations to commercial equity capital, must decide whether to back Anudip, an Indian organization dedicated to providing the rural unemployed and marginalized with livelihoods linked to... View Details

Keywords: Social Enterprise; Social Entrepreneurship; Investment; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; India

30 May 2013
Working Paper Summaries

Non-Standard Matches and Charitable Giving

Keywords: by Michael Sanders, Sarah Smith & Michael I. Norton

08 Jul 2009
Working Paper Summaries

Truth in Giving: Experimental Evidence on the Welfare Effects of Informed Giving to the Poor

Keywords: by Christina Fong & Felix Oberholzer-Gee

April 2009 (Revised October 2010)
Case

Bob Beall at the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation

By: Robert Steven Kaplan and Sophie Hood

Bob Beall is the Chief Executive Officer of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation (CFF). CFF is an extremely successful organization, but Beall has to determine how to manage the organization through the financial crisis of 2008-2009. In this situation, donations are likely... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Financial Crisis; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Governing and Advisory Boards; Leadership; Crisis Management; Nonprofit Organizations