Net Impact

Net Impact is a nonprofit membership organization for graduate students and professionals interested in using business skills in support of various social and environmental causes. It serves both a professional organization and one of the largest student organizations among MBAs in the world. Vogel, David. The Market for Virtue: The Potential and Limits of Corporate Social Responsibility Brookings Institution Press, 2004 From its central office in San Francisco, the organization supports over 200 autonomous volunteer-run chapters and a membership base of over 10,000, with programs and networking events centered on topics such as corporate social responsibility, social entrepreneurship, nonprofit management, international development, and environmental sustainability.

Historical background

Net Impact was founded in 1993 as Students for Responsible Business (SRB). Its inaugural conference was convened by a group of graduate business students in collaboration with Social Venture Network, an organization that has been a launching pad for several other organizations within the business and society movement. Hollender, Jeffrey and Stephen Finchell, What Matters Most: How a Small Group of Pioneers Is Teaching Social Responsibility to Big Business, and Why Big Business Is Listening, Basic Books, 2004 The organization grew steadily in its first few years as an organization exclusively for graduate students.

Beginning in 1998, a professional network of SRB alumni began to form. The organization was renamed Net Impact in 1999 in part to accommodate a shift toward inclusion of professional MBA graduates. ”Naming the Future” Leading Business, Net Impact, Fall 1999 The first professional chapter was launched in San Francisco in 2001, and in 2008 professionals made up 44% of all dues-paying members, and 23% of chapters.

In 2007, an undergraduate pilot program was initiated, growing to 28 undergraduate chapters by mid-2008.

While the bulk of Net Impact’s activity has been focused in the United States, international chapters began as early as 1997 at INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France. The inaugural European conference was held in Geneva, Switzerland in June, 2008 in partnership with HEC Geneva IOMBA, INSEAD and the University of Nottingham Zaidman, Yasmina “Net Impact Europe: Can Business Make a Positive Difference?” Acumen Fund Blog, 2008-06-24, retrieved 2008-08-22. As of 2008 there were 40 student and professional chapters located outside the United States, on six continents.

Between 2003 and 2008, under the leadership of Executive Director Liz Maw, the organization increased its paid membership nearly fivefold, in keeping with a growth trend that has been identified among MBAs and society at large toward interest in responsible business practices “CSR Jobs Rank High for Newly Minted MBAs: Report” GreenBiz 2008-01-16, retrieved 2008-08-22.

Programs

Conferences

Net Impact’s most familiar program is its annual (North America) Conference, which takes place in partnership with a prestigious business school every year in autumn. Conferences are well attended and feature inspirational speeches by business leaders who personify corporate responsibility and the social contributions of successful businesses. Hollender, Jeffrey and Stephen Finchell, What Matters Most: How a Small Group of Pioneers Is Teaching Social Responsibility to Big Business, and Why Big Business Is Listening, Basic Books, 2004 Net Impact’s North American Conferences have been located at:

2008 - The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania
2007 - Owen Graduate School of Management, Vanderbilt University
2006 - Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University
2005 - Stanford Graduate School of Business
2004 - Columbia Business School
2003 - McCombs School of Business, University of Texas at Austin
2002 - George Washington University, American University, Georgetown University, University of Maryland at College Park
2001 - Kenan-Flagler Business School, University of North Carolina
2000 - Thunderbird School of Global Management
1999 - Ross School of Business, University of Michigan
1998 - Yale School of Management
1997 - UCLA Anderson School of Management
2006 - Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University
1995 - Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley
1994 - Harvard Business School
1993 - McDonough School of Business, Georgetown University

Past keynote speakers at the conference have included Yvon Chouinard, Founder of Patagonia; Tensie Whelan, Executive Director of the Rainforest Alliance; Chad Holliday, CEO of DuPont; Honorable Al Gore, Chairman of Generation Investment Management and former Vice President of the United States; Tom Chappell, CEO and Founder of Tom’s of Maine; Gary Erickson, CEO of Clif Bar, Inc.; and Orin Smith, President and CEO of Starbucks Coffee Company.

Publications

Net Impact produces an annual guide to graduate business programs titled Business as UNusual, soliciting the help of its chapters to report on how far sustainability is integrated into over 50 top-tier business schools, for the benefit of prospective students. It also has produced studies of the opinions of graduate and undergraduate students on the role business should play in society; a Social Impact Career Handbook for individuals interested in learning about possible career tracks using business and social responsibility; and the CSR Jobs Report, in partnership with Ellen Weinreb CSR Recruiting, analyzing the market for CSR jobs as well as jobs within socially responsible companies.

Other Programs

Through its chapters, events and online career center, Net Impact provides members with an array of opportunities for networking and finding a job that meets both their material and ideological requirements. For professionals, the organization also offers the Impact at Work program to help members change their companies’ practices from within. Schutt, Melanie. “Do Green MBAs Get Green Jobs?” Sustainable Industries, 2008-04-04, retrieved 2008-08-22 Programs under the umbrella of Nonprofit Capacity Building, such as Board Fellows and Service Corps, support members interested in volunteering for nonprofits on a pro bono basis and gaining key experience in the process.

At universities, Net Impact supports both campus greening and curriculum change initiatives that its members are engaged in, and its annual Green Challenge, open to students and professionals alike, serves to catalyze the sustainability movement among business students and create effective plans for environmental improvements. Rupe Eubanks, Michelle “A Campus Going Green”, TimesDaily.com 2008-07-07, retrieved 2008-08-22 Thomas Robertson, Dean of the Wharton School, cited Net Impact activities at Wharton as evidence in an article where he claimed, “Social responsibility is no longer relegated to the relatively small percentage of students who seek to work in the nonprofit sector. It has become integrated into our way of thinking in business education and in the coming years needs to be further developed.” Robertson, Thomas. “Schools aspire to be forces for social good” Financial Times 2008-01-28, retrieved 2008-08-22