Eligibility & Criteria

Program Eligibility

To be eligible for the fund students must:

• Be a second-year Harvard Business School (HBS) student

• Be formally enrolled in an Independent Project for academic credit during the Fall or Spring term.

• If you are pursuing this project as part of a Field Course, you will be asked for additional information in the application; and projects will be accepted on a case-by-case basis.

• Meet all project and eligibility requirements outlined on the MBA Independent Projects website (login required).

• Submit all documents by the program deadlines

Program Criteria

Social Enterprise must be a core element of the Independent Project, and funds will be awarded based on the strength of this component in the application. Social Enterprise projects may include work with specific organizations or undertaking an industry study related to:

• nonprofit or public-sector organizations/management issues

• for profit organizations in which the mission and the core activities of the organization have a direct social purpose

• business approaches where the core focus is social impact, including environmental sustainability or corporate social responsibility.

The Social Enterprise Independent Fund program is intended to support expenses related to the research and analysis component of Independent Projects. The program does not support business start-up expenses such as: beta program development, organization licensing or registration fees, attorney services, office equipment, computer software programs, etc.