Philanthropy - Publications - Faculty & Research

24 Apr 2014
News

Expanding the reach of business from Silicon Valley to the global arena

fund for young US technology companies. He is now the founding cochairman of Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation, a leading venture philanthropy firm supporting early-stage social enterprises making a difference in the world. Draper is... View Details

2014
Article

Models of Caring, or Acting as if One Cared, About the Welfare of Others

By: Julio J. Rotemberg

This paper surveys the theoretical literature in which people are modeled as taking other people's payoffs into account either because this affects their utility directly or because they wish to impress others with their social-mindedness. Key experimental results that... View Details

Keywords: Motivation and Incentives; Behavior; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving

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Profile

Avi Kremer

He can no longer walk, talk, or swallow, but Avi Kremer (MBA 2007) won’t let that slow down his pursuit of a cure for ALS, a progressive neurodegenerative disease. As founder of Prize4Life, the nonprofit he launched in 2006 with HBS classmates and professors, Kremer... View Details

Keywords: Health Care; Entrepreneurship

Article

Getting the Most Out of Giving: Concretely Framing a Prosocial Goal Maximizes Happiness

By: Melanie Rudd, Jennifer Aaker and Michael I. Norton

Across six field and laboratory experiments, participants assigned a more concretely-framed prosocial goal (e.g., making someone smile or increasing recycling) felt happier and reported creating greater personal happiness after performing a goal-directed act of... View Details

Keywords: Prosocial Behavior; Goal Framing; Affective Forecasting; Goals and Objectives; Happiness; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving

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14 May 2013
Blog Post

Alumni: Where are they now? Featuring Matt…

HBS alum, Matt Segneri, MBA 2010, provides an update on his career post-HBS. Check out his original profile at graduation. Current Position: Government Innovation at Bloomberg Philanthropies Current Location: New York Cit Tell us what... View Details

Keywords: Nonprofit / Government

30 Mar 2015
News

Leveraging the power of yes

Sasha Dichter (MBA/MPA 2002) is chief innovation officer at Acumen Fund, a nonprofit global venture fund that invests in early-stage companies to solve issues stemming from poverty. “One of the things I’ve learned is how expressive and personal View Details

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Career Timeline - Institute For Strategy And Competitiveness

University Professor, the highest recognition awarded to a Harvard faculty member 2000 – Co-founds Center for Effective Philanthropy (CEP) 2000 – Co-founds FSG 2002 – Launches the Microeconomics of Competitiveness (MOC) Affiliate Network... View Details

22 Mar 2017
Blog Post

3 Lessons I Learned as a Social Enterprise Summer Fellow

Foundation (DRK) – a venture philanthropy firm. The Initiative also partially funded my internship through its Summer Fellows Program, a sponsorship designed to help students explore career opportunities in social enterprise. In... View Details

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Additional Archives - Creating Emerging Markets

interested in the study of Africa. Global Regional Oral History Office, The Bancroft Library, UC Berkeley The Bancroft Library’s large collection of business leaders’ oral histories includes interviews of business and philanthropy in Peru... View Details

2022
Working Paper

Motivated Errors

By: Christine L Exley and Judd B. Kessler

In three sets of experiments involving 5,432 subjects, we show that agents make more errors when doing so allows them to justify selfish behavior. We show that errors relating to addition arise when they can help to justify selfishness but are eliminated when selfish... View Details

Keywords: Information; Behavior; Motivation and Incentives; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving

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01 Mar 2012
News

Faculty Books

Way by a Billion-Dollar Fundraiser by Howard Stevenson with Shirley Spence (Timberline LLC) Philanthropy is a powerful force in society, but the challenges are great, particularly during an economic downturn that has dampened... View Details

Keywords: Professor Bill George; Professor Joseph L. Bower; Professor Herman B. Leonard; Professor Lynn S. Paine; Professor Howard Stevenson; Professor Noam Wasserman; Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services

2015
Working Paper

Crowdfunding as 'Donations': Theory & Evidence

By: Kevin J. Boudreau, Lars Bo Jeppesen, Toke Reichstein and Francesco Rullani

For a wide class of crowdfunding approaches, we argue that the reward structure (for funders) is closer to that of charitable donations to public goods than it is to traditional entrepreneurial finance. Many features of the design of crowdfunding platforms can... View Details

Keywords: Crowdfunding Platforms; Entrepreneurial Finance; Free-riding; Voluntary Contributions To Public Goods; Online Technology; Entrepreneurship; Social and Collaborative Networks; Finance; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving

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January 2013
Supplement

The Great East Japan Earthquake (E): Yamato Transport's Response

By: Hirotaka Takeuchi, Leonard Kosinski, Christina Royce, Anna Stetsovskaya and Evgeny Vasilyev

CEO Kikawa of Yamato Transport gave orders to his managers right after the triple disaster hit the Tohoku region of Japan to do whatever it takes to save lives and not to worry about costs. He also felt that he had to confront the government to make donations to the... View Details

Keywords: Japan; Earthquake; Yamato Transport Company; Natural Disasters; Business and Shareholder Relations; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Transportation Industry; Japan

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01 Dec 2010
News

The Transformers

philanthropies New Profit and NewSchools Venture Fund. Harvard Business Review also served as a springboard for new ideas. In the March–April 1997 issue, MBA Class of 1957 Professor of Management Practice Allen Grossman cowrote an article... View Details

Keywords: Roger Thompson; Management, Scientific, and Technical Consulting Services; Professional Services

November 2024 (Revised March 2025)
Case

Tim Ferriss: What Might This Look like If It Were Easy?

By: Reza Satchu and Denise Koller

In April 2024, writer-podcaster Tim Ferriss—celebrated as the “Oprah of audio” for his billion-download show and known for NYT-bestsellers like The 4-Hour Workweek—found himself at a crossroads. Despite generating a multi-million-dollar annual revenue with just three... View Details

Keywords: Transition; Personal Development and Career; Business Strategy; Decision Choices and Conditions; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Media and Broadcasting Industry

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June 2009 (Revised July 2010)
Case

Goldman Sachs: The 10,000 Women Initiative

By: Christopher Marquis, V. Kasturi Rangan and Cathy Ross

Describes the conception, development, and implementation of Goldman Sachs' five-year, $100 million philanthropic initiative to provide practical business and management education to 10,000 women around the globe. The initiative recently celebrated its first... View Details

Keywords: Partners and Partnerships; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Business Education; Gender; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Financial Services Industry; Education Industry

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April 2008
Case

The Energy Foundation

By: Jane Wei-Skillern and Alison Berkley Wagonfeld

The Energy Foundation, a philanthropic foundation established through a partnership among major donors with a mission to promote clean energy technology, is the largest funder in the U.S. focusing on the energy sector. The $60 million foundation operates through a... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Investment Funds; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Networks; Expansion; Energy Industry; Green Technology Industry; United States

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06 Nov 2019
Working Paper Summaries

Why Does Business Invest in Education in Emerging Markets? Why Does It Matter?

Keywords: by Valeria Giacomin, Geoffrey Jones, and Erica Salvaj

2025
Working Paper

Tax Elasticities of Top Donors: Evidence from Family Foundations

By: Simon Essig Aberg

High net-worth donors who give through a family foundation or donor-advised fund constitute the fastest growing segment of charitable giving in the United States. Using a novel database of foundation tax filings, I document facts about top donors, estimate how they... View Details

Keywords: Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Taxation; Motivation and Incentives

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