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New research on nonprofit organizations from Harvard Business School faculty on issues including better measures of nonprofit performance, and how to best incentivize prosocial behavior to boost donations and volunteerism.
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Why Giving to Others Makes Us Happy

by Michael Blanding

Giving to others is also good for the giver. A research paper by Ashley Whillans and colleagues identifies three circumstances in which spending money on other people can boost happiness.

Using Design Thinking to Invent a Low-Cost Prosthesis for Land Mine Victims

Re: Srikant M. Datar

Bhagwan Mahaveer Viklang Sahayata Samiti (BMVSS) is an Indian nonprofit famous for creating low-cost prosthetics, like the Jaipur Foot and the Stanford-Jaipur Knee. Known for its patient-centric culture and its focus on innovation, BMVSS has assisted more than one million people, including many land mine survivors. How can founder D.R. Mehta devise a strategy that will ensure the financial sustainability of BMVSS while sustaining its human impact well into the future? Harvard Business School Dean Srikant Datar discusses the importance of design thinking in ensuring a culture of innovation in his case, “BMVSS: Changing Lives, One Jaipur Limb at a Time.”

How Would the Leadership Style of Girl Scouts' Frances Hesselbein Fare Today?

Re: James L. Heskett

Frances Hesselbein's mission-driven leadership helped shift the nonprofit's image, and expand and diversify its membership. James Heskett reflects on the late executive director's reputation for storytelling and change management. Would her tactics work today? Open for comment; 0 Comments.

University of the Future: Finding the Next World Leaders in Higher Ed

by Dina Gerdeman

Which universities will step into the void as American colleges decline? In the book Empires of Ideas, William Kirby explores how the history of higher education in the US, China, and Germany might shape its future.

9 Tips from an Expert Fundraiser: Help Donors 'Invest in Their Passion'

by Danielle Kost

Seeking donations can feel like begging. In this excerpt from Effective Fundraising, F. Warren McFarlan offers advice to help trustees approach prospective donors with confidence. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

Nonprofits in Good Times and Bad Times

by Christine L. Exley, Nils H. Lehr, and Stephen J. Terry

Tax returns from millions of US nonprofits reveal that charities do not expand during bad times, when need is the greatest. Although they are able to smooth the swings of their activities more than for-profit organizations, nonprofits exhibit substantial sensitivity to economic cycles.

Using Behavioral Science to Improve Well-Being for Social Workers

Re: Ashley V. Whillans

For child and family social workers, coping with the hardships of children and parents is part of the job. But that can cause a lot of stress. Is it possible for financially constrained organizations to improve social workers’ well-being using non-cash rewards, recognition, and other strategies from behavioral science? Assistant Professor Ashley Whillans describes the experience of Chief Executive Michael Sanders’ at the UK’s What Works Centre for Children’s Social Care, as he led a research program aimed at improving the morale of social workers in her case, “The What Works Centre: Using Behavioral Science to Improve Social Worker Well-being.” Open for comment; 0 Comments.

Nonprofit Boards: It is Time to Lift Your Gaze and See the System

by Shamal Dass, Kristy Muir, and V. Kasturi Rangan

Not every organization should attempt to solve problems at a system level, but can become more aware of systemic issues, ensuring that solutions dovetail into the macrosystem for best collective impact.

Can the ‘Cummings Way’ Live On after the Founder Retires?

Re: Christina R. Wing

After 50 years at the helm of Cummings Properties, billionaire and philanthropist Bill Cummings is contemplating retirement. Christina R. Wing and Cummings discuss what's next for both the family business and foundation that he built. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

Nonprofits Hurt by COVID-19 Must Hoard Cash to Hold On

by Danielle Kost

Experts from Harvard Business School's Social Enterprise Initiative offer advice to nonprofits struggling to survive the coronavirus pandemic. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

L.A. Philharmonic Shows the American Symphony Orchestra Isn’t Dead Yet

Re: Rohit Deshpande

Like many American symphony orchestras, the Los Angeles Philharmonic seemed dying on the vine, unable to attract younger audiences or new sponsors. Then new CEO Deborah Borda came aboard with a plan to revive the brand. Rohit Deshpande discusses his case study on the turnaround. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

How Charitable Organizations Can Thwart Excuses for Not Giving

by Michael Blanding

Charitable organizations provide all kinds of reasons for donors to give money—but sometimes their messaging does just the opposite, shows research by Christine Exley. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

People Have an Irrational Need to Complete 'Sets' of Things

by Carmen Nobel

People are irrationally motivated to complete arbitrary sets of tasks, donations, or purchases—and organizations can take advantage of that, according to new research by Kate Barasz, Leslie John, Elizabeth Keenan, and Michael Norton. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

Incentives for Prosocial Behavior: The Role of Reputations

by Christine L. Exley

This study documents how small monetary incentives discourage volunteering when they are public and thus introduce a “greedy” signal. The discouragement from this greedy signal, however, is less pronounced among volunteers with public reputations, or those who are likely known not to be too greedy.

Wage Elasticities in Working and Volunteering: The Role of Reference Points in a Laboratory Study

by Christine Exley & Stephen Terry

Nonprofit organizations often rely on reference points—explicit or implicit targets and goals—to encourage more effort from volunteers. This study finds that effort does tend to cluster around reference levels, so this may be perceived as a very effective strategy. Yet reference levels can potentially backfire: in response to higher volunteer wages or productivity, volunteers may reduce their effort so as to meet the reference level.

What to Do When Your Organization Has Dueling Missions

by Carmen Nobel

It’s no easy feat to manage hybrid organizations, which combine the social mission of a nonprofit with the revenue model of a for-profit business. Julie Battilana and colleagues explain how hybrids can find success with a business model dubbed “spaces of negotiation.” Open for comment; 0 Comments.

Donors Are Turned Off by Overhead Costs. Here’s What Charities Can Do

by Carmen Nobel

Elizabeth A. Keenan and colleagues find that charitable donors are willing to stomach the idea of overhead costs—as long as they know someone else’s donation is covering them. A field study helped one organization nearly triple its solicited donations. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

Do People Who Care About Others Cooperate More? Experimental Evidence from Relative Incentive Pay

by Dylan Minor, Pablo Hernandez & Dana Sisak

This paper explores how the degree to which individuals care about other workers affects their own performance when faced with relative performance pay.

Why the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge is a Social Media Blockbuster

by John Deighton

Most companies should envy the financial and brand awareness brought about by the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. The campaign's key ingredient, says John Deighton, is that participants enhance their personal capital in performance of a good deed. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

How the Zebra Got Its Stripes: Imprinting of Individuals and Hybrid Social Ventures

by Matthew Lee & Julie Battilana

Creating hybrid organizations that combine existing organizational forms is a complex process. Given the legitimacy challenges facing hybrid organizations, why are they created in the first place? The authors focus on the role of "environmental imprinting" on individuals: this means the persistent effects that individuals' environments during sensitive periods have on their subsequent behaviors. After constructing and analyzing a novel dataset of over 700 founders of social ventures, all guided by a social welfare logic, the authors suggest that individual imprinting helps to explain why an entrepreneur founding a social venture might create a hybrid by incorporating a secondary, commercial logic. Overall, the paper contributes to the understanding of hybrid organizations by providing the first large-scale, empirical examination of the antecedents of the widely-discussed type of hybrids that combine social welfare and commercial logics. Key concepts include: Environmental imprinting refers to the effects that characteristics of individuals' environments during sensitive periods have on their subsequent behaviors. Entrepreneurs' direct exposure to various work environments through their own experience influences their likelihood to create a new hybrid venture. The findings contribute to institutional theory more generally by showing how environmental imprints on individuals may enable divergence from current, institutionalized structures, as well as how the contours of such imprints may vary with characteristics such as tenure and type of exposure. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.