Current Projects
Brainstorming Sessions
Brainstorming sessions are 90-min meetings focused on solving a specific issue or generating ideas involving 4-8 HBS alumni with targeted skills and interests who can help the nonprofit organization.
Thursday, Nov. 20 - Virtual
11:00am - 12:30pm Pacific
Hui international
Founded in 2021, Hui International creates safe, stable, nurturing, and empowering relationships and environments where all can thrive. The organization delivers culturally responsive parent empowerment and child abuse prevention programs for parents of children ages 0–5 and 10–18. Initially launched through a contract with the State of California to serve parents and caregivers of unaccompanied, undocumented minors, Hui has since expanded to partnerships with schools across California and Florida. Programs are offered in English, Spanish, and Dari, and Hui’s model has reached over a hundred parents and more than a million households, earning recognition from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as a model program for national replication.
Focus Question: Hui’s core challenge is scaling the family support program in a sustainable and cost-effective way. In February 2024, HBS Community Partners suggested forming partnerships. After some efforts, Open University, based in the UK and with services around the world, has agreed to have a discussion. In the best-case scenario, how can Hui International structure a collaboration with The Open University?
Thursday, Dec. 4 - Virtual
12:00pm - 1:30pm Pacific
HBS Community Partners
HBS Community Partners (HBSCP) of Northern California harnesses the talent and expertise of Harvard Business School alumni to provide pro bono consulting services that strengthen nonprofit organizations and amplify community impact. Through strategic consulting projects, brainstorming sessions, Social Enterprise Scholarships, and board development initiatives, HBSCP connects business leaders with mission-driven organizations to solve critical strategic challenges. Each year, hundreds of alumni contribute their time and skills to advance nonprofit effectiveness across sectors.
Focus Question: How can HBS Community Partners of Northern California strengthen its volunteer pipeline by reimagining recruitment, engagement, and recognition strategies—so that more alumni take part of our programming?
Consulting Projects
Consulting Projects are three-four month strategic consulting engagements with a group of 3-5 alumni who conducts a deep dive to tackle a broad challenge or opportunity. Meeting dates and formats are decided by the team throughout the engagement.
Kickoff: February
Duration: 4 month consulting project
Breast Cancer Prevention Partners
Breast Cancer Prevention Partners (BCPP) is a national nonprofit dedicated to eliminating toxic chemicals and other environmental exposures linked to breast cancer. As the only breast cancer organization focused solely on prevention, BCPP translates cutting-edge science into accessible public education, mobilizes consumers, pressures companies to remove harmful ingredients, and advocates for stronger health-protective policies. Their work particularly benefits communities most exposed to toxic chemicals, including women of color, domestic workers, and low-income families living near industrial pollution.
Project with Community Partners: BCPP is launching the YES List, an AI-powered searchable database that identifies products and brands free from chemicals of concern associated with breast cancer. They are seeking HBS Community Partners’ support to evaluate and optimize the YES List after its rollout. The project aims to assess performance metrics, strengthen branding and marketing strategy, improve user experience, and explore sustainable revenue and growth opportunities to position the YES List as a major driver of long-term organizational impact and visibility.
Kickoff: February
Duration: 4 month consulting project
Format: team to decide
DEV Mission
Dev/Mission is a San Francisco–based nonprofit that trains untapped young adults ages 18–24 for careers in technology, helping low-income youth of color build wealth, professional pathways, and long-term economic mobility. Through its registered pre-apprenticeship program, digital literacy initiatives, and hands-on community tech support, Dev/Mission equips participants with technical skills, work experience, and career connections while strengthening the digital capacity of affordable-housing communities. Since 2017, the organization has trained over 500 youth, achieved an 85% graduation rate, and placed more than 300 graduates into internships, apprenticeships, and tech employment.
Project with Community Partners: Dev/Mission is seeks to design and validate a paid services (social enterprise) model that leverages its graduates as affordable IT field technicians for small nonprofits, schools, and local businesses. This earned-revenue strategy would reduce reliance on grants, create real-world work experience for participants, and establish a sustainable engine for organizational growth. If, after the early discovery phase, the paid services model proves unfeasible, the team will shift to a secondary priority: developing a regional expansion framework (“Dev/Mission in a Box”) that outlines the requirements, design principles, and quality standards needed to replicate the program in new Bay Area communities.
Kickoff: February
Duration: 4 month consulting project
Farming Hope
Farming Hope is a San Francisco–based nonprofit that empowers individuals facing significant barriers to employment to build economic stability through culinary job training and food justice. Through a paid Apprenticeship program, Farming Hope provides hands-on training, transitional employment, and wraparound support to adults who have experienced homelessness, incarceration, and food insecurity. Apprentices gain marketable culinary skills while preparing high-quality meals made from recovered food for food-insecure community members, advancing both workforce development and environmental sustainability.
Project with Community Partners: Farming Hope is seeks support to conduct a feasibility study for a new earned-revenue opportunity focused on contract production of consumer packaged goods (CPG). The organization aims to help early-stage food entrepreneurs produce small-batch products that are not yet viable for traditional co-packers, while creating meaningful training opportunities for Apprentices. The project will assess market demand, pricing, and operational and financial viability, culminating in a financial model and recommendations to determine whether this CPG production strategy should be scaled as a sustainable revenue stream
Kickoff: February
Duration: 4 month consulting project
Format: team to decide
Marin Community Clinics
Marin Community Clinics (MCC) is a nonprofit Federally Qualified Health Center and Marin County’s largest safety-net health provider, delivering comprehensive medical, dental, and behavioral health care to more than 38,000 low-income patients each year. Operating eight clinic sites across Marin County, MCC serves predominantly low-income, immigrant, and linguistically diverse communities through a patient-centered, team-based model that emphasizes culturally responsive and trauma-informed care. In addition to clinical services, MCC provides critical enabling services such as benefits enrollment, care coordination, and support addressing social determinants of health, ensuring patients can access and sustain care without financial hardship.
Project with Community Partners: As part of implementing its 2024–2027 Strategic Plan, MCC is seeking support to design a structured Leadership Development Program for Managers. The consulting project will assess leadership strengths and gaps among mid-level managers, define a leadership competency framework aligned with MCC’s mission and equity goals, and design a practical, scalable leadership program. Deliverables will include a needs assessment, proposed curriculum and program structure, implementation roadmap, and recommendations for measuring impact—strengthening MCC’s management bench, improving staff engagement, and supporting high-quality patient care as the organization continues to grow.
Kickoff: February
Duration: 4 month consulting project
Format: remote
Project Invent
Project Invent is a national education nonprofit that empowers middle and high school students—those further and furthest from opportunity and of limited means—to become fearless, compassionate problem solvers through invention. By training educators in design thinking, engineering, and entrepreneurship, Project Invent enables students to invent technology solutions that address real challenges faced by community partners. Since its founding in 2018, the organization has served approximately 4,000 students, trained 300 educators, and supported more than 200 student-led inventions across the United States.
Project with Community Partners: assess and refine the pricing strategy for Project Invent’s Whole Site Model (WSM) program, its primary vehicle for expansion through school and out-of-school-time partnerships. The organization has established a preliminary price point and is looking to evaluate price elasticity, validate or adjust pricing tiers, and balance revenue sustainability with accessibility for school partners.
Kickoff: February
Duration: 4 month consulting project
Format: remote, client in Switzerland
Restor
Restor is a global, science-based digital platform that connects a worldwide community of nature stewards to data, knowledge, funding, and markets to accelerate ecological restoration at scale. Developed in collaboration with Google and leading academic institutions, Restor enables users—from grassroots NGOs to governments and corporations—to map restoration sites, access insights on biodiversity, carbon, and land-use change, and track and communicate impact with credibility and transparency. The platform currently supports over 220,000 restoration projects across 190 countries, monitoring more than 168 million hectares worldwide.
Project with Community Partners: Restor is seeking support to scale its enterprise offering, Restor Insights, transforming early pilot traction into a repeatable and sustainable commercial model. The consulting project will focus on developing a scalable sales and delivery strategy, identifying high-potential customer segments, and strengthening internal capabilities for sales, onboarding, and account management. Key deliverables include a sales playbook, an operational scaling roadmap, and recommendations for channel partnerships and regional market entry. Client is based in Switzerland and meetings will be before 2pm Pacific.
Kickoff: February
Duration: 4 month consulting project
Format: remote
The Affordability Project
The Affordability Project is a San Francisco–based nonprofit dedicated to building affordable housing for the middle-income workforce (80–120% AMI) without relying on government subsidies, tax credits, or for-profit investors. Founded in 2021, the organization identifies, designs, and develops ground-up multifamily housing projects that address a critical gap in the U.S. housing ecosystem—serving essential workers such as educators, healthcare professionals, nonprofit staff, and first responders who are increasingly priced out of the communities they serve. In just four years, The Affordability Project has entitled a 100-unit, shovel-ready workforce housing development and is preparing to scale its model into additional U.S. markets.
Project with Community Partners: As the organization transitions from start-up to growth phase, The Affordability Project wants to refine its positioning statement and communications strategy. The consulting project will focus on articulating a clear, compelling organizational narrative that reflects its evolved business model and prepares the organization for geographic expansion. Deliverables include a refreshed positioning statement and a high-level marketing or communications asset that can be used to engage partners, funders, and stakeholders as the organization scales its impact nationally.
Kickoff: February
Duration: 4 month consulting project
Format: remote
The Way Out
The Way Out is a recovery-focused initiative of The Salvation Army San Francisco Metro Division dedicated to ending homelessness and addiction through an integrated system of treatment, housing, and workforce development. Serving individuals from the streets through long-term recovery and self-sufficiency, The Way Out delivers a four-step system of care that includes stabilization, residential treatment, transitional housing, career development, and alumni support. Since launching in 2023, The Way Out has served more than 1,060 participants, achieved a 77% success rate, and houses over 500 people nightly across seven facilities—at roughly half the cost of San Francisco’s Permanent Supportive Housing programs. Central to the Way Out's system of care is The Culinary Arts Training Academy (CTA), a workforce development program that trains individuals in recovery for employment in commercial kitchens.
Project with Community Partners: the The Way Out’s Culinary Arts Training Academy (CTA) is recognized as a top 5 culinary workforce training program nationally, and achieves a 90% graduation rate and 85% job placement rate for its graduates. While CTA has demonstrated strong outcomes, it is costly to operate and difficult to scale. The consulting project will focus on designing a self-funding model that integrates food sourcing and meal preparation for The Way Out’s residential facilities, including proof of concept, pilot design, operational requirements, and high-level cost estimates—enabling CTA to scale while strengthening long-term recovery outcomes.
Kickoff: February
Duration: 4 month consulting project
Format: remote
Women’s Coaching Alliance
Women’s Coaching Alliance (WCA) is a Bay Area–based nonprofit dedicated to developing female leaders through coaching youth sports. Through its flagship Coach Today, Lead for Life program, WCA trains and supports young women ages 15–26 to serve as youth sports coaches while building leadership, confidence, and career-ready skills. Participants receive structured training through a Leadership Academy, ongoing mentorship, and hands-on coaching roles in local communities. Since 2022, WCA has trained over 150 young women who have coached in 14 California communities, positively impacting more than 900 youth and creating thousands of annual leadership and mentorship touchpoints.
Project with Community Partners: the consulting project will focus on understanding the needs of early-career women (ages ~22–26), identifying barriers to engagement, and evaluating outreach, messaging, incentives, and pricing models tailored to this segment. Deliverables will inform how WCA can thoughtfully integrate early professionals into its existing program structure, expand participation, and strengthen long-term financial sustainability without compromising accessibility or impact.
Kickoff: February
Duration: 4 month consulting project
Format: remote
Youth Tennis Advantage
Youth Tennis Advantage is a Bay Area–based nonprofit that helps close opportunity and achievement gaps for under-resourced youth through comprehensive tennis, academic enrichment, and life-skills programming. Founded more than 50 years ago and affiliated with the USTA Foundation’s National Junior Tennis & Learning network, YTA serves youth across San Francisco, Oakland, Richmond, and Berkeley through year-round after-school programs, summer camps, and community events. By combining high-quality tennis instruction with mentorship and academic support, YTA builds confidence, discipline, and pathways to long-term success for hundreds of students each year.
Project with Community Partners: Scaling Growth and Expansion Project to guide the next phase of impact—from serving approximately 700 youth annually to reaching 7,000 while maintaining program quality and deep community roots. The consulting project will develop a growth roadmap aligned with YTA’s Improve, Grow, Sustainframework, model the financial and staffing implications of expansion, and assess diversified revenue strategies. Deliverables will include clear scaling scenarios, financial projections, and a summary deck to support board decision-making and engagement with funders as YTA enters its next chapter of growth