A social entrepreneur’s journey to heal the world: uncertainty the only certainty?
Amitabh Anand, Attila Wieszt, Marta Idasz-BalinaLearning outcomes
At the end of this discussion, students will be able to apply key theoretical frameworks – tensions of hybridity, institutional logics and hybrid organizing archetypes – to analyze Centre for Health and Development (CHD) Group India’s strategic challenges and emerging market context; evaluate whether CHD should accept, reject or seek to modify the donor’s hybrid condition, considering the trade-offs among financial resilience, mission integrity, stakeholder legitimacy and organizational capacity; develop and justify an organizational and governance arrangement appropriate to the recommended strategic pathway. Where the recommendation includes earned-income activities, students should explain how those activities can be structured and governed without undermining CHD’s mission; and assess the role of partnerships and stakeholder engagement in supporting CHD’s chosen sustainability pathway while protecting community access, organizational legitimacy and long-term impact.
Case overview/synopsis
This case examines the strategic dilemma faced by Dr Edmond Fernandes, founder of CHD Group India – a public health nonprofit organization operating in underserved communities in India. Despite reporting program reached of over four million people through health-care delivery, disaster preparedness and climate-health advocacy, CHD is encountering financial stagnation. As grant and CSR funding plateau, an international donor offers multi-year support, on the condition that CHD adopted a hybrid model with earned income. The case invites students to evaluate whether CHD should accept the donor’s condition, seek to negotiate a more limited or phased hybrid arrangement or reject the condition and pursue alternative nonprofit, partnership-based or public-financing pathways. The core dilemma revolves around balancing long-term financial sustainability with the preservation of CHD’s mission-driven commitment to equitable access and social justice, particularly in rural and climate-vulnerable regions. The case provides an opportunity to examine how a mission-first organization in an emerging-market context navigates tensions between social and commercial logics, organizational identity and stakeholder expectations. The donor’s condition creates the immediate decision point, but the case does not assume that accepting the proposed hybrid model is necessarily the most appropriate response.
Complexity academic level
This case is best suited for graduate-level or advanced undergraduate students enrolled in courses on social entrepreneurship, strategic management in impact-driven organizations, nonprofit management or public health ventures. It can also be used in executive programs focusing on social innovation or hybrid organizational design.
Subject code
CSS 3: Entrepreneurship.