Publications

March 2015
Case

Bloodbuy

By: Richard G. Hamermesh and Michael Norris

In 2015, Chris Godfrey, founder and CEO of Bloodbuy, has to consider the best path to growth for his young company, which is attempting to disrupt the blood donation industry. View Details

Keywords: Health Care; Health Care Entrepreneurship; Blood Donation; Health Care and Treatment; Entrepreneurship; Health Industry; United States

Educators

01 Dec 2013
News

With donations totaling $1.77 million, the MBA Class of 2003 set a new 10th Reunion giving record last spring. "The most important catalyst for giving was leadership at the section level," says Carolyn Wolff Dorros, who served as reunion... View Details

Keywords: reunions; donations

12 Oct 2012
News

Harvard University and Harvard Business School Receive $40 Million Donation from a Dr. James S. C. Chao and Family Foundation

September 2017
Article

The Belief in a Favorable Future

By: Todd Rogers, Don A. Moore and Michael I. Norton

People believe that future others’ preferences and beliefs will change to align with their own. People holding a particular view (e.g., support of President Trump) are more likely to believe that future others will share their view than to believe that future others... View Details

Keywords: Social Cognition; Judgment; Prediction; Forecasting; False Consensus; Donation; Open Data; Open Materials; Preregistered; Forecasting and Prediction; Perception; Values and Beliefs; Behavior

November 2022 (Revised April 2024)
Case

Martine Rothblatt and United Therapeutics: A Series of Implausible Dreams

By: Debora L. Spar and Julia M. Comeau

In 1990, satellite expert and Sirius XM founder Martine Rothblatt was determined to save the life of her seven-year-old daughter, Jenesis, who was diagnosed with a terminal illness called Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension (PAH). At the time, there was little medication... View Details

Keywords: Pharmaceutical Companies; Technological And Scientific Innovation; Organ Donation; Health Care and Treatment; Health Disorders; Innovation and Invention; Pharmaceutical Industry; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry; United States; District of Columbia

Educators

November 2024
Teaching Note

Martine Rothblatt and United Therapeutics: A Series of Implausible Dreams

By: Debora L. Spar and Julia M. Comeau

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 323-039. In 1990, satellite expert and Sirius XM founder Martine Rothblatt was determined to save the life of her seven-year-old daughter, Jenesis, who was diagnosed with a terminal illness called Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension (PAH). At... View Details

Keywords: Pharmaceutical Companies; Technological And Scientific Innovation; Organ Donation; Health Care and Treatment; Health Disorders; Innovation and Invention; Growth and Development Strategy; Product Development; Pharmaceutical Industry; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry; United States; District of Columbia

May 2025
Case

'Net Zero in Action': Impact Investing at the McKnight Foundation

By: Lauren Cohen, Christina R. Wing and Sophia Pan

Elizabeth McGeveran, Vice President of Investments at the McKnight Foundation, reflected on how to effectively advance the organization’s net-zero strategy. The foundation had committed 10% of its endowment to building a portfolio of impact investments and was among... View Details

Educators

Article

The Multidimensional Effects of a Small Gift:: Evidence from a Natural Field Experiment

By: Ellen Garbarino, Robert Slonim and Carmen Wang

Using a large natural field experiment, we demonstrate that a small unconditional gift (pen) more than doubled both small (survey) and large (blood donation) responses. We find no evidence that the opportunity for a small response crowded out the larger response;... View Details

Keywords: Reciprocity; Gift Exchange; Blood Donation; Charitable Behavior; Field Experiment; Behavior; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving

April 2013
Article

Making a Difference Matters: Impact Unlocks the Emotional Benefits of Prosocial Spending

By: Lara B. Aknin, Elizabeth W. Dunn, Ashley V. Whillans, Adam M. Grant and Michael I. Norton

When does giving lead to happiness? Here, we present two studies demonstrating that the emotional benefits of spending money on others (prosocial spending) are unleashed when givers are aware of their positive impact. In Study 1, an experiment using real... View Details

Keywords: Prosocial Spending; Prosocial Impact; Subjective Well Being; Donations; Happiness; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving

2022
Working Paper

Small Campaign Donors

By: Laurent Bouton, Julia Cagé, Edgard Dewitte and Vincent Pons

In this paper, we study the characteristics and behavior of small donors, and compare them to those of large donors. We first build a novel dataset including all the 340 million individual contributions reported to the U.S. Federal Election Commission between 2005 and... View Details

Keywords: Campaign Finance; Campaign Contributions; Small Donations; ActBlue; WinRed; TV Advertising; Political Elections; Finance; Demographics; Advertising; Analysis; Analytics and Data Science

2013
Article

Does Social Connection Turn Good Deeds into Good Feelings? On the Value of Putting the 'Social' in Prosocial Spending

By: Lara B. Aknin, Elizabeth W. Dunn, Gillian M. Sandstrom and Michael I. Norton

When are the emotional benefits of generous behavior most likely to emerge? In three studies, we demonstrate that the hedonic benefits of generous spending are most likely when spending promotes positive social connection. Study 1 shows that people feel happier after... View Details

Keywords: Money; Prosocial Spending; Social Connection; Well-being; Donations; Charitable Giving; Warm Glow; Social Relationships; Gift Giving; Happiness; Relationships; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Society

19 Dec 2023
Research & Ideas

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

finished giving, but with more than $15 billion granted to nearly 2,000 organizations, some meaningful patterns have begun to emerge. We parsed all the Yield Giving donation information available to date and matched it with Internal... View Details

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

19 Dec 2022
Research & Ideas

What Motivates People to Give Generously—and Why We Sometimes Don't

behaviors we see out there is to remember that people can express their prosociality in different ways. Some people might be more willing to give at a grocery store when they ask you to donate at the checkout counter. Other people might... View Details

Keywords: by Jen McFarland Flint, HBS Alumni Bulletin

30 Nov 2015
Research & Ideas

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

Many of us would prefer to see our philanthropic donations go directly to an organization’s core mission, rather than to administrative expenses. If we give money to Save the Children, for instance, we hope the cash goes directly to those... 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

Article

Avoiding Overhead Aversion in Charity

By: Uri Gneezy, Elizabeth A. Keenan and Ayelet Gneezy

Donors tend to avoid charities that dedicate a high percentage of expenses to administrative and fundraising costs, limiting the ability of nonprofits to be effective. We propose a solution to this problem: Use donations from major philanthropists to cover overhead... View Details

Keywords: Marketing Strategy; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving

07 Jun 2021
Book

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

Few people enjoy asking for money. Whether you’re selling cookies or seeking a gift to fund medical research, it's rarely easy. “Many people see it as akin to begging,” writes Harvard Business School Professor F. Warren McFarlan in his new book Effective Fundraising:... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost

2011
Working Paper

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: Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Mathematical Methods; Attitudes; Interests; Perception; Wealth and Poverty