Category: News & Views
The Golub Capital Social Impact Awards
The Golub Capital Board Fellows Program at the Kellogg School of Management recently celebrated its graduating Class of 2023 and recognized two outstanding Board Fellows as winners of the second annual Golub Capital Social Impact Awards.
Each year, 50 top Kellogg MBA students are selected to participate in a rigorous, 20-month program where they serve as ex-officio board members for Chicagoland nonprofits and complete two courses in board governance at Kellogg.
Since 2003, 887 Kellogg fellows have served 233 distinct Chicago-area nonprofits. We are proud to partner with Kellogg in expanding the Golub Capital Board Fellows Program and replicating its success.
“From the day Beth joined us, she has been a fantastic fit for our organization. When I stepped into my role as Executive Director, prioritizing DEI initiatives was my top goal. Beth’s DEI project is the first of its kind for Learning Bridge. The biggest value of Beth’s project was her willingness to collaborate with us every step of the way – with the board, with our staff, and with me.”
— Learning Bridge Early Education Center (Fellow: Beth Chung)
The Golub Capital Social Impact Awards were established to recognize the drive and dedication of those graduating Board Fellows who have had the greatest impact on their nonprofit partners.
This year’s Awards were granted to Jessica Chabot for her work with Chicago Green City Market and to Beth Chung for her work with Learning Bridge Early Education Center.
“When I became Executive Director, the lack of [documentation] made it difficult to actively engage the board. Jessica’s initiative, follow-through, and excellent quality of work yielded project deliverables that are immediately actionable and immensely impactful. Further, Jessica’s work has impacted the nonprofit sector more widely as I have shared it with many fellow executive directors who face similar challenges with board management and engagement. The result will yield stronger, more engaged, more generous, and more impactful board members who will advance missions beyond Green City Market.”
— Green City Market (Fellow: Jessica Chabot)
Impact Philanthropy In Action: Golub Capital Social Impact Labs
Golub Capital’s network of Social Impact Labs engage the next generation of business leaders and academics at leading business schools to amplify the impact of nonprofits, particularly nonprofits led by and serving members of historically underserved communities. Each Golub Capital Lab focuses on a distinct lever for improving nonprofit effectiveness, such as machine learning and AI tools, Board governance and leadership development.
Our work to create and sponsor Golub Capital Social Impact Labs is rooted in three beliefs. The first belief is that the social sector has a critical role to play in solving some of society’s most significant problems. The second belief is that nonprofits, particularly those serving historically marginalized communities, have far fewer resources available to help them scale up and amplify their impact than do for-profit organizations. And the third belief is that leading business schools have vast, underutilized potential to help close this resource gap by researching best practices, teaching them to current and future nonprofit leaders, and honing their insights through hands-on consulting with nonprofit partner organizations.
To date, we have made commitments in excess of $14 million to create and sponsor Golub Capital Social Impact Labs. In 2019, we established the first Golub Capital Lab at the Stanford Graduate School of Business; it uses digital technology and social science research to improve the effectiveness of leading social sector organizations. In 2021, we announced the Golub Capital Lab at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, which focuses on training and developing MBA students to become effective nonprofit board members via the Golub Capital Board Fellows Program. In January 2022, we announced the Golub Capital Lab at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. The Golub Capital Lab at Booth developed the IGNITE program in partnership with the Chicago Urban League to support nonprofit leaders serving the Black community to accelerate their impact and the impact of the organizations they lead.
We plan to further expand the Golub Capital Lab network in the coming years, and we are excited to share more with you about the work of the Golub Capital Labs as they progress.
Impact Philanthropy in Action: Golub Capital Social Impact Labs
Golub Capital’s network of Social Impact Labs engage the next generation of business leaders and academics at leading business schools to amplify the impact of nonprofits, particularly nonprofits led by and serving members of historically underserved communities. Each Golub Capital Lab focuses on a distinct lever for improving nonprofit effectiveness, such as machine learning and AI tools, Board governance and leadership development. Our work to create and sponsor Golub Capital Social Impact Labs is rooted in three beliefs. The first belief is that the social sector has a critical role to play in solving some of society’s most significant problems. The second belief is that nonprofits, particularly those serving historically marginalized communities, have far fewer resources available to help them scale up and amplify their impact than do for-profit organizations. And the third belief is that leading business schools have vast, underutilized potential to help close this resource gap by researching best practices, teaching them to current and future nonprofit leaders, and honing their insights through hands-on consulting with nonprofit partner organizations. To date, we have made commitments in excess of $14 million to create and sponsor Golub Capital Social Impact Labs. In 2019, we established the first Golub Capital Lab at the Stanford Graduate School of Business; it uses digital technology and social science research to improve the effectiveness of leading social sector organizations. In 2021, we announced the Golub Capital Lab at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, which focuses on training and developing MBA students to become effective nonprofit board members via the Golub Capital Board Fellows Program. In January 2022, we announced the Golub Capital Lab at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. The Golub Capital Lab at Booth is developing a program in partnership with the Chicago Urban League to support nonprofit leaders serving the Black community to accelerate their impact and the impact of the organizations they lead. We plan to further expand the Golub Capital Lab network in the coming years, and we are excited to share more with you about the work of the Golub Capital Labs as they progress.The Golub Capital Social Impact Awards
“We are eternally grateful for the partnership that Namaste Charter School has developed with the Kellogg School of Management in the Board Fellows Program. Vanessa Mariscal’s passion, desire and commitment to success has surpassed all of our expectations and created a long-standing legacy of continued service to the school and community all in service of continuing to develop our community and their success. Since the first day Vanessa joined our team, she has exceeded expectations. Her enthusiasm and general love for the Namaste mission and vision has helped propel this project to success. She was challenged by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, and all of the challenges it has thrown us, and despite these challenges, Vanessa has persevered, engaged deeply in developing the knowledge and skills needed to deeply connect with our community and has resulted in the creation of a Founding Alumni Board that will live on into the future for Namaste Charter School.” — Namaste Charter School (Fellow: Vanessa Mariscal)
“Addie was deeply vested in her involvement with the RMHC-CNI board of directors and committed to crafting and executing a meaningful, substantial marketing project for our board. Our working relationship with Addie has been very productive and satisfying. She is smart, inquisitive, and thoughtfully synthesizes input from multiple sources. In the fall of 2021, Addie presented her project proposal to the Board Development Committee to ensure that it was relevant and included elements aligned with Board Member needs. During the winter of 2022, she conducted interviews with RMHC Global leaders and prepped them for their presentation at the February RMHC-CNI Board Meeting.” — RMHC-CNI (Fellow: Addie Spencer)