PHILADELPHIA, PA, November 14, 2007 – The Social Enterprise Initiative of the Harvard Business School Club of Philadelphia (“HBSCP”) hosted its fourth annual nonprofit conference yesterday on the campus of The Vanguard Group’s Corporate University in Malvern, PA. More than 50 CEOs, Executive Directors, and other senior leaders from major nonprofit organizations attended the conference, titled “Maximizing Impact Through Strategy.” The goal of the conference was to provide nonprofit leaders with leading edge thinking on planning and executing strategy in nonprofit organizations as well as a forum for high-level networking and the sharing of best practices.

The conference moderator was Professor V. Kasturi “Kash” Rangan, the Malcolm P. McNair Professor of Marketing at the Harvard Business School and co-chairman of the school’s Social Enterprise Initiative. Professor Rangan led a stimulating, interactive case discussion and facilitated a session summarizing the participants’ insights. Through the example of the Aravind Eye Hospital in India, Professor Rangan illustrated the importance of systematizing and hardwiring an operational model in order to achieve scalability within a nonprofit organization.

The Philadelphia Foundation’s R. Andrew Swinney, President, and Nancy Burd, Vice President for Grantmaking Services, delivered the keynote address on their recent strategy implementation as they focus on capacity building grants and general operating support in an effort to build a high performing nonprofit sector in the Philadelphia region. Mr. Swinney and Ms. Burd implored the attendees to remain attuned to their strategy, push constantly to improve it, and to adopt business principles to achieve their organizational goals.

Bob Searle, Partner with the Bridgespan Group, led an interactive workshop on using strategy to increase social impact. The workshop helped prepare nonprofit leaders to make the difficult choices necessary to achieve strategic clarity.

In addition to HBSCP and alumni funding, partnership support of the conference came 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 a local investment firm that wishes to remain anonymous. The HBSCP is one of the oldest alumni organizations in the country, and represents more than 1,100 HBS alumni in the greater Philadelphia region.

The Harvard Business School Club of Philadelphia Social Enterprise Initiative began in 1993. The Social Enterprise Initiative focuses on executive education – finance, operations, marketing and strategy – of the Philadelphia Region’s nonprofit leaders. Over the last seven years, the Club has sponsored seven MBA students in summer intern positions in five Philadelphia-area nonprofit organizations. In 2001, the HBSCP began sponsoring and sending nonprofit CEOs to the Harvard Business School’s one-week nonprofit management course. 14 local leaders have now attended the course. The success of this program led to the annual locally based conference focused on nonprofit leadership development.