Harvard Business School Club of Birmingham - A Club with Purpose
By Jim Sisson, MBA 1985
Most nonprofits are very focused on delivering programs. They measure their success, in part, by the number of people they serve. Their donors expect them to spend their limited resources in ways that directly impact those with the greatest need.
This laser-like focus on program delivery often results in nonprofits that are undermanaged. The annual budget allocates the bare minimum to the essential task of management. These costs are usually listed as overhead or administration and every effort is made to keep this number as low as possible.
The implication of this approach to resource allocation is that Executive Directors often wear multiple hats, balancing their time among fundraising, hiring and training, board management, finance and accounting, strategic planning, and community relations. If they are lucky, the ED will share some of these responsibilities with a staff person and maybe an office manager. It is hard to imagine how each of these crucial management responsibilities receive the time and expertise they deserve.
When the Harvard Business School Club of Birmingham (https://www.hbsclubbirmingham.com) decided to look for a way to impact our community and our state, it made sense to look at the nonprofit community and the huge investment that was already in place. The question was, how could we use our unique position to impact the community by leveraging existing resources? The answer was to focus on developing the business and organizational skills of nonprofit leaders. The Executive Education programs at the Harvard Business School include a one-week course called Strategic Perspectives in Nonprofit Management (SPNM) for nonprofit Executive Directors. This program seemed like a great opportunity to challenge and motivate nonprofit leaders to use proven business concepts to help their organizations become more successful.
We decided to offer a full-tuition scholarship to an Alabama nonprofit leader to attend the SPNM each year. We work with the school to reserve a slot for one Alabama ED. We advertise, accept applications, screen candidates, and conduct interviews with the finalists before selecting the recipient. We select the recipient in the Spring and send them to Cambridge for a week in the Summer. In addition to Birmingham, past recipients include two from Mobile and two from Huntsville. Each year, we raise the $7,000 from our club members to cover the tuition.
In 2025, Jennifer Jacques (Executive Director) of Red Mountain Theater (https://redmountaintheatre.org) was selected as the 12th recipient of the scholarship.
After completing the program, the recipient is invited to attend a luncheon sponsored by the HBS Club and share their experiences with our members. They usually begin with words like motivating, inspiring, transformational, and life changing. Then they talk about the opportunities they see within their organizations to make a greater impact on the community. We also invite past recipients to attend the luncheon and provide updates on the things they are doing in their organizations.
The program has been very successful because of the benefits received by our club and the participants. Our club benefits from a meaningful purpose that goes beyond networking and fellowship. It provides busy alumni an opportunity to support the club and the community at the same time. It allows our small club in Alabama to provide value to the Business School by supporting their programs. And it allows us to leverage existing resources to make a bigger impact around the state.
The participants also benefit in several ways. They are recognized for the important work they are doing. They receive valuable training without needing to divert scarce resources from their programs. They tap into a global network of other nonprofit leaders. And they are inspired to come home and commit their talents and new knowledge to making their organization the best it can be.