Since 1992, Harvard Business School has supported graduates through the Nonprofit/Public Sector Loan Repayment Assistance Program, reducing the educational debt repayment burden for alumni serving in managerial positions in the nonprofit and public sectors.

The School’s Social Enterprise Initiative and MBA Program announced today an expansion of the program to include for-profit social enterprise positions. Beginning with the October 2017 application cycle, the program will support alumni working with a nonprofit, public sector organization or for-profit social enterprise. These include certified B Corporations (B-Corps) and limited liability corporations (L3Cs) in the United States or the equivalent in another country. Applications from alumni working at for-profit social enterprises will be awarded on a case-by-case basis, with a limited number of applications accepted on an annual basis.

“The line between nonprofit and for-profit is increasingly blurring,” said Matt Segneri (MBA 2010), director of the School’s Social Enterprise Initiative. “We are seeing a growing number of HBS graduates elect to pursue opportunities at the intersection of sectors, working at hybrid organizations or for-profit social enterprises.”

Expansion of our financial assistance program allows the Social Enterprise Initiative to broaden the impact of its mission “to educate, support, and inspire leaders across all sectors to tackle society's toughest challenges and make a difference in the world.” The shift also reflects Social Enterprise offerings in the MBA Program, which highlight and celebrate for-profit models that are both missiondriven and marketdriven. This includes cases, courses (such as Business at the Base of the Pyramid and Investing for Impact), and the Social Enterprise Track of the annual HBS New Venture Competition, where an increasing number of entrants pursue for-profit and hybrid models.

The application deadline is October 1, 2017, for the 2018 award. More information can be found on the Loan Repayment Assistance Program website.