Publications

April 2002
Case

Pallotta TeamWorks

By: Allen S. Grossman and Elizabeth Kind

Pallotta Team Works is a for-profit, privately owned company that produces multiday fundraising events for nonprofit organizations. Dan Pallotta, the 40-year-old CEO, founded the enterprise in 1992. The company has grown rapidly, having raised over $200 million for... View Details

Keywords: For-Profit Firms; Business Model; Nonprofit Organizations; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Social Marketing; Marketing Strategy; Service Industry; Consulting Industry; United States

March 2019 (Revised April 2019)
Case

Measuring Impact at JUST Capital

By: Ethan C. Rouen and Charles C.Y. Wang

JUST Capital is a nonprofit organization that seeks to make public companies more "just" by measuring and ranking their overall impact on society, based on the priorities most important to the average American. This case examines JUST’s strategy for influencing... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Social Issues; Performance Evaluation

06 Oct 2003
Research & Ideas

The Growth of the Social Enterprise

Innovations, that explores a broader range of strategies by which nonprofits can spread their social impact into new communities. Dees and Anderson plan to continue with conceptual research that will help... View Details

Keywords: by Carla Tishler

July 2003 (Revised December 2004)
Case

Sustainable Conservation--Where Next?

Sustainable Conservation (SusCon) is an environmental nonprofit in San Francisco that works collaboratively with the private and public sectors to achieve positive environmental change. The organization forms partnerships with industry and government agencies to devise... View Details

Keywords: Nonprofit Organizations; Cost vs Benefits; Expansion; Environmental Sustainability; San Francisco

January 2009 (Revised May 2009)
Case

College Summit: Rethinking the Relationship Between Growth and Impact

By: Stacey M. Childress and Geoff Eckman Marietta

College Summit, a nonprofit organization "committed to the day when every student who can make it in college makes it to college," was faced with an important strategic decision. After growing rapidly at more than 30% a year for the last several years, founder and CEO,... View Details

Keywords: Secondary Education; Growth and Development Strategy; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Mission and Purpose; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Nonprofit Organizations; Education Industry

June 2008 (Revised August 2008)
Case

World Wildlife Fund US

By: Jane Wei-Skillern and Kerry Herman

World Wildlife Fund US is a leading international conservation nonprofit that operates within a global network of WWF organizations. This case examines WWF US's strategy to achieve its mission of protecting natural wildlife and resources. In contrast to traditional... View Details

Keywords: Globalized Firms and Management; Partners and Partnerships; Environmental Sustainability; Nonprofit Organizations; Social and Collaborative Networks; Trust; Integration; Sumatra; United States

March 2007 (Revised December 2008)
Case

Green Dot Public Schools: To Collaborate or Compete?

In order to execute a strategy to transform the entire 768-school Los Angeles public school district, Green Dot Public Schools, a nonprofit charter school management organization with 10 high-performing high schools around Los Angeles, is faced with a crucial choice... View Details

Keywords: Secondary Education; Entrepreneurship; Growth and Development Strategy; Nonprofit Organizations; Competition; Cooperation; Los Angeles

Research Summary

Professor Wei-Skillern's research is focused in the field of Social Enterprise. Her research examines the creation of social value in both commercial and nonprofit organizations. In the former stream of research on corporate social responsibility, she has studied... View Details

November 1996 (Revised April 1999)
Case

United Way of Southeastern New England (UWSENE)

By: Robert S. Kaplan and Ellen L. Kaplan / RA

A regional United Way organization, a nonprofit already active in total quality management, implements a Balanced Scorecard to link its strategic planning objectives with day-to-day operations, and is able to translate its vision and strategy into objectives and... View Details

Keywords: Balanced Scorecard; Nonprofit Organizations; Governing and Advisory Boards; Strategy; United States

February 2003 (Revised March 2006)
Case

Centre Suisse d'Electronique et de Microtechnique (CSEM)

By: Michael E. Porter, Willis M. Emmons III and Christian Fenner

Le Centre Suisse d'Electronique et de Microtechnique S.A. (CSEM)--the Swiss Center for Electronics and Microtechnology--was a major nonprofit research institution located in Neuchatel, Switzerland, with roots in the Swiss watch industry. CSEM maintained close links to... View Details

Keywords: Cooperation; Information Technology; Alliances; Research and Development; Performance Productivity; Innovation and Invention; Nonprofit Organizations; Electronics Industry; Switzerland

30 Apr 2001
Research & Ideas

Entering the Age of Alliances

organizations to strategies built on partnerships to accomplish both their individual and their newly shared goals. A similar incongruity seemed to exist between Reading Is Fundamental (RIF) and Visa International. RIF is a national View Details

Keywords: by James Austin

October 1996 (Revised April 2011)
Module Note

Venture Capital and Private Equity: Module IV

By: Josh Lerner, G. Felda Hardymon and Ann Leamon

Provides an overview of a module that focuses on the adaptation of the private equity model to corporate and nonprofit settings. View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital; Private Equity; Investment; Nonprofit Organizations; Adaptation

October 2000 (Revised November 2000)
Case

Bridgespan Group, The

By: Allen S. Grossman and John D. Kalafatas

Bain & Co., a consulting firm with a client list that ranges from entrepreneurial start-ups to global corporations, wanted to increase its involvement with nonprofit organizations. Rather than continuing to integrate the work into the existing organization, Bain... View Details

Keywords: Nonprofit Organizations; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Problems and Challenges; Leadership Style; Growth and Development Strategy; Consulting Industry

January 2025
Case

Transforming Talent at Teach For Taiwan

By: Juan Alcácer and Chi Kuan

The Teach For Taiwan (TFT) case follows founder Anting Liu as she considers how to scale the nonprofit’s talent strategy after a decade of impact in rural education. TFT recruits high-potential young professionals into a 2-year teaching fellowship, aiming to address... View Details

Keywords: Teaching; Talent and Talent Management; Leadership Development; Growth and Development Strategy; Mission and Purpose; Nonprofit Organizations; Education Industry; Taiwan

October 2002 (Revised May 2004)
Case

Starbucks and Conservation International

By: James E. Austin and Cate Reavis

Starbucks, the world's leading specialty coffee company, developed a strategic alliance with Conservation International, a major international environmental nonprofit organization. The purpose of the alliance was to promote coffee-growing practices of small farms that... View Details

Keywords: Financial Crisis; Growth and Development Strategy; Markets; Demand and Consumers; Production; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Cooperative Ownership; Performance Efficiency; Alliances; Nonprofit Organizations; Food and Beverage Industry; Mexico

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

October 1999 (Revised October 2000)
Case

Women's World Banking: Catalytic Change Through Networks

By: James E. Austin and Susan Hamerling

Describes the evolution of Women's World Banking, an international microfinance nonprofit promoting financial access for poor women. Explores the organization's development of different types of networks to achieve its mission. View Details

Keywords: Mission and Purpose; History; Networks; Microfinance; Nonprofit Organizations; Gender; Growth and Development Strategy