Publications

2010
Working Paper

Prosocial Spending and Well-Being: Cross-Cultural Evidence for a Psychological Universal

By: Lara B. Aknin, Christopher P. Barrington-Leigh, Elizabeth W. Dunn, John F. Helliwell, Robert Biswas-Diener, Imelda Kemeza, Paul Nyende, Claire Ashton-James and Michael I. Norton

This research provides the first support for a possible psychological universal: human beings around the world derive emotional benefits from using their financial resources to help others (prosocial spending). Analyzing survey data from 136 countries, we show that... View Details

Keywords: Spending; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Happiness; Motivation and Incentives; Welfare; Uganda; Canada

2009
Working Paper

Feeling Good about Giving: The Benefits (and Costs) of Self-Interested Charitable Behavior

By: Lalin Anik, Lara B. Aknin, Michael I. Norton and Elizabeth W. Dunn

While lay intuitions and pop psychology suggest that helping others leads to higher levels of happiness, the existing evidence only weakly supports this causal claim: Research in psychology, economics, and neuroscience exploring the benefits of charitable giving has... View Details

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

April 2002 (Revised July 2003)
Case

Cisco Systems and its Community Fellowship Program (A)

By: Diana Barrett and Sheila McCarthy

Focuses on the introduction, implementation, and initial evaluation of Cisco Systems Community Fellowship Program. This program provided Cisco employees affected by the layoff the option of working with a nonprofit organization for one year. Instead of a severance... View Details

Keywords: Job Cuts and Outsourcing; Compensation and Benefits; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Web Services Industry; Information Technology Industry; United States

Profile

Lindsay Steinmetz

Why was earning your MBA here important to you? After working for a small, entrepreneurial organization I wanted to build a stronger foundation in general management. HBS expanded my knowledge of industries, types of organizations, and how finance, operations and... View Details

Keywords: Nonprofit / Government

Article

(When) Are Religious People Nicer? Religious Salience and the 'Sunday Effect' on Pro-social Behavior

By: Deepak Malhotra

Prior research has found mixed evidence for the long-theorized link between religiosity and pro-social behavior. To help overcome this divergence, we hypothesize that pro-social behavior is linked not to religiosity per se, but rather to the salience of religion and... View Details

Keywords: Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Auctions; Bids and Bidding; Religion; Behavior; Societal Protocols

March 2023
Article

Giving-by-proxy Triggers Subsequent Charitable Behavior

By: Samantha Kassirer, Jillian J. Jordan and Maryam Kouchaki

How can we foster habits of charitable giving? Here, we investigate the potential power of giving-by-proxy experiences, drawing inspiration from a growing trend in marketing and corporate social responsibility contexts in which organizations make charitable... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Behavior

Profile

Michael R. Bloomberg

Bloomberg Philanthropies works to improve lives by focusing on the arts, education, the environment, government innovation, public health, and accelerating the pace of Black wealth accumulation. In 2017, together with Harvard Kennedy... View Details

09 Aug 2024
Blog Post

Addressing Inequities in Education: Social Enterprise Summer Fellow Amal Tariq (MBA 2025)

political systems, public institutions, private organizations and philanthropy within public education. Despite the challenges of operating in this landscape, this experience has solidified my commitment to advancing equity in education... View Details

09 Mar 2021
News

Addressing Education Inequities Exacerbated by the Pandemic

goes to education—about $800 million. Business people are also allocating a lot of private philanthropy money. JOSEPH FULLER Professor of Management Practice and Co-chair of HBS’s Managing the Future of Work project The funding mechanisms... View Details

Keywords: Jennifer Gillespie

March 2022
Article

When Less Is More: Consumers Prefer Brands that Donate More in Relative versus Absolute Terms

By: Elizabeth A. Keenan, Anne V. Wilson and Leslie K. John

When trying to make a good impression on consumers through charitable giving, is it better for brands to maximize the overall dollars they donate or how much they give in relative terms; for example, the proportion of profits? Across five studies we show that consumers... View Details

Keywords: Cause-related Marketing; Charitable Donations; Generosity; Altruism; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Brands and Branding; Consumer Behavior

Profile

Leo Markel

Why was earning your MBA at Harvard Business School important to you? I came to Harvard Business School to further develop my leadership ability. While confident in my analytical skills, I recognized that I did not have the leadership skills necessary to achieve my... View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital / Private Equity; Financial Services; Other Financial Services; Nonprofit / Government

Profile

Jeff Nelson

upon others. They’re a guide to how you might approach different situations after you leave HBS.” HBS activities have already opened opportunities for applying newly learned business practices. Through the Harbus Foundation, a student-run nonprofit, Jeff led a... View Details

2025
Working Paper

How Do Nonprofits Use Cash Windfalls? Evidence from $5B in Unrestricted Donations

By: Jennifer Walsh

How do nonprofits use unrestricted gifts? Donations to 501(c)(3)'s are increasingly given unrestricted due to concerns that restrictions on use unduly constrain nonprofits. I study the effect of such funding on recipients using a $5B sample of MacKenzie Scott's gifts... View Details

Keywords: Nonprofit Organizations; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Budgets and Budgeting; Compensation and Benefits

SSRN

2008
Working Paper

The Future of Social Enterprise

By: V. Kasturi Rangan, Herman B. Leonard and Susan McDonald

The Future of Social Enterprise considers the confluence of forces that is shaping the field of social enterprise, changing the way that funders, practitioners, scholars, and organizations measure performance. We trace a growing pool of potential funding sources to... View Details

Keywords: Social Entrepreneurship; Investment; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Performance Effectiveness; Social Enterprise; Consolidation; Value

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

Educators

Purchase

Article

Social Recycling Transforms Unwanted Goods into Happiness

By: Grant Edward Donnelly, Cait Lamberton, Rebecca Walker Reczek and Michael I. Norton

Consumers are often surrounded by resources that once offered meaning or happiness but that have lost this subjective value over time—even as they retain their objective utility. We explore the potential for social recycling—disposing of used goods by allowing other... View Details

Keywords: Disposition; Well-being; Prosocial Behavior; Pro-environmental Behavior; Happiness; Behavior; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Environmental Sustainability

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