Repeat Customers: Social Enterprise Organizations Find Value in HBS Executive Education Programs

Social Enterprise executive education programs have been offered at HBS since 1995. Increasingly, nonprofits have sent more than one staff or board member to these intensive programs, resulting in a shared learning experience and capacity building across the organization.

Youth Radio

As a seasoned reporter working in the Bay Area, Ellin O'Leary saw good stories that weren't being told. So in 1992, she and a group of Bay Area high-school students founded Youth Radio (YR), a not-for-profit organization that supports young people and trains them in the analytical and technical skills they need to bring their experiences to the public. "I wasn't thinking beyond that first summer grant," admits O'Leary, "but it took on a life of its own." When she came to the Strategic Perspectives in Nonprofit Management (SPNM) program in 2001 at the suggestion of a board member, O'Leary learned that YR was typical of organizations that are limited by the vision of the founder. "Because my original skill was not in the area of nonprofit management," she explains, "going to HBS was pivotal for the organization and for me personally as a leader." Creating a framework for the management challenges that face YR was essential to the goal of building a sustainable enterprise, she says, adding, "It doesn't mean you leave the program with every answer, but you know what you need to tackle. And that's huge."

Last year, YR reached out to some 1,300 youths through its various development programs as well as producing 300 pieces for radio and the Web. Now, with the purchase of a building in downtown Oakland, YR is preparing to broaden its involvement in community development and expand its outreach to the most far-flung corners of the globe. "We're taking a huge leap," says O'Leary. "The work that we started after I returned from SPNM has positioned us for this."

Four years later, the time seemed right for YR to send Pamela Fong to Performance Measurement for Effective Management of Nonprofit Organizations (PMNO). Fong had moved up in the organization from a part-time position in 2003, and now serves as YR's managing director. "A tangible result from the PMNO program was that I came back with a new evaluation model that integrates our youth development programs and media output so that one becomes proof of the other," she says.

"It's helped unify our organization," O'Leary adds. "It seems obvious now, but until Pam attended the program, we didn't have a performance measurement tool that shows the similarities between how the process of reflection and critique a young person goes through to complete a piece for radio and what we seek to achieve in our youth development programs." That change, the two agree, will have a long-term positive effect on YR's fundraising capacity.

Natural Lands Trust

"I've always had a great deal of interest in the nonprofit world," says Douglas Walker (MBA '78), a partner at Brown Brothers Harriman in Philadelphia, and a longtime board member at Natural Lands Trust (NLT), an organization working to protect the interconnected open spaces of the Delaware Valley. When he returned to HBS in 2004 to attend the Governing for Nonprofit Excellence program, Walker was familiar with the case method from his time as an MBA student, but was surprised by how quickly he and his classmates "clicked.""It was a wonderful experience, with specific takeaways for nonprofit governance," he notes. "Some very healthy delineations were made between the board's oversight role, its input to strategy, and its contribution to out-of-the-box thinking." There's no right or wrong in determining the extent of a board's organizational role, Walker adds; but participating in case discussions with people from a wide variety of nonprofits can offer a vantage point that makes it easier to focus on the issues and topics that are most pressing for an organization's particular situation.

SPNM helped me clarify, focus, and take the lessons back to my organization to create and lead change.

-Molly Morrison, President and CEO, Natural Lands Trust

This past summer, NLT president and CEO Molly Morrison attended the SPNM program at Walker's suggestion. "We went through a strategic planning process at NLT two years ago that aligned us around our mission and strategy," Morrison explains. "This program helped me focus on the service concept-how to implement the delivery system. It's a natural progression from the elements we already have in place."

Both Walker and Morrison cite the benefits of a shared vocabulary and outlook as they continue their work at NLT; in the future, they hope to send others to HBS. "SPNM was structured around creating a framework for organizational success," Morrison remarks. "Some of it was fundamentals: What do we do? How do we do it? Is it sustainable over a long period of time? No matter what type of organization you lead or where that organization is in its growth trajectory, the framework allows you to identify areas where improvements are needed. SPNM helped me clarify, focus, and take the lessons back to my organization to create and lead change."