The Harvard

Uplifting leaders

So far, many of the local alumni seem to have learned exactly what ReCorr first liked about Harvard’s approach: strategic thinking for larger, mission-driven impact. By now, Harvard Business School counts on a Raleigh contingency in each of the two courses. “They call us out,” Craig of The Green Chair Project says. She says she can confidently speak for a handful of her peers – both actual classmates and others among the Harvard 100 group – about what the four-day course experience was like. Many expect, she says, to learn best practices and network with nonprofits across the country; in reality, they’re taught in the traditional Harvard Business School model, based on critical assessment of case studies, and they’re told the “outcomes over outputs” maxim. “It’s uplifting to be taught at that (high) level,” Craig says. “I realized the importance of applying business skills to what we do. … Because, while we’re serving specific causes, we’re also all running business models, and often ones that rely on donations. That is not to be managed lightly.” Alumni are also considering how to best make local cultural impact, heeding the outcome-focused Harvard approach. One of the first course-takers was ArtSpace President and CEO Mary Poole, who attended the school in May 2012. Now, she can tangibly reflect on how her lessons impacted the organization. “That was a pivotal time for us. We were starting to think about reassessing our mission and vision and impact and relevance in the community. (My time at Harvard) helped jump-start a much bigger movement that is even still happening today.” Since then, the visual arts center and artists’ studio space has significantly renovated its building to be more exhibition and education friendly, reflecting its focus on engaging the community alongside fostering member artists. “My experience strengthened the organization by challenging us to think about the work that we’re doing in the community, the impact that we’re having, and how we measure that.”

Paying it forward

Perhaps most importantly, the Harvard-goers feel encouraged to work in what can be a thankless sector. “I realized that the work many of us do here in Raleigh is just as important as what some of my Harvard classmates were doing in Africa,” Craig says. “We each fill such unique gaps in our communities and in our world.”

LONG-TERM THINKING

At left: A few local nonprofit leaders, all alumni of the Harvard social enterprise courses, met recently to review tenets of their community building leadership framework.

The biannual gatherings foster this realization and strengthen local resources. “I’ve said to them, I want to invest in you personally. You’re a great leader and I want you to be a phenomenal leader. That’s a different message,” ReCorr says, than other kinds of monetary support. And the value doesn’t end at Harvard; many leaders and board members meet separately in small groups regularly. “Continuing to grow the network of folks that you can reach out to and kick ideas around has been invaluable,” Poole says. “That 2012 experience has continued, and does continue, to feed our work.” While ReCorr may not continue to issue tuition grants now that he’s given 100 (he won’t say either way), he hopes organizations will budget to send their own staff, he says. And he remains focused on his investment: the people behind the projects. He is an always-accessible mentor, quick to help a director re-focus on the end goal and push him or her toward excellence. “Human capital is infinitely more important, immediately, than brickand-mortar programs, because human capital is what makes the rest of it happen. … If we can get organizations to talk to each other and work with each other, we win.” About five years ago, when past board chair at Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina Dana Lange returned from the course, she put together a slideshow of what she learned, ReCorr says, and met with dozens of Triangle nonprofits to share her takeaways. Right now, a group of graduates is working to create a digitally shared Triangle-wide nonprofit calendar, where organizations can cross-reference what gala or fundraiser or event happens when. This latest initiative is evidence of tremendous organization, and buy-in from a variety of key players. Says Craig: “What a unique community this makes us to have this group of equipped leaders.”