The Social Enterprise Initiative of the Harvard Business School Club of Philadelphia has awarded two scholarships to local nonprofit executives to attend Strategic Perspectives in Nonprofit Management at the Harvard Business School this summer. This year’s recipients are JoAnne Fischer, Executive Director of Maternity Care Coalition, and Bill Clark, President & Executive Director of Philabundance. Both of these recipients lead critical organizations in our region.

Since its founding in 1980, Maternity Care Coalition has focused on bringing together people who care about the health and well-being of pregnant women, infants and young children, and high risk families. Maternity Care Coalition has served more than 60,000 mothers and their children through direct service, and influenced the lives of many more women and babies locally and beyond through its education and advocacy initiatives. The result is thousands of mothers empowered to take better care of themselves during pregnancy, and to ensure a better start for their babies during the critical early years of life.

Philabundance works to end hunger and malnutrition in the Delaware Valley by acquiring food and distributing it through organizations serving people in need. As the largest hunger relief organization in the Philadelphia region, Philabundance distributed 24 million pounds of food in 2007.

The Social Enterprise Initiative focuses on executive education – finance, operations, marketing and strategy – of the Philadelphia Region’s nonprofit leaders. In 2001, the HBSCP began sponsoring and sending nonprofit CEO’s to the Harvard Business School’s one-week nonprofit management course. Ms. Fischer and Mr. Clark are the 13^th and 14^th recipients. Previously recipients include:

· Yael Lehmann - The Food Trust

· Nicholas Torres - Congreso de Latinos Unidos

· Laura Shubilla - Philadelphia Youth Network

· Patricia Coulter - Urban League of Philadelphia

· Alba Martinez - United Way of Southeastern PA

· Sharmain Matlock-Turner - Greater Philadelphia Urban Affairs Coalition

· Jane Pepper - Pennsylvania Horticultural Society

· Derek Gillman - PA Academy of Fine Arts

· Miguel Angel Corzo - University of the Arts

· Gail Harrity - Philadelphia Museum of Art

· Janice Price - Kimmel Center

· Jim Balfanz - City Year Greater Philadelphia

“I returned from my experience ready to embark on a rigorous new strategic planning process that has resulted in a transformational restructuring of the organization,” said Sharmain Matlock-Turner, President of the Greater Philadelphia Urban Affairs Commission, of her experience in 2005. Added 2006 scholarship recipient Patricia Coulter, President and CEO of the Urban League of Philadelphia, “The intensity and magnitude of the sessions, along with the quality of instruction and the global networking all created a sense of growth and development that is difficult to describe. The program gave me a chance to take a look at how we position our organization for long term sustainability.”

The success of this program led to an annual local conference focused on nonprofit leadership development, currently in its fifth year, with this year’s conference to be held November 13, 2008 at Comcast Center. In addition to HBSCP and alumni funding, support of the Social Enterprise Initiative comes from leading corporations and foundations based in the region, including the United Way of Southeastern Pennsylvania, Comcast, Liberty Property Trust, The Philadelphia Foundation, TL Ventures, The William Penn Foundation, SEI Investments, Levenger, Pitney Bowes, and an investment management firm that wishes to remain anonymous.

These activities are made possible by the contributions of time and financial resources by HBSCP members and local corporations and foundations. If you would like to volunteer on the SEI, please contact Mike Lawson at mlawson@mba1985.hbs.edu.

Club members can assist this worthy effort financially by becoming SEI Fellows...simply by making a tax deductible contribution of $500 by clicking on link below.

To charge your tax deductable contribution, please click here. If you would rather contribute by check, please make the check payable to "HBS Club of Philadelphia Social Enterprise" and send to HBSCP club administration at 1231 Highland Ave, Fort Washington PA 19034.