Strengthening Your Role As a Nonprofit Board Leader
Social Enterprise Newsletter, Winter 2001
Professor Warren McFarlan
HBS alumni returning for their reunions in September honed skills as social enterprise board leaders by participating in the inaugural session of Strengthening Your Role as a Nonprofit Board Leader.
This pre-reunion program was adapted from the highly successful executive program at HBS, Governing for Nonprofit Excellence: Critical Issues for Board Leadership, developed by the Initiative on Social Enterprise. Case discussions and presentations focused on three key modules: Strategic Alignment, Board Leadership, and Strategic Stewardship.
Participants represented a broad range of nonprofit organizations, including Executive Service Corps, United Way of Greater Toronto, San Francisco Food Bank, University of Texas Medical School, and the Educational Testing Service.
"The program was timely and thought provoking, placing issues in perspective and challenging assumptions. It also offered a very comfortable environment to encourage involvement by all participants," says Jed Bullard (MBA 1975 and a former member of the HBS Alumni Board). "I left energized and proud of HBS for taking a leadership role in the critical area of nonprofit board leadership."
Research by Social Enterprise faculty has found that 81% of HBS alumni are involved in the nonprofit sector-and that 57% serve on nonprofit boards.
Says Professor Warren McFarlan, chair of Strengthening Your Role as a Nonprofit Board Leader, "HBS graduates have been deeply involved for many years in nonprofits, and this session was an extraordinary opportunity for people to exchange their different perspectives and learn to think about the special issues of nonprofits in a broader context."