Net Impact - Historical Background

Historical Background

Net Impact was founded in 1993 as Students for Responsible Business (SRB). Its inaugural conference was convened by 13 graduate business students in collaboration with Dr. Mark Albion and a handful of members of Social Venture Network, an organization that has been a launching pad for several other organizations within the business and society movement. The organization grew steadily in its first few years as an organization exclusively for graduate students.

Beginning in 1998, a professional network of SRB alumni began to form. The organization was renamed Net Impact in 1999 in part to accommodate a shift toward inclusion of professional MBA graduates. The first professional chapter was launched in San Francisco in 2001, and in 2008 professionals made up 44% of all dues-paying members, and 23% of chapters.

In 2007, an undergraduate pilot program was initiated, growing to 34 undergraduate chapters by early-2009.

While the bulk of Net Impact’s activity has been focused in the United States, international chapters began as early as 1997 at INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France. The inaugural European conference was held in Geneva, Switzerland in June, 2008 in partnership with HEC Geneva IOMBA, INSEAD and the University of Nottingham. As of 2008 there were 40 student and professional chapters located outside the United States, on six continents.

Between 2004 and 2008, under the leadership of Executive Director Liz Maw, the organization increased its paid membership nearly fivefold, in keeping with a growth trend that has been identified among MBAs and society at large toward interest in responsible business practices.