NYC Club Hosts Nonprofits
STRATEGIC ADVICE: HBS professor Michael Porter took a question before his presentation.
Photo by Holden McNeely
What happens when you bring over 450 CEOs and presidents of New York City’s leading nonprofits together for a daylong educational summit? Answer: a lot of business card swapping and networking in between a dozen fact-filled breakout sessions designed to help organizations become more successful in achieving their philanthropic goals. “To our knowledge, there has never been such a gathering of top nonprofit executives,” said Bruce Marcus (MBA ’80), president of the HBS Club of New York.
The club organized the September 23 summit, “New Directions in Non-profit Leadership,” to give the city’s nonprofit leaders an opportunity to hear innovative thinking and best practices from a trio of HBS professors and nearly fifty practitioners. Sessions focused on three topics: management and strategy, accountability and governance, and development and marketing. Professor Kash Rangan, who cochairs the School’s Social Enterprise Initiative, reviewed his research on nonprofit trends. Professor John Quelch, a marketing expert, focused on effective branding. And Professor Michael Porter, a leading thinker on strategy, offered advice on strategic planning.
The summit took place against the backdrop of a mounting financial crisis on Wall Street and a deteriorating economy, both of which heightened concern about expected declines in giving, whether from individuals, corporations, or foundations. There was a general expectation that in a down economy many donors of necessity will be less generous just when demand for services from nonprofits will be on the upswing. As a result, several panelists predicted that many smaller nonprofits will fail or merge with like-minded organizations over the years ahead.
Much of the conversation during the day centered on the need for nonprofits to adopt business-like practices, including more accountability, transparency, and efficiency. Mark Rigdon, director of philanthropic strategy and programs for the JPMorgan Chase Foundation, put it this way: “Doing good is necessary but no longer sufficient. Nonprofits need to show that they are making systemic changes.”
For their part, some participants expressed concern that the push for business-like practices, while necessary, put too much emphasis on quantitative measurement at the expense of qualitative good. That’s the message Carol Holding (MBA ’80), chair of the summit’s planning committee, remembers most vividly from the lunchtime conversation she moderated at a table with ten nonprofit leaders. “There needs to be more of a dialogue between business and nonprofits, rather than all the advice coming just from business,” observed Holding.
The New York club was one of several HBS clubs that organized events with a social enterprise theme in conjunction with the School’s Centennial year. “Our club is excited to continue its long tradition of providing business skills to nonprofit leaders,” said Marcus. Since 1998, the club has sponsored Community Partners, a program that links HBS alumni with nonprofit organizations in the New York metropolitan area that are seeking assistance with business and management issues.
The summit itself was such a success that more than 100 participants asked the club to host a similar event again next fall.
To read summaries of the summit sessions, visit www.hbscny.org. Click on “Social Enterprise Summit Summaries.”
Clubs Go All Out for Community Service Projects
To mark the School’s Centennial, 68 HBS clubs and associations participated in a Global Outreach Program aimed at encouraging alumni involvement in their communities. Activities ranged from supporting local nonprofits to hosting conferences and panel discussions. To underscore the School’s commitment to the clubs’ efforts, 49 HBS faculty members spoke at events in 29 countries, an unprecedented deployment of faculty in support of alumni activities. For many clubs, the Global Outreach Program events attracted the highest alumni attendance ever. Here’s a sampling of the clubs’ activities:
Community-service projects
- HBS African-American Alumni Association
Local nonprofit conferences
- Atlanta
- Charlotte
- New York
- Philadelphia
Fundraising for local nonprofits or for scholarships to attend Executive Education’s Strategic Perspectives in Nonprofit Management program
- Austin
- Ottawa
- San Diego
- Washington, D.C.
All-day alumni conferences
- Ottawa
- Puget Sound
Panel discussions
- Connecticut
- Mexico
- Northern California
Events in conjunction with students
- Madrid and Barcelona
- Northern California
Video conferences with faculty
- Pakistan
- Philippines
Topics addressed at the events included “Innovation, Regulation, and Biomedical Business in Germany and the United States,” “Overhauling Capitalism and Strengthening the Essence of Democracy,” “The Future of Philanthropy,” and “Leadership in the 21st Century.”
