Welcome to the Community Partners website. Thank you for taking the time to learn more about how we are helping the not-for-profit community in Connecticut. Community Partners, a 501(c)3 organization, is part of the Harvard Business School Club of Connecticut. Our mission reflects our dual focus of serving local not for profit organizations and giving our local alumni/alumnae the opportunity to connect in a meaningful manner with their community.
Since 2004, we have been providing our fellow alumni/alumnae with the opportunity to assist local not-for-profit agencies with free business consulting services and scholarship programs. We do this in a number of different ways including workshops for Executive Directors and Board Chairs, traditional consulting projects lasting three or more months and shorter, focused problem solving exercises. Community Partners also provides scholarship funding for one or more local Executive Directors to attend a one week course at Harvard Business School titled Strategic Perspectives in Non-profit Management (SPNM). Every other year we sponsor the Turbo Awards witha first place award in the amount of $20,000 which continues to be co-sponsored by New County Porsche of Greenwich. Appropriately named, this award is given to a local Connecticut-based non-profit organization that has best demonstrated how the grant will be used to accelerate (e.g., "turbo-charge") or enhance benefits in their community. During 2012, Community Partners volunteers completed eight consulting projects. These projects covered a broad spectrum of non-profits from leading social service agencies to renowned arts organizations, including strategic plans for Waveny Care Network, Norwalk Community College Foundation and WorkPlace, an organization involved with revitalizing employment in Connecticut. We also designed and conducted workshops on behalf of the Fairfield County Community Foundation’s Center for Excellence. Through the workshops, we are able to provide meaningful direction to NFP Boards and Executive Directors regarding topics supporting their respective missions, visions, and best practices in execution and measurement of outcomes.
We hope you will learn more about each of these accomplishments by reading our 2012-annual-report. If you are an alumna or alumnus of Harvard Business School, we invite you to join us in an upcoming volunteer opportunity. If you represent a local not-for-profit organization, we urge you to let us know more about your organization’s opportunities and challenges.
Sincerely,
Stuart Ferrell Weismiller and Nancy Goetz Tafoya
Co-Chairs of HBS Community Partners of Connecticut
