Jonathan Klein, Haas School of Business MBA 06, founded the nonprofit GO in 2008. GO has helped make school board operations more transparent to the public, put muscle behind winning ballot measures and school board elections, and started initiatives to measure outcomes.
Now Klein, executive director since 2012, and his growing staff of 11 are faced with a concern: How do you scale up so other urban districts achieve the same results as GO without ignoring your current client?
Last week at GO’s Jack London Square headquarters, a team of seven Haas alumni helped answer that question in a pilot program called Solutions Lab, started by the Haas School’s Center for Nonprofit and Public Leadership. Solutions Lab queries Haas alumni in a cross-section of professions during a two-hour brainstorming session intended to help the nonprofit achieve its goals.
“We are confident Solutions Lab will be successful in several areas, including helping a nonprofit with some ‘high power’ thinking on a critical business issue; providing an avenue for our alums to go ‘beyond themselves’ by using their talents, skills, and educational training to improve their community; and building the Haas brand through the networking,” says Cathy Garza, director of alumni engagement at the Center for Nonprofit and Public Leadership.
Volunteers at the session were alumni with expertise in marketing and product management and past and current consultants. “Education is about the toughest nut to crack,” said one volunteer, Himawan Gunadhi, PhD 90, CEO and founder of Sankia Inc., a marketing analytics startup. “I admire anyone who is trying to make it better.”
