9 -3 1 0 -0 3 1 REV: JANUARY 5, 2012 ALNOOR EBRAHIM CATHERINE ROSS The Robin Hood Foundation We try to maximize return on investment where the return is improvement in peoples’ standard of living as measured by earnings, health, and quality of life. — David Saltzman, Executive Director Founded by hedge fund and financial managers in the wake of the stock market crash of 1987, the Robin Hood Foundation (Robin Hood) raised money from the rich and gave it to the poor through grants to nonprofit organizations. It was created with a mission to fight poverty in New York City, an urban Sherwood Forest where in the shade of towering stands of corporate wealth, nearly 20% of the population lived in poverty.1 In 2008, Robin Hood made over 200 grants totaling $137 million to community-based organizations in New York City, and the foundation was nearing $1 billion in cumulative grant-making. Grantees implemented programs in jobs training and economic security, early childhood and youth interventions, and education; they also provided basic and immediate aid, such as housing, food, and healthcare, to those most in need. Two decades after Robin Hood’s founding, New York City once again became the epicenter of a global financial crisis, described by many leading economists as the worst downturn since the Great Depression. For the city’s poor, the peak of the crisis in late 2008 and early 2009 was just the beginning, portending an extended period of job losses, cuts in public services, and a statewide fiscal crisis. Despite the downturn in the hedge fund and financial services industries, Robin Hood’s annual fundraising dinner in May 2009 raised a record-breaking $73.5 million in one night, which would be used to counteract the impacts of the financial crisis on the city’s poor residents. 2 Of this amount, $17.5 million came from ticket sales, $28 million from guests, and another $28 million in matching pledges from the Open Society Institute (OSI), founded by financier George Soros, and the board of the Robin Hood Foundation. Before the event, OSI and the Robin Hood board had each pledged $50 million to match the next $100 million raised from external donors. (See Exhibit 1 for a list of Robin Hood’s board members.) Alone in his spare and modernist Manhattan office in November 2009, Michael Weinstein, senior vice president and director of programs at Robin Hood, marveled at the foundation’s ability to raise that much money in tough economic times. Donors had been moved to contribute to Robin Hood’s work; their trust and generosity offered Robin Hood the chance to make significant and lasting ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Professor Alnoor Ebrahim and Research Associate Catherine Ross, Global Research Group, prepared this case. They are grateful to Jeffrey Walker, Entrepreneur-in-Residence at HBS, for his support. Some data in the case have been disguised or modified to protect privacy. HBS cases are developed solely as the basis for class discussion. Cases are not intended to serve as endorsements, sources of primary data, or illustrations of effective or ineffective management. Copyright © 2010, 2012 President and Fellows of Harvard College. To order copies or request permission to reproduce materials, call 1-800-5457685, write Harvard Business School Publishing, Boston, MA 02163, or go to www.hbsp.harvard.edu/educators. This publication may not be digitized, photocopied, or otherwise reproduced, posted, or transmitted, without the permission of Harvard Business School. This document is authorized for use only by Ashvin Nihalani (
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