Unlearning as a Part of MBA Education – Challenging Internalized White Supremacy Culture in Business and Social Impact

July 2020. This post was written by Elizabeth Towell, CASE Fellow and Duke MBA Class of 2021 In the last few months, increasing media attention on police brutality and systemic racism has prompted a long overdue wake-up call for many leaders. We are collectively acknowledging racism baked into institutions, policies, and company cultures, creating an […]

CASE Alumni using Tri-Sector Collaboration in COVID-19 Response Funds

July 2020 Despite all the challenges that COVID-19 has brought, Beth Bafford, Vice President of Syndications and Strategy at Calvert Impact Capital, Duke MBA class of 2012 and CASE i3 Advisory Council member, is hopeful about one thing: we can all do so much more when we work together. “The old saying rings true: ‘When […]

Bart Houlahan: Shifting from Shareholder to Stakeholder Capitalism

We are witnessing a momentous shift in the expectations of business – from a sole focus on financial shareholders to being held accountable to all stakeholders, including employees, consumers and the environment. On this episode of CASE in Point, we’ll discuss the role of B Corporations, the Business Roundtable’s 2019 announcement about the purpose of […]

CASE and CASE i3 Fellowships: Community Like No Other

June 2020 If Hannah Ford, Duke MBA class of 2018, had to describe the Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship (CASE) Fellowship program in one word, she would say it is community. In fact, from building skills in fellow-led design thinking workshops at Fuqua to participating in a virtual book club with her cohort […]

A Message from CASE on Racial Justice in America

June 2020 Dear CASE Community, Breonna Taylor. Ahmaud Arbery. George Floyd. Whiteness weaponized against Christian Cooper. Disproportionate impacts of COVID-19 on people of color. A global health pandemic layered on top of the pandemic of racism that has scourged our country for far too long. And to think that past weekend – May 31 – […]

Opinion: Paycheck Protection Program: Community Banks Prove ‘Actions Speak Louder Than Words’

By Laurie J Spengler, CASE Senior Fellow May 2020 Laurie J Spengler serves as a non-executive director of the Impact Investing Institute, the CDC Group (the UK development finance institution) and Bridges Insights. She is the founder and CEO of Courageous Capital Advisors, a Global Ambassador to the Global Steering Group on Impact Investing and a Senior Fellow and […]

Opinion: Investing in a Resilient Future – Impact Investing Offers a Pathway

May 2020 By Laurie J Spengler, CASE Senior Fellow Laurie J Spengler serves as a non-executive director of the Impact Investing Institute, the CDC Group (the UK development finance institution) and Bridges Insights. She is the founder and CEO of Courageous Capital Advisors, a Global Ambassador to the Global Steering Group on Impact Investing and a Senior Fellow and […]

Bridging Structural Inequities to Build Business & Community Resilience

May 2020 There are many things that routinely worry Courtney Smith and Erika Smith-Punches about owning Piri, an Afro-southern fusion family-run catering business in Durham, North Carolina. They worry about having enough customers. They worry about pricing their food affordably, while also being able to pay all of their staff a living wage. They worry […]

Advice for Recent Graduates Looking For Jobs – From a Fellow Impact-focused Alum

May 2020 When Jonathan Woodward, Duke MBA Class of 2019 and Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship (CASE) Scholar, sent out the initial Fuqua First Jobs Newsletter, he thought no one would sign up. In a mere 48 hours, however, all of that changed. Over 300 people signed up almost instantly and dozens of […]

Leveraging CASE Smart Impact Capital to Boost Accelerator Programs

April 2020 Logging onto CASE Smart Impact Capital TM for the first time, Priyanka Rao, Principal at FHI Ventures, was impressed. In the months leading up to finding this online toolkit from the Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship (CASE), Rao and her team had spent weeks researching, talking with experts and working to […]