Strategic Perspectives in Nonprofit Management
In a time of shifting demands for services, changing operating environments, and mounting financial pressures, the skills of nonprofit leaders are being put to the test. Strategic Perspectives in Nonprofit Management (SPNM) is an HBS Social Enterprise Initiative program that provides the opportunity for senior executives to examine their missions and develop new strategies for the new global economy.
What You Can Expect
This Executive Education program guides nonprofit executive directors and CEOs as they explore proactive methods for mastering nonprofit leadership in uncertain times. HBS faculty and approximately 140 nonprofit leaders from around the world challenge participants to strengthen their ability to improve the effectiveness of their organizations.
Your Course of Study
Through case studies of a diverse set of nonprofits, you will gain an invaluable understanding of the core concepts crucial to nonprofit leadership. This newfound insight will enable you to develop customized strategies as well as effective implementation plans.
Who Is Right for the Program
SPNM is designed for nonprofit executive directors and chief executive officers who are responsible for driving the organization's direction, mission, policies, and major programs. This leadership training offering is not targeted to management support organizations or consulting firms.
Social Enterprise Initiative
By integrating social enterprise-related research, teaching, and activities into daily life at HBS, the Social Enterprise Initiative plays a critical role in supporting the School's mission to educate leaders who make a difference in the world.
The Social Enterprise program fees are subsidized by Harvard Business School and its Social Enterprise Initiative. Limited, additional need-based scholarship funding may be available. Visit the HBS Social Enterprise Initiative website for scholarship information.
What You Can Expect
Improving Your Organization's Performance
The evolving global economy is presenting new challenges for business leaders—not only in the private sector but among nonprofits as well. These challenges require today's leaders to step up their game with broader skills and more agile organizational strategies.
Among the core themes that this program explores is how change constantly affects organizations. Through interactive classroom sessions, as well as both structured and informal group discussions, you will explore the proactive methods for anticipating and mastering the evolving requirements of nonprofit leadership. Challenged by both faculty and peers, you will strengthen your leadership skills and emerge better prepared to enhance the effectiveness of your organization.
Taking Your Skills to the Next Level
In Strategic Perspectives in Nonprofit Management, you will improve your ability to:
- Understand the core management concepts that are essential to leading a nonprofit organization, which relate to:
- Your organization's customers and their needs
- Fiscal management and accountability
- Strategic alliances with other organizations
- Leading change, ensuring sustainability, and driving growth
- Apply strategic management concepts to your organization through discussions with peers
- Implement change within your organization as you transform concepts into practical measures
"SPNM gives nonprofit leaders a framework, a language, and a support system for their efforts to change the world. For a week, people who possess informed, inquisitive, and agile minds—and powerful, fearless hearts—work together to teach, learn, and improve one another’s work. The benefits for my organization and the people we serve are substantial. "
Eva Hassett [Executive Director], International Institute of Buffalo, U.S.
Your Course of Study
Building A Strategic Perspective – Participants focus on the concepts and skills needed to lead and manage a nonprofit organization. As active partners with the faculty, you and your colleagues utilize the HBS case method to refine these concepts by exploring how others are tackling the challenges that confront their organizations. Drawn from the actual experiences of a broad range of nonprofits, the case studies are supplemented by faculty presentations and group exercises, as well as by preparation and classroom discussions with other participants.
Peer Consultation Sessions: Applying Strategic Concepts to Your Organization – Breaking into small groups, you and your SPNM peers work together on challenges that each of you has identified and described as critical to the success of your respective organizations. During the workshop, you begin to formulate a plan to address your specific issue upon returning to work.
Leading Change: Moving from Strategy to Implementation – As an experienced leader, you are aware of the organizational challenges associated with translating strategic plans into practice. After exploring management issues in the initial sessions, you will focus on implementing strategy and leading organizational change.
Conceptual components include:
Products, Services, and Markets – Defining customers and constituencies, understanding customer needs, and creating an excellent service organization.
Financial Management and Control – Assessing financial performance, establishing methods of fiscal accountability, and developing appropriate performance measures and management control systems.
People and Organizations – Creating strategic collaborations with nonprofit and for-profit organizations, assessing organizational performance, and identifying the characteristics of high-performing nonprofits.
Change Leadership – Defining your mission and aligning the organization behind it, creating a successful partnership with the board, mobilizing resources for change, and managing for sustainability and growth.
"As a nonprofit leader, you’re trying to create outcomes for people. The program helps you keep these goals in the front of your mind and internalize them. When you return to your organization, you are better able to connect these goals to the decisions you make, the priorities you set, the way you manage—and how you measure your impact on making a difference in people’s lives. "
Scott Haldane [President and Chief Executive Officer], YMCA Canada, Canada
Who Is Right for the Program
- Chief executive officer
- Executive director
- President
Past Participants Represented:
| Industries | Nationalities | ||||
| 90% | Nonprofit Services | 20% | Asia/Pacific | ||
| 5% | Professional Services | 6% | Europe | ||
| 5% | Real Estate/Construction | 2% | Latin America | ||
| 72% | North America | ||||
Participating organizations have included:
Aids Foundation of Chicago American Cancer Society American Lung Association America's Second Harvest Big Brothers Big Sisters of America Boston Ballet Boy Scouts of America The British Library Catholic Charities USA Chinese American Voters Education Committee Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement Fundación Paraguaya Goodwill Industries International Habitat for Humanity International, Inc. The Humane Society of the United States |
International AIDS Vaccine Initiative Junior Achievement League of Women Voters of the United States Milwakee Symphony Orchestra Mercy Corps Museum of Fine Arts, Boston National Ballet of Canada Outward Bound Brasil Planned Parenthood Federation of America Ronald McDonald House Charities Royal New Zealand Foundation for the Blind Teach For America United Way of America United World Mission YMCA of the USA |
"The value of this course lies as much in the remarkable group of participants as in the excellent materials and organization. It has sharpened my thinking about the mission of my organization and has given me a clearer sense of international developments in the sector. SPNM also gave me the confidence and knowledge to ensure that our mission and medium-term goals are focused and clearly defined."
Emilie – E.S. Gordenker, [Director], Royal Picture Gallery Mauritshuis, The Netherlands
Meet the Program Faculty
Harvard Business School Executive Education programs are developed and taught by a core faculty of HBS professors who are skilled educators, groundbreaking researchers, and award-winning authors. Faculty leverage their expertise and field-based research to create new knowledge and enduring concepts that shape the practice of management. The result is a teaching team that exposes participants to multiple perspectives, challenging their thinking on many levels. For more detailed biographies, click on each faculty name.
Faculty for the program will be drawn from the following group:
Nava Ashraf, Assistant Professor of Business Administration. Member of the Negotiation, Organizations, and Markets Unit.
Hannah Riley Bowles, Associate Professor of Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School. Faculty director of "Women & Power," Center for Public Leadership, Harvard Kennedy School.
Alnoor Ebrahim, Associate Professor of Business Administration. Faculty chair of "Governing for Nonprofit Excellence."
Allen S. Grossman, MBA Class of 1957 Professor of Management Practice. Member of the General Management Unit; faculty cochair of the "Public Education Leadership Program" and of "Performance Measurement for Effective Management of Nonprofit Organizations."
Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Ernest L. Arbuckle Professor of Business Administration. Member of the General Management Unit.
Herman B. "Dutch" Leonard, Eliot I. Snider and Family Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School. George F. Baker, Jr. Professor of Public Sector Management Teaching Programs, Harvard Kennedy School. Member of the General Management Unit; cochair of the HBS Social Enterprise Initiative; and faculty chair of "Strategic Perspectives in Nonprofit Management."
F. Warren McFarlan, Baker Foundation Professor; Albert H. Gordon Professor of Business Administration, Emeritus. Member of the General Management Unit.
V. Kasturi Rangan, Malcolm P. McNair Professor of Marketing. Cochair of the HBS Social Enterprise Initiative; member of the Marketing Unit; faculty chair of "Corporate Social Responsibility: Strategies to Create Business and Social Value" and faculty cochair of "Building Businesses in Emerging Markets."
"The program has provided me with alternative insights into the challenges that I face leading my organization. As I implement change in my organization based on my learning and development in SPNM, I have a rich network of high-caliber people to whom I can turn for support and advice in the coming months and years."
Rohan Braddy [Chief Executive Officer], Mambourin Enterprises Inc., Australia
Admissions
Because a diverse participant mix is an important part of every HBS Executive Education program, we look for candidates who reflect a broad range of industries, functions, countries, and backgrounds to enrich the learning experience.
Fees, Payments, and Cancellations
The program fee covers tuition, books, case materials, accommodations, and most meals.
No payment is necessary until you have been accepted into an HBS Executive Education program. After admission notification, we will send you an invoice via email; payment is due within 30 days of the invoice date. If admission is within 30 days prior to the start of the program, payment is due upon receipt of the invoice. Payment is required prior to the program start date. We accept payment by company check, bank wire transfer, or credit card (American Express, MasterCard, Visa). Details are included on the program invoice.
If you need to cancel or defer participation, you must submit your request in writing more than 30 days before the start of the program to receive a full refund. Due to program demand and the volume of preprogram preparation, cancellations or deferrals received 14 to 30 days prior to the start of the program are subject to a fee of one-half of the program fee. Requests received within 14 days are subject to full payment.
Requirements
Although there are no formal educational requirements, admission is a selective process based on professional achievement and organizational responsibility. We look for professionals who have demonstrated business talent and leadership potential.
HBS Executive Education programs enrich both participants and their sponsoring organizations, and require full commitment from each party. While participants devote time and intellect to the learning experience, sponsoring organizations agree to relieve individuals of their work responsibilities during the program.
Language Proficiency
We deliberately design our programs to encourage individual growth and to foster productive interaction among participants. For that reason, proficiency in written and spoken English is essential. If English is your second language, or if you have less than one year's experience working in an English-speaking environment, HBS requires a brief statement documenting proficiency in English-language skills, both conversational and written. This may include a list of the English-language certification programs that you have completed; the degrees you have earned at English-speaking colleges and universities; or the results of the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) exam. The Admissions Committee also may request a telephone interview.
Application Process
Program participants must be nominated and sponsored by their current employer. HBS must receive your application and all required documents in order to prepare the application for review by the Admissions Committee.
To apply, you may use our online form or download an application. You also may request a brochure by mail.
If you submit your application online, we will promptly acknowledge receipt of your submission via email. In the unlikely event that an email acknowledgment is not received, please contact the Admissions Committee by email: exed_admissions@hbs.edu, phone: +1-617-495-6226, or fax: +1-617-496-1731.
If you choose to submit a printed application, be sure to type or print legibly and sign your application. Send the application to the address or fax number listed on the form. Mailed or faxed applications are processed and acknowledged promptly upon receipt via email.
Complete Your Application
Please answer all questions thoroughly—the Admissions Committee will only consider completed applications. After reviewing your application and making the necessary edits or corrections, print or copy the application for your records.
Meet the Deadlines
We request applications at least four weeks in advance of the program start date. Early application does not guarantee admission. Programs often fill to capacity, so early application is recommended.
Notification of Acceptance
We acknowledge receipt of all applications and maintain all application information in strict confidentiality.
To optimize the learning experience and maximize the exchange of ideas, the Admissions Committee selects a class that balances each participant's experience, the scope of his or her current responsibilities, and the type of organization.
The Admissions Committee begins reviewing applications four months before the start date, and qualified candidates are admitted on a rolling, space-available basis. Once the review process has begun, applicants are notified within three weeks via email regarding Admissions Committee decisions. If your application is received within three weeks of the program's start date, the Admissions Committee will notify you of their decision as soon as possible.
Need help?
For further assistance, contact our client service specialists at: 1-800-427-5577 (outside the U.S., dial +1-617-495-6555).