Publications

November 2023 (Revised May 2024)
Case

Kickstarter: Crowdfunding for the Arts

By: Rohit Deshpandé and Alexis Lefort

Kickstarter was a virtual crowdfunding platform and community that allowed creators of all kinds to raise funding for creative projects. The executive team was wrestling with a tension in its business model: the organization earned the majority of its revenue from... View Details

Keywords: Fundraising; Mission; Crowdfunding; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Mission and Purpose; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Arts; Web Services Industry; United States

June 2014
Article

Charitable Giving When Altruism and Similarity Are Linked

By: Julio J. Rotemberg

This paper presents a model in which anonymous charitable donations are rationalized by two human tendencies drawn from the psychology literature. The first is people's disproportionate disposition to help those they agree with, while the second is the dependence of... View Details

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

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Profile

John Rogers

Why was earning your MBA at HBS important to you? As a non-business person by prior education and work experience and as someone with a specific career interest, I wanted to join a program that would significantly stretch my understanding of business in the classroom... View Details

Keywords: Other Financial Services; Manufacturing

25 Mar 2015
News

The Greening of Houston

amenities to Buffalo Bayou. Houston’s businesses are very heavily involved in everything related to quality of life in the city—from the arts to green spaces to education. Though, Gilbane points out that all this philanthropy isn’t just... View Details

Keywords: Constantine von Hoffman; Administration of Housing Programs, Urban Planning, and Community Development; Government; Administration of Environmental Quality Programs; Government; Special Design Services; Professional Services; Petroleum and Coal Products Manufacturing; Manufacturing

July 2014
Case

BMVSS: Changing Lives through Innovation One Jaipur Limb at a Time (Abridged)

By: Srikant Datar, Saloni Chaturvedi and Caitlin Bowler

Bhagwan Mahaveer Viklang Sahayata Samiti (BMVSS) is an Indian not-for-profit organization engaged in assisting differently-abled persons by providing them with the legendary low-cost prosthesis, the Jaipur Foot, and other mobility-assisting devices, free of cost. Known... View Details

Keywords: Nonprofit Organizations; Financial Condition; Health Care and Treatment; Diversity; Growth and Development Strategy; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry; Health Industry; India

July 2011
Case

Edna McConnell Clark Foundation-Enabling a Performance Driven Philanthropic Capital Market

By: Allen Grossman and Aldo Sesia

The Edna McConnell Clark Foundation, focused on building the organizational capabilities of nonprofits that served the disadvantaged youth in the United States, has recently been named an intermediary in the federal government's new social innovation fund (SIF), which... View Details

Keywords: Nonprofit Organizations; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Financial Strategy; Performance Improvement; Capital Markets; United States

September 2009 (Revised May 2011)
Case

Acumen Fund: Measurement in Impact Investing (A)

By: Alnoor Ebrahim and V. Kasturi Rangan

Acumen Fund is a global venture capital firm with a dual purpose: it looks for a return on its investments, and it also seeks entrepreneurial solutions to global poverty. This case examines Acumen's new projects in Kenya. The organization's investment committee and its... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Venture Capital; Investment Return; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Risk Management; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Business and Government Relations; Social Enterprise; Financial Services Industry; Kenya

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

07 Jun 2011
First Look

First Look: June 7

discretion. Corporate philanthropy is our setting to study how a differentiated structural element, the corporate foundation, constrains the influence of individual senior managers and directors on corporate strategy. Our analysis of... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

17 Feb 2022
Blog Post

The Fifth Year of Short Intensive Programs (SIPs) at HBS

Times’ Ross Douthat, and Harvard University President Larry Bacow. Sessions included “Leadership as the Courage to Care” with Bob Chapman, chairman and CEO of Barry-Wehmiller; “Spiritual Philanthropy in Emerging Markets” with Professor... View Details

01 Dec 2009
News

Seven Honored with Alumni Achievement Award

Partner U.S. Venture Partners Bowes Jr. After founding U.S. Venture Partners in San Francisco in 1981, Bill Bowes helped shape companies such as Sun Microsystems, Callaway Golf, Applied Biosystems, and Ross Stores. More recently, he has focused on venture View Details

Keywords: Susan Young; awards; fishing; Funds, Trusts, and Other Financial Vehicles; Finance; Beverage and Tobacco Product Manufacturing; Manufacturing; General Merchandise Stores; Retail Trade

01 Jun 2013
News

Lesson Plans

uses a venture philanthropy model that makes early- and growth-stage investments in NGOs focused on high-quality, affordable schools; human capital development; technology in education; and school accountability." "When the business... View Details

Keywords: Educational Support Services; Educational Services; Elementary and Secondary Schools; Educational Services

January 2008 (Revised September 2008)
Supplement

Marketing the "$100 Laptop" (C)

By: John A. Quelch and David Chen

In October 2007, the OLPC reported production delays and missed its shipment date. In early November, the $100 PC finally went into production, with initial shipments planned for Uruguay and Mongolia, and mid-month launched the "Give One, Get One" program. It enabled... View Details

Keywords: Nonprofit Organizations; For-Profit Firms; Partners and Partnerships; Information Infrastructure; Problems and Challenges; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Computer Industry; Canada; Mongolia; Uruguay; United States

October 2010
Article

The Emerging Capital Market for Nonprofits

By: Robert S. Kaplan and Allen S. Grossman

Many of our largest and most successful companies today did not exist 50 years ago. During this same time interval, companies that ranked among top in the 1960s have disappeared, been merged out of existence, or become much smaller presences in the U.S. industrial... View Details

Keywords: Capital Markets; Investment Funds; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Corporate Accountability; Management Practices and Processes; Infrastructure; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Performance Effectiveness; Nonprofit Organizations

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September 2013
Case

Advanced Leadership Pathways: David Weinstein and Write the World

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Juliane Calingo Schwetz and Patricia Bissett Higgins

David Weinstein, a lawyer and former Chief Administrative Officer of mutual fund giant Fidelity Investments, launched Write the World, a proprietary online platform that included a writing curriculum, essay prompts in distinct subject matter, and access to expert... View Details

Keywords: Digital Platforms; Internet and the Web; Expansion; Social Entrepreneurship; Education; Business Startups; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving

13 Dec 2006
Research & Ideas

Improving Public Health for the Poor

one generation. So right off the bat you need scale and permanence. Both private and public philanthropy, when they work well, play a key role in fostering the birth of new concepts and ideas. But neither philanthropy nor development... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Health

01 Mar 2023
News

An Investment in Tomorrow's Leaders

little bit deeper, you understand that some of those students are paying for their sibling to go to college or helping their parents pay the rent.” Fellowships: A Tradition of Philanthropy To get a better view of students’ situations, in... View Details

Keywords: Jennifer Gillespie

08 Sep 2021
Blog Post

Building the Bridge from Nonprofit to VC with Joshua Mbanusi (MBA 2021)

managers to unlearn their racial and gender bias; and later receiving a full-time impact investing offer from another fund. The Strategic Philanthropy Bridge Mbanusi knew that it wouldn’t be enough to make connections into venture... View Details

January 2007 (Revised October 2007)
Case

The Omidyar-Tufts Microfinance Fund: Striving to Reshape the Social Enterprise Capital Markets

By: Michael Chu and Jean Hazell

Seeking to impact global poverty and philanthropy, eBay founder Pierre Omidyar donates $100 million to Tufts University for a trust restricted to investment in microfinance. Explores the origins of the initiative, the perspectives and objectives of the various parties... View Details

Keywords: Capital Markets; Microfinance; Investment Funds; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Emerging Markets; Social Enterprise; Financial Services Industry