Understanding the Role of an Interim Executive Director

Organizations are in a state of deep transition these days, including that of leadership. Particularly challenging is finding a new Executive Director/CEO in the midst of all the priorities boards and their organizations need to address. This interview highlights a key tool organizations can use during a period of leadership transition—hiring an interim executive director … Continued

Leadership in Challenging Times: Elaine MacDonald

This article was originally posted on the HBS Social Enterprise Blog on April 22, 2021. This post is part of our “Leadership in Challenging Times” blog series, which highlights the inspiring work of the HBS community in addressing the health and economic consequences of COVID-19, alongside the fight for racial equity and an especially polarized political climate. In this blog post, Elaine … Continued

The Future of Membership Programs

Q&A with Jane Greenthal, Project Coordinator, Harvard Business School Association of Northern California Community Partners This article was originally published on March 11, 2021 on Children’s Museums blog – https://childrensmuseums.blog/2021/03/11/the-future-of-membership-programs/ Convened by the Lawrence Hall of Science, the Bay Area Science and Children’s Museum Consortium (SCMC) is as a loose coalition that formed following the … Continued

Step Up to 2021

The Covid pandemic has impacted almost every area of our lives, but for many nonprofits, the impact on fundraising has been severe. For most of our 35 years, HBS Community Partners has relied heavily on support from the HBS Club of Northern California and particularly on the annual fall gala event for the Club’s Business … Continued

Better Decisions With Data: An Interview with Roslyn Payne, Chair of UpMetrics

We interviewed Roslyn Payne, HBS ’70, Chairwoman of the Board of UpMetrics, and part of their founding team. UpMetrics is a software and services company created to help social impact organizations make decisions and tell their stories with data. We sat down with Roslyn to get an insight on how they help nonprofit organizations, many … Continued

Six Ways to Cultivate Diverse Workplaces

This article was written by Diane Johnson Flynn, HBS ’88, and re-published here with her permission. The pandemic and work-from-home mandate have uncovered the lopsided care burden carried by many women. Acting as the safety net for both visible and invisible domestic work, women are handling the dominant share of caregiving and home duties. It’s … Continued

Igniting Expert Goodness: An interview with HBS Alum Raymond Magpantay

One of the most rewarding aspects of my job as Executive Director of Harvard Business School Community Partners NorCal is witnessing so many of our amazing alumni evolve an initial consulting engagement through Community Partners into a personal crusade to do good and create impact in broad, unforeseeable ways.  In this article, I interviewed Raymond … Continued

Time to Hit the ‘Refresh’ button on Donors?

I learned an important lesson during the current shutdown that I think could be useful for fund-raising in non-profits that are now facing unprecedented revenue shortfalls. Sitting in my home office with more time on my hands and less structure than is usual for me (sound familiar?), I decided, with a bit of trepidation, to … Continued

3 lessons that non-profits can learn from AirBnB in this crisis

Last week, Brian Chesky, co-founder and CEO of AirBnB, wrote a thoughtful, inspirational letter to all his employees. This letter was a statement of what AirBnB stands for, and a testament to the creative energy and hard work of all employees, which has resulted into what AirBnB is today. He used powerful words like belonging, … Continued

Four areas to make the post-Covid-19 afterlife viral

In the rush to return to “normal” and escape the Covid-19 self quarantine, perhaps we should be asking what part of “normal” we are in a hurry to return to and what elements of the  “new normal”  actually provide an interesting or better alternative.  Taking the opposite path from George Bernard Shaw’s quote: “There are … Continued

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