Board Fellows Program Expands

McCombs expands impact of Board Fellows Program across Texas with support from Golub Capital

Today, The University of Texas at Austin’s McCombs School of Business announced it is one of four distinguished U.S. business schools receiving new funding from Golub Capital to enhance its Board Fellows Program.

The gift from Golub Capital will go to the Texas McCombs Hildebrand MBA Program to support and rename the Board Fellows Program as the Golub Capital Board Fellows at McCombs. The selective experiential leadership program gives graduate business students the chance to serve as nonvoting board members on the boards of Austin-area nonprofits for an academic year.

In addition to McCombs, New York-based Golub Capital is providing multiyear funding commitments to the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia, the UCLA Anderson School of Management, and the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business to support students’ board involvement in those communities.

“We launched the Golub Capital Nonprofit Board Fellows Network with the goal of accelerating progress across the nonprofit ecosystem by deepening the pool of impactful nonprofit board members,” said David Golub, president of Golub Capital. “With today’s announcement, we are proud to now sponsor Golub Capital Board Fellows Programs at 11 distinguished business schools. These programs will train hundreds, and soon thousands, of future nonprofit directors every year.”

“McCombs is both thrilled and thankful for this exciting and strategic partnership with Golub Capital that will make it possible for us to expand a long-standing, in-demand program that benefits both our MBA students as well as the broader Austin and Texas community,” said Tina Mabley, senior assistant dean for the Full-Time MBA Program.

The gift will allow McCombs to evolve its existing Board Fellows Program into a best-in-class initiative that can better meet Austin’s growing challenges and prepare business leaders to make a meaningful impact and create long-lasting relationships for collective impact in the communities in which they live and work.

MBA students passionate about community leadership and impact launched the Board Fellows Program in 2010 to address opportunities and challenges in nonprofit operations. Currently, two or three students serve on a nonprofit partner board for a year, during which they design and present a strategy project for the organization. This largely student-led program has served 80 nonprofit partners in areas including arts, education, criminal justice, poverty alleviation, mental health, the environment, animal welfare, and chronic illness.

Long-time nonprofit partners include The Comfort Crew for Military Kids, Girl Scouts of Central Texas, and the Center for Childhood Protection. MBA students helped The Comfort Crew for Military Kids, which supports children of military parents, to write a proposal to secure funding for a new grant writer, helping the organization to establish a path to sustainable revenue growth.

With this support from Golub Capital, the Hildebrand MBA Board Fellows Program will grow the number of nonprofits it serves annually from an average of 24 per year during the past five years to more than 90 partners each year across Texas by 2030. The program will simultaneously be able to expand beyond Austin to Dallas and Houston through the McCombs portfolio of MBA programs, dramatically increasing participation opportunities for MBA students.

Meanwhile, funds will also support dedicated Fellows Program staff positions, formal curriculum development, required training for board fellows, and potentially new micro-credentials in nonprofit governance that would strengthen the educational experience for students. The added support will make possible networking and mentorship opportunities to engage students and alumni in nonprofit board leadership.

“Extending the Board Fellows Program’s reach across the state of Texas aligns perfectly with McCombs’ mission of being a premier source of future business leaders and ideas that positively transform both industry and society,” said McCombs School of Business Dean Lillian Mills.

Story by Debbie Blumberg