Publications

October 1997 (Revised April 2002)
Case

Planned Parenthood Federation of America (A)

By: V. Kasturi Rangan and Elaine V. Backman

Outlines the dynamic shifts in the external environment surrounding Planned Parenthood's operations in 1994. Health care reform was threatening some of its core customer base. The organization had to come up with a strategy and a process for adapting to the new... View Details

Keywords: Nonprofit Organizations; Health Care and Treatment; Health Industry; United States

September 2018
Teaching Note

City Year at 30: Toward Long-Term Impact

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Jonathan Cohen

This teaching note assists in the classroom instruction of the HBS No. 318-089, “City Year at 30: Toward Long-Term Impact.” It offers to instructors a case summary and analysis, along with student preparation questions and a guide for classroom discussion of the case.... View Details

10 Dec 2007
HBS Case

One Laptop per Child

globally when carrying out such a worthy but ambitious goal. And the whole story points to the personal challenges that face the originator of a cool nonprofit idea when "me-too" for-profit companies seek to compete for the same... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Computer

04 Apr 2007
Research & Ideas

The Business of Global Poverty

"A Conference on Global Poverty: Business Solutions and Approaches," with a goal of beginning to identify the characteristics of successful enterprises and leaders in this realm. The nearly 100 academics, business practitioners, and View Details

Keywords: by Garry Emmons

26 Feb 2001
Research & Ideas

Evolving for Success [Part One]

other people can also send us their reactions, feedback, and requests. There's direct access everywhere, and that is transforming even for businesses and nonprofit organizations that are never going to sell a single thing on the Web. They... View Details

Keywords: by Staff

03 Oct 2017
First Look

First Look at Research and Ideas, October 3, 2017

constructively replicate and extend these findings with a supplemental analysis of a second sample, the full population of new nonprofit organizations founded during a two-year period in the United States (n = 31,160). By highlighting how... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

April 2003 (Revised September 2003)
Case

Harold Morton and the Rivendell Board (B)

By: F. Warren McFarlan and Ingrid Vargas

Describes what happens as the trustee reflects on his first several years' experience. View Details

Keywords: Governance; Nonprofit Organizations; Governing and Advisory Boards

July 2021
Teaching Plan

Shorefast: A Strange and Familiar Way to Reimagine Capitalism

By: Brian Trelstad, Wendy Smith and Natalie Slawinski

Teaching Plan for HBS Case No. 320-098. In 2006, Zita Cobb and two of her brothers, Alan Cobb and Tony Cobb, native Newfoundlanders, launched Shorefast to help grow another leg of Fogo Island’s economy. Like so many rural communities, Fogo Island’s fate was tied... View Details

Keywords: Place Making; Non-profit; Hotel; Economic Development; Tourism; Social Entrepreneurship; Nonprofit Organizations; Development Economics; Economic Systems; Tourism Industry; Canada

April 2020 (Revised May 2025)
Case

Shorefast: A Strange and Familiar Way to Reimagine Capitalism

By: Brian Trelstad, Wendy Smith and Natalie Slawinski

In 2006, Zita Cobb and two of her brothers, Alan Cobb and Tony Cobb, native Newfoundlanders, launched Shorefast to help grow another leg of Fogo Island’s economy. Like so many rural communities, Fogo Island’s fate was tied directly to one primary resource—in this case... View Details

Keywords: Place Making; Non-profit; Hotel; Economic Development; Tourism; Social Entrepreneurship; Nonprofit Organizations; Development Economics; Economic Systems; Tourism Industry; Canada

September 1993 (Revised January 1994)
Case

Habitat for Humanity International

Habitat for Humanity, a not-for-profit, volunteer-based home builder, is coping with years of rapid growth and success. They now face a series of options to continue their successful course and must make corresponding organizational adjustments. Teaching objectives... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Nonprofit Organizations; Growth Management; Housing; Service Industry; United States

March 2020
Case

The Working Circle: Wolves, Ranchers, and Karin Vardaman's Pursuit of the ‘Radical Middle’

By: Francesca Gino and Jeffrey Huizinga

Karin Vardaman, a lifelong conservationist now committed to protecting wolves in the American West, finds herself unexpectedly allied with the one of the species' most fervent opponents: cattle ranchers. View Details

Keywords: Non-profit; Conservation Intervention; Agriculture; Environment; Social Impact; Leadership; Nonprofit Organizations; Alliances

February 1998
Case

Planned Parenthood Federation of America (C)

By: V. Kasturi Rangan and Elaine V. Backman

Describes the series of events and processes that led to the formulation of a reinvention plan. View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Nonprofit Organizations

February 2023 (Revised July 2023)
Case

Moleskine Foundation: Can Creativity Change the World?

By: Ryan Raffaelli, Alexandra C. Feldberg and Sarah Gulick

The Italy-based Moleskine Foundation worked with young adults in Africa and Europe to inspire social change through art and creative projects. Adama Sanneh, the newly appointed CEO of the Moleskine Foundation, faced several challenges: First, he had to make his own... View Details

Keywords: Nonprofit Organizations; Social Enterprise; Leadership; Identity; Strategy; Education Industry; Italy; Africa; Europe; United States

December 2016
Article

Selective Regulator Decoupling and Organizations' Strategic Responses

By: Jonas Heese, Ranjani Krishnan and Frank Moers

Organizations often respond to institutional pressures by symbolically adopting policies and procedures but decoupling them from actual practice. Literature has examined why organizations decouple from regulatory pressures. In this study, we argue that decoupling... View Details

Keywords: Regulator Leniency; Beneficence; Mispricing; Upcoding; Nonprofit Organizations; Health Care and Treatment; Revenue; Health Industry

SSRN

Find at Harvard

19 May 2015
First Look

First Look: May 19

surrounding growth of a nonprofit institution and the United Kingdom's socialized health care system. Purchase this case: https://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cbmp/product/315012-PDF-ENG Harvard Business School Case 415-050 Continental Hope Group... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

March 2024
Case

Negotiating the Gift of Life (A)

By: Alex Chan

Describes a negotiation where lives are truly at stake, where key lessons on persuasion and the role that identity might play in a negotiation are on display through an effort by a frontline negotiator from OneLegacy, the US's largest organ procurement organization. As... View Details

Keywords: Economics; Negotiation; Communication; Diversity; Nonprofit Organizations; Emotions; Health Industry

May 2019 (Revised February 2020)
Case

Bill Cummings: The Cummings Way

By: Christina R. Wing, Robert F. White and Michael Norris

In 2019, Bill Cummings, founder of Cummings Properties and Cummings Foundation and billionaire signer of the Giving Pledge, is winding down his roles at his company and foundation. How should the management move the company forward? View Details

Keywords: Real Estate Development; Philanthropy; Family Business; Nonprofit Organizations; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Management Succession; Real Estate Industry; United States; Boston