The Harvard Business School Club of Philadelphia Announces 2009 Scholarship Recipients

PHILADELPHIA, May 28, 2009 — The Social Enterprise Initiative of the Harvard Business School Club of Philadelphia has awarded two scholarships to local nonprofit executives to attend the Strategic Perspectives in Nonprofit Management program at the Harvard Business School in July 2009. This year’s recipients are Jay Spector, President and CEO of JEVS Human Services, and Gwen Bailey, Executive Director of Youth Service, Inc. Both of these recipients lead critical organizations in our region.

JEVS Human Services is a diverse human services organization that runs over 20 successful programs providing skills development, job readiness and career services, vocational rehabilitation, recovery services, adult and residential day services, and in-home personal assistance. Founded in 1941 by 25 Jewish concerned citizens, Jewish Employment and Vocational Service was established to help Jewish refugees adjust to life in Philadelphia. Today, JEVS Human Services is one of the largest, private nonprofit organizations in the Delaware Valley. The organization has substantially broadened its mission and serves more than 17,000 individuals each year, focusing on individuals with physical, developmental, and emotional challenges, as well as those facing adverse socio-economic conditions, including unemployment and underemployment.

Youth Service Inc., founded in 1951, offers a wide variety of community based care, shelter and counseling services to at risk children and their families. These services include child welfare placement services, such as foster family care, and group home placement for teen mothers and their babies. Importantly, Youth Service, Inc. runs a 30 day emergency shelter for run-aways and homeless teenagers, as well as a crisis nursery program designed to provide 24 hour emergency child care for children up to six years old. These programs are in addition to several home based and prevention programs whose focus is on maintaining the family unit within their community and diverting children and families from the formal child welfare system.

Mr. Spector and Ms. Bailey have led these organizations for twelve years and four years, respectively.

The Harvard Business School Club of Philadelphia, one of the oldest alumni organizations in the country, represents more than 1,100 HBS alumni in the greater Philadelphia region.

The Club’s Social Enterprise Initiative began in 1993, and focuses on executive education – finance, operations, marketing and strategy – for the Philadelphia region’s nonprofit leaders. In 2001, the Club began sponsoring and sending nonprofit CEOs to the Harvard Business School’s one-week nonprofit management course. Ms. Bailey and Mr. Spector are the 15th and 16th recipients.

The experience of continuing education for nonprofit leaders has been a positive one for past scholarship recipients. “Since I returned from the Strategic Perspectives in Nonprofit Management Program, the hard work of putting the lessons into practice is already germinating. My conceptual toolbox bursts with a rich set of tools and I feel a duty to use what I learned from the program to make a difference in my organization and my community,” commented Bill Clark, President and Executive Director of Philabundance, upon his completion of the program last summer. JoAnne Fischer agreed, and said, “I know that the knowledge and perspective I gained will enhance my leadership of Maternity Care Coalition and my contributions to the nonprofit sector. As a result of the case studies and small group work I developed a stronger understanding in what is involved in evaluating the scalability and sustainability of an organization.”

The success of this scholarship program led to an annual local conference focused on nonprofit leadership development, currently in its sixth year, with this year’s conference to be held November 10, 2009 at Penn State’s Great Valley campus. In addition to the Harvard Business School Club of Philadelphia and alumni funding, support of the Social Enterprise Initiative comes 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 an investment management firm that wishes to remain anonymous.