CLUB ACTIVITIES

The Social Enterprise Club, in conjunction with the Social Enterprise Initiative, offers the following programs and activities for its 300+ members:

Social Enterprise Conference
The Social Enterprise Conference seeks to bring students and practitioners together in a large, focused forum to inspire and enable each other to help make the world a better place. The theme of the 2006 conference was convergence, reflecting the increased tendency of government, nonprofit and for-profit enterprises to focus on social problems irrespective of functional silos. The conference highlighted some of the ways organizations collaborate across sectors and/or share best practices to create social value, and featured a career fair, an alumni networking event, a forum to share innovative social enterprise ideas, and two keynote speakers (Timberland CEO Jeff Swartz and Bill Drayton of Ashoka).

SAVE THE DATE: The 2008 Conference is scheduled for Sunday, March 2, 2008.

Leadership for the 2008 Conference:
Jen Lee

Keynote Speakers
The Social Enterprise Club recruits a diverse group of leaders in the social enterprise field to speak at HBS. Past speakers have included Wendy Kopp, John Whitehead, John Doerr, Michael Porter, and Timothy Draper.

Leadership:
Jen Lee

Interest Groups
The Social Enterprise Club forms sector-specific interest groups to provide opportunities for like-minded students to discuss, network, and share information about various aspects of social enterprise including, but not limited to, corporate social responsibility, education and community/economic development.

Arts Management Interest Group
Leadership:
Jen Lee
Zulema Quintans

Corporate Social Responsibility Interest Group
Leadership:
Yanni Liu
Jin Jeong

Economic Development & Microfinance Interest Group
Leadership:
Douglas Henry
Alex Satchcroft

Education Interest Group
Leadership:
Kate Richey
Maura Marino

Public Health Interest Group
Leadership:
Sonali Duggal

Social Entrepreneurship Interest Group
Leadership:
Shireen Santosham

The Net Impact Conference
The SEC sends HBS representatives to the annual conferences of Net Impact (formerly Students for Responsible Business). Net Impact is a collaborative of social enterprise clubs at business schools in the US. It is a network of business leaders committed to using the power of business to positively impact social and environmental concerns throughout the world. Net Impact current has a network of nearly 10,000 leaders and more than 90 graduate student and professional chapters.

Leadership:
Elana Berkowitz

Career & Professional Development
To support students' career development and job searches, the SEC develops and distributes its own resume book, holds career lunches during the Conference on Social Enterprise, and facilitates information sessions on summer fellowships and the loan forgiveness program.

SEC also conducts a series of professional development workshops throughout the year that help students develop a useful toolbox of practice leadership and management skills that can be used for social impact. Topics include:

• Effective non-profit board governance
• Performance measurement
• Strategic planning
• Fundraising
• Grantmaking
• Managerial skills for disaster relief
• Networking in social enterprise
• Career planning and resume building

Board Fellows Program
The Board Fellows program trains students on issues of board governance and prepares HBS students for nonprofit board leadership through workshops and quality placements on Boston area nonprofit boards.

Leadership:
John McCarthy
Jacob Broder-Fingert
Kimberly Hyde

HBS Business Plan Contest - Social Enterprise Track
The HBS Business Plan Contest includes a Social Enterprise track with its own panel of judges and equivalent awards. Team members have included students from the Kennedy School of Government and Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Leadership:
Shireen Santosham

Academic Development
The SEC works with the appropriate faculty to advocate for increased social enterprise representation in the RC and EC curriculum. Special attention is currently paid to leveraging the new 25-30-session Term 2 course focused on leadership, values and corporate accountability, which was instituted based on feedback from students.

Leadership:
Erika Mills

Social Activities
The Social Enterprise Club hosts a number of social activities throughout the year to provide members an opportunity to get to know one another. Events include the SEC retreat and lunches and dinners with other SEC members.

Leadership:
Uma Subramanian
John Cannon

Alumni Association
We have the goal of enhancing relations between SEC students and alumni, as well as providing continued access to HBS for the alumni. To achieve these goals, the SEC coordinates opportunities for increased participation of the SEC Alumni Association in other SEC events.

Leadership:
Stephen Chan

Related programs administered by the HBS Social Enterprise Initiative:

Field Studies
Individuals and student teams can earn course credit while working directly with nonprofit organizations to research and develop solutions for social enterprise challenges. Opportunities range from marketing plans to strategy development to applying newly developed business lenses to the nonprofit sector. Students can work directly with a professor to develop a project or view a list of already organized projects.

Leadership:
Margot Dushin (mdushin@hbs.edu)

Summer Fellowships
The HBS Initiative on Social Enterprise provides financial assistance for MBA students who work with public or nonprofit organizations for the summer to encourage student exploration of career opportunities.

Leadership:
Margot Dushin (mdushin@hbs.edu)

Loan Forgiveness Programs
The HBS Initiative on Social Enterprise provides debt forgiveness to students pursuing careers in nonprofit and public sectors after HBS graduation.

Leadership:
Margot Dushin (mdushin@hbs.edu)

The Social Enterprise Club also collaborates with other HBS clubs to co-sponsor programming.

Interests covered by other clubs and supported by the SEC
Environment (Business and Environment Club)
Development (International Business & Development Club)
Healthcare (Healthcare Club)
Direct Community Service (HBS Volunteers)
Non-Profit Consulting (Volunteer Consulting Organization)
Community Grants/ Venture Philanthropy (Harbus Foundation)
Arts (Art Appreciation Society)

Social Enterprise Club | Harvard Business School