NGO Education Survey

College: Business

Department: Yale School of Management

Courses:

Business Ethics

Business is an activity in which parties exchange goods or services for valuable consideration. The goal of this course is to examine the ethical dimensions of such activities and develop skills for identifying and weighting ethical considerations. We will discover the tools we use for reasoning about right and wrong at the individual, firm, and policy levels, as well as explore “blind spots” – reasons why people fail to see the ethical dimension of decisions and thus, how they fail to live up to their own ethical standards.

Data Visualization for the Social Sector

Data alone is not always enough to drive insight or impact. Data surrounds us, and while transforming raw data through analytics can yield discovery, increasing there is a need to not only process it but also present it in a meaningful way to maximize actionable insight. The course will revolve around teaching students how to represent information and data in a visual and impactful ways using graphs, charts, graphics, images and other data narrative strategies. Students will primarily work in excel but will be exposed to other data visualization tools and examples of these tools in action from guest speakers and case studies. The structure of the course content will include specific information visualization practices alongside storytelling methods and design strategies for developing visual narratives to drive impact. The students will apply these techniques in a data visualization project of their choosing (either from course options, a Board Fellows engagement, Social Impact client data, or data from another source).

Education Policy

This course is designed to describe the major policies defining today’s education system in the US. The course topics will include, but are not limited to, governance, accountability, choice, finance, and personnel policies for K-12 education, with a focus on the role of teachers; it will also briefly cover issues related to early childhood education and higher education. The focus will be on policies made at the federal, state, and local levels, and on the implications of these policies for students, families, and communities. Discussions will touch upon the goals of policies and the extent to which the intention, implementation and ultimate effects of the policies align. Class sessions are a mixture of lectures, a guest lecture, and student presentations of existing research. Assessment will be based on these presentations and on a final project. The course is designed as a complement to MGT 537-01 (Inequality and Social Mobility), but the two courses can also be taken in isolation.

Energy Systems Analysis

This course offers a systems analysis approach to describe and explain the basics of energy systems. Students gain a comprehensive theoretical and empirical knowledge base from which to analyze energy-environmental issues as well as to participate effectively in policy debates. Special attention is given to introduce students to formal methods used to analyze energy systems or individual energy projects and to discuss also traditionally lesser-researched elements of energy systems (energy use in developing countries; energy densities and urban energy use; income, gender, and lifestyle differences in energy end-use patterns) in addition to currently dominant energy issues such as energy security and climate change.

ESG Investing

This course discusses incorporating Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) information in investment portfolios. ESG objectives are important for investors representing trillions of dollars and may affect their portfolios’ risk and return. We will consider ways of blending portfolios’ financial and non-financial goals, and the potential for ESG-minded asset owners to impact the companies in which they invest. The course will blend academic research with case studies from investment practice.

Ethical Choices in Public Leadership

All public leaders must make choices that challenge their code of ethics. This interdisciplinary seminar draws on perspectives from law, management, and public policy in exploring how leaders develop their principles, respond when their principles fail or conflict, and make real-world choices when, in fact, there are no good choices.

Financing Green Technologies

This course will explore how investing in renewable energy is different than in investing in more prosaic sectors. These differences include capital intensity, commodity markets, mature industry structure, local and federal regulation, and market imperfections. The course will also review the differences in policy support given to renewable energy in other countries. While the emphasis is on renewable energy, many of the same issues obtain in considering other green technologies—from water to new packaging.

Global Leadership: Topics in Business and Society

This course is designed to foster participants’ ability to think more holistically about globalization, global trends, and the role of business. It is structured around the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a set of 17 objectives, backed up by 169 specific targets, that were adopted by the UN in 2015 after broad-based consultations involving governments, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), academics, and the business community.

Global Social Entrepreneurship

The Global Social Entrepreneurship (GSE) courses link teams of Yale students with mission-driven social entrepreneurs (SEs) to focus on a specific management challenge that the student/SE teams work together to address during the semester. The course covers both theoretical and practical issues, including case studies and discussions, and in-country field work. Meets SOM's Global Studies Requirement.

GNAM: Natural Capital: Risks and Opportunities in Global Resource Systems

Natural resource constraints affect most, if not all, functional areas of the modern corporation. Many large companies are taking proactive approaches to managing these risks and capturing the opportunities they create. As such, they are increasingly expecting their employees to have a basic familiarity with the environmental and social, as well as the economic, megatrends affecting these systems.

Housing Connecticut: Developing Healthy and Sustainable Neighborhoods

Enrollment in this course is by application. In this interdisciplinary clinic taught between the School of Architecture, School of Law, and School of Management, and organized by the Yale Urban Design Workshop, students will gain hands-on, practical experience in architectural and urban development and social entrepreneurship while contributing novel, concrete solutions to the housing affordability crisis in Connecticut. Working in teams directly with local community-based non-profits, students will co-create detailed development proposals and architectural designs anchored by affordable housing, but which will also engage with a range of community development issues including environmental justice, sustainability, resilience, social equity, identity, food scarcity, mobility, and health. Through seminars and workshops with Yale faculty and guest practitioners, students will be introduced to the history, theory, issues, and contemporary practices in the field, and will get direct feedback on their work. Offered in partnership with the Connecticut Department of Housing (DOH) as part of the Connecticut Plan for Healthy Cities, student projects will center on community wealth building and equitable economic recovery in some of Connecticut’s most economically distressed neighborhoods, by proposing multi-sector, place-based projects that focus on housing, health, and economic development. Proposals will have the opportunity to receive funding from the State both towards the implementation of rapidly deployed pilot projects during the course period, as well as towards predevelopment activities for larger projects, such as housing rehabilitation or new building construction. Students in the course will be organized into multi-disciplinary teams including law, management, and architecture students, who will ideate together and take on specific team roles, modeling real-world project development teams. Teams will be assigned to work with non-profit developers tackling development or redevelopment projects that include affordable housing. Facilities of the Yale Urban Design Workshop will be available to students of the course. Students may have the opportunity to continue their leadership in these projects following the end of the course, in a professional capacity, as they move towards implementation. Students will interact with their nonprofit partners, the Connecticut Commissioner of Housing, Connecticut Housing Finance Authority, and the Connecticut Green Bank.

Inclusive Economic Development Lab (IEDL)

The Spring 2025 Inclusive Economic Development Lab course explores the theme of Harnessing Data for the Public Good. This is a project-based class where students will have the opportunity to engage with key actors in neighborhoods in New Haven, CT and potentially other U.S. Cities to develop a concrete class deliverable providing a set of analyses or practice modules that city and community actors can use to enhance inclusive economic development. Over the semester, the class will work on: 1) production of a season of the CitySCOPE podcast, 2) a public curriculum deck showcasing key learnings from the semester, and 3) a specific client deliverable based on team project. See website for more info on past projects: https://iedl.yale.edu/

Inequality and Social Mobility

This course provides a description of current trends in inequality and social and intergenerational mobility in the US and abroad, their possible causes, and the impact of public policies in shaping these trends. Drawing primarily on empirical evidence from the economics literature, we will examine the role of income, racial, and residential segregation; of access to education; and of labor market policies in determining economic opportunities within and across generations. The course will also provide a set of analytical tools required to understand and critically “consume” empirical academic research, as well as public commentary and policy, related to this topic.

Insurance and Finance for the Poor

This course will focus on insurance, savings, credit, and other financial services for the poor. We will use the tools of economic theory and quantitative analysis to explore these topics, including: the potential role these instruments play as drivers of well-being, poverty alleviation, income growth and social and economic development; why households lack access to these instruments; and potential solutions. We will consider the role played by the state, market and broader society, including both the formal and informal sectors.

Introduction to Social Entrepreneurship

In this course, we combine theory and practice, applying a systematic framework to guide students through the social entrepreneurship experience. We start by identifying a social or environmental challenge each student is interested in tackling. Students form interdisciplinary teams to immerse themselves in characterizing the challenge, ideating potential solutions, and building business models around those solutions. 

Metrics, Tools and Indicators in Corporate Responsibility

This is an applied course on the metrics, indicators and tools used by businesses to implement strategically relevant Corporate Social and Environmental Responsibility (CSER) or Sustainability programs. It is relevant for any potential corporate manager or consultant.

Modern Philanthropy: Perspectives and Challenges

Co-taught by a philanthropic advisor and an economics faculty member, this course will examine alternative approaches to philanthropy and address many of the challenges and tradeoffs facing modern philanthropists. We will examine the history of philanthropy and foundations, the current state of philanthropy, debates about the role of philanthropy in society, and the complicated relationship between philanthropy and social justice.

Private Capital and Impact Investing

This course, which is taught from the perspective of an institutional investor, provides an introduction to Private Capital and Impact Investment markets including 1) the development of the venture capital industry 2) an overview of the private equity industry 3) an exploration of how venture capital and private equity  investment firms are embracing ESG factors, and 4) the development of impact investment and how the private capital model is used for positive environmental and social impact.

Public Health Entrepreneurship

This is a case based course about innovation and entrepreneurship for health equity and drivers of health. Health equity means that everyone has a fair and just opportunity to be as healthy as possible. This requires removing obstacles to health such as poverty, racism, gender and other biases and their consequences, including powerlessness and lack of access to good jobs with fair pay, quality education and housing, healthy foods, safe environments, and health care. We refer to these as drivers of health. COVID-19 has brought to light for many the complexities in drivers of health, and the role of entrepreneurship and cross-sectoral collaboration in eliminating health disparities. No prerequisites, all are welcome.

Race and Money in America, Contemporary Business Application

This course explores the history of race and money in America, dating to the mid-1800s with a focus on Black Americans. The course ties past events to the present and challenges people to explore solutions that would move the needle in creating a more equitable society. The course will be relevant to managers in many industries including insurance, banking, media, technology, education, real estate and more. In viewing the throughline of this history through today’s business lens, there will be many revelations along the way for both people who haven’t studied much history and for those who specialized in Black history.

Social Entrepreneurship Lab

Social Entrepreneurship Lab is a practice-based course in which students from across campus form interdisciplinary teams to work on a social challenge of their choice. Students start by identifying a topic area of focus, then form teams based on shared interests and complementary skills. Over the course of thirteen weeks, student teams delve into understanding the challenge through root cause analysis, research on existing solutions and populations affected; then apply human centered design thinking and systems thinking to design, prototype, test, and iterate solutions. No prerequisites, all are welcome.

Social Innovation Starter

This course is about experiencing social innovation. Over the course of the semester, students form innovation teams working with real-world organizations representing multiple topic areas including health, education, climate, civic engagement, and other topics. We will apply the ten-stage framework of the textbook “Social Entrepreneurship: Building Impact Step by Step.” This course runs during the same semester as the Social Entrepreneurship Lab at Yale School of Management, which is also cross-listed. The key distinction is that in the former, students pick their own topic to research and ideate on, whereas in this course students work on projects for existing organizations.

Start-up Founder Practicum

The purpose of this course is to provide full-time Yale SOM students with a mechanism to work on their start-up ventures for credit, applying principles derived from their other coursework, particularly the integrated core curriculum. Students in this course articulate milestones for their ventures and work with faculty, staff, and mentors to meet those milestones.

Strategic Management of Nonprofit Organizations

The purpose of this course is to study, discuss, and debate many issues of concern to managers of nonprofit organizations, including mission definition, competing internal and external demands, resource scarcity and uncertainty, governance systems, and managing strategic change.

Strategic Management of Nonprofit Organizations

The purpose of this course is to study, discuss, and debate many issues of concern to managers of nonprofit organizations, including mission definition, competing internal and external demands, resource scarcity and uncertainty, governance systems, and managing strategic change.

Tribal Resources and Sovereignty Clinic

We will identify and describe the varieties of tribal resources and the limitation of the management prerogatives facing Tribal Nations under the current legal regime. We explore those resources governed by the trust duty and the federal government’s role. We also look at the emerging resources in the green economy and investigate the relations between tribes, states, and private actors. Co-management, the trust duty, and tribal sovereignty are the main themes around which the clinic is structured.

Urban Poverty and Economic Development

The course topics includes: (1) measurements and theoretical explanations of poverty, incorporating both panel data and ethnography; (2) analytic tools for assessing community and regional economic flows; and (3) strategies for economic development and wealth building among low-income urban populations and communities. We examine innovative approaches in the traditional areas of economic development, workforce development, housing, education, and individual income support and wealth building.