Hosting a Board Fellow

Wharton MBA and Penn Law JD students selected to participate in this program go through a selection process that includes both a written application and interview.  The program typically receives 140 applications for 40 fellowship positions.

In our experience working with MBA students, they offer a strong work ethic, and a diverse set of skills and experiences to the board with which they are paired. In the past, selected participants have work experience at firms such as McKinsey & Co., Morgan Stanley, Bain, Google, Bank of America, Booz Allen, Chase, and IBM.  We anticipate our fellows from Penn Law will have equivalently broad and rigorous work experience.

In addition to their robust work experience, and demonstrated dedication to nonprofit service, fellows are selected for their orientation as learners and an interest in leadership development.  All Board Fellows have prior volunteer experience in the sector, but none have significant experience with nonprofit boards before to coming to Penn.

Once selected, fellows receive training in:

• board governance
• fundraising
• impact measurement
• organizational assessment
• team performance
• group dynamics
• strategic persuasion; and
• advocacy communication.

Additionally, fellows connect with their peers multiple times each month to reflect on their experiences, share ideas and insights, and support one another. The fellows also have a chance to work on committees within their cohort, including the Selection Committee which assists in the selection of the next class and the Community Subcommittee which works to engage the community beyond Penn’s campus as well as embed nonprofit service within the DNA of Wharton.

After being matched with one of our nonprofit partner organizations, fellows take up the role of a nonvoting, visiting board member.  Although “visiting” does not necessarily connote dynamic participation, we expect fully that fellows engage actively with their boards to reflect the experiential nature of the role.  We intend for their experience to be defined by two equally important duties:

• Visiting Board Members should be continuously learning and developing over the duration of the fellowship;

• Visiting Board Members should be contributing positively to the work of the board, in a scope determined through mutual agreement with the board.

In contrast with your elected board members, visiting board members cannot engage in two expectations of full board membership.  Namely, they may not:

• register a vote (i.e., as an elected member votes) on matters relating to the work of the organization, the board, and any board subcommittee; or

• be expected to make a financial commitment to an organization (i.e., participate in an annual give/get, or be included in board giving statistics).

However, visiting board members will be expected to attend all board meetings, should serve as an active member of a board subcommittee as applicable, and are expected to participate in all board discussions and initiatives as appropriate.

We currently have 80+ local nonprofit organizations we consider partners. Because there are more organizations than students in the program, there may be years when your organization is not paired with an Golub Capital Board Fellow.  Although it does not guarantee a fellow-board pairing each year, this model gives you the flexibility to opt out of participating in any given academic year and then opt back in during the subsequent year.

The fellow-board matching process is largely driven by each fellow’s interest and passion.  If paired, you will get a board fellow who is excited about your organization’s work.

If you are paired with a fellow, the expectations are that you/your board/your organization:

1. Provide a staff-level point of contact for the fellow and the staff of the NBF.  This person should be easy to contact, and able to connect the fellow with information about the organization in an effort to build context for the fellow’s work with the board.
2. Provide a board-level point of contact for the fellow.
3. Ensure that the board is aware of the fellow’s role and expectations for engaging as an apprentice board member.
4. Provide the fellow with information regarding orientations, meeting schedules, committees, and other board resources.
5. Endeavor to place the fellow on a board subcommittee, based on the organization’s needs and the student’s interest.
6. Give feedback to the McNulty Leadership Program about the student and the program twice yearly–once in November/December and again in April when the program concludes.

In 2001, the city of Philadelphia was struggling with abysmal high school graduation rates, a lack of after-school activities and an obesity epidemic. A group of concerned parents decided to tackle the problems with an unusual approach: They launched a nonprofit that would provide middle school students with tutoring and mentoring – and teach them the sport of squash.

Called SquashSmarts, the nonprofit’s mission is to improve the lives of low-income students attending Philadelphia public schools by boosting their academic skills and fitness. “We’re giving kids foundational skills in the classroom and healthy lifestyle skills through the sport of squash, while also expanding their world opportunities by traveling, competing and meeting other people,” said Stephen Gregg, executive director of SquashSmarts and a former college squash player.

The parents modeled the nascent organization after the first two squash education programs in the United States: SquashBusters, created by a former professional squash player in Boston in 1995; and StreetSquash, the second program started four years later in Harlem, NY. The movement to create urban squash and education programs ran parallel to civic programs like Teach for America and AmeriCorps, which were starting to take off in the 1990s with a focus on giving back to the community. Today, there are 21 squash and education programs in the United States and six internationally, according to the Squash Education Alliance.

“Philadelphia has a very active squash community. That local audience has been incredibly engaged in SquashSmarts and tends to be well-resourced and well-connected,” Gregg said. “So by focusing the squash community’s wisdom, wealth and work on urban communities and schools, we believe there’s an ability to enact change and provide positive, long-term support and role modeling.”

Each year, 160 students take part in SquashSmarts. The nonprofit has full-time squash and fitness directors who teach students how to play the game. The children commit to attending practice three times a week throughout middle and high school and during the summer.

A key measure of SquashSmarts’ success has been its 100 percent graduation rate from high school. With support from the program’s academic and college placement staff, 77 percent of students have continued on to college while 23 percent have received job offers in careers ranging from finance to automotive repair to culinary arts to military service.

Twelve SquashSmarts alumni have gone on to play competitive college squash at schools such as the University of Pennsylvania, Mt. Holyoke College and Chatham University, while other alumni are making a career in coaching squash.

In 2025, SquashSmarts planned to add more targeted social services – such as health and wellness counseling – to broaden its support of the kids in the program. “We’ve been doing work like this responsively for years, but we are really trying to do more intentional, proactive advocacy for our kids and families. We know that each student-athlete is more likely to be successful if their home and school environments are supported as well,” Gregg said.

“We’ve gone from seeing the student as the sole purpose of the program to seeing the student as the nucleus of a larger cell. And how we support that cell begins by offering more programs and services for our parents, siblings, classmates, teachers and community partners in an intentional way,” he explained.

In recent years, the organization has also focused on ensuring that its Board of Directors and subcommittees include SquashSmarts students, parents and alumni. “Our students and families have a critical voice in the program,” Gregg said. That intentional inclusion is also reflected in its employees: More than 60 percent of SquashSmarts staff are graduates of the program.

Partnership with Wharton’s Board Fellows Program

Many urban squash and education programs are affiliated with nearby colleges. In Philadelphia, where there is an abundance of universities, SquashSmarts is no exception. The nonprofit began its early programs at Drexel University and maintains a strong partnership with Drexel to this day via the Arlen Specter US Squash Center on campus in West Philadelphia. SquashSmarts also partners with Temple University to support its North Philadelphia facility at the Lenfest Center. Institutions such as the University of Pennsylvania, Community College of Philadelphia, Thomas Jefferson University and Easter University also provide volunteers, college access, summer programs, sports opportunities and a range of resources that benefit SquashSmarts students.

Chief among SquashSmarts most meaningful university partnerships has been its 18-year affiliation with The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania through the Nonprofit Board Fellows program. Since 2007, SquashSmarts has hosted 20 Board Fellows – second-year MBA students who serve on the nonprofit’s Board of Directors for a year. The program, recently named the Golub Capital Board Fellows Program, also includes graduate students from the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School.

“SquashSmarts has been an ideal partner for Wharton because they truly understand the program in terms of supporting the growth of MBA students, learning nonprofit governance, and getting them connected to the Philadelphia community,” said Garlen Capita, who oversees the Board Fellows Program as Associate Director of Community Engagement.

SquashSmarts Board Fellows focus primarily on advocating for the nonprofit, planning and promoting the group’s programs and events, and engaging in board and committee meetings.

Each year, fellows organize the annual Wharton Squash Open, during which SquashSmarts kids spend the day playing squash and networking with Penn and Wharton students. Board Fellows also join the SquashSmarts Young Friends Committee, where they support other committee members and rally friends to attend social events and the annual BestShotBall fundraising event.

“The most successful Wharton fellows have been those who are able to bring the SquashSmarts program to their network both within and beyond school,” Gregg said.

For example, Nidhi Singh, a 2022-’23 Board Fellow, reached out to bring university professors and their students to volunteer at multiple SquashSmarts events. “She was trying to build bridges that last longer than the time that she was here,” Gregg noted.

During her fellowship, Singh also tracked metrics on how many SquashSmarts’ middle school students continued on to high school, and how many were accepted into college.

To increase middle school students’ participation in the program, Singh organized a day-long program at Wharton, where SquashSmarts students met Penn squash players, took a tour of campus and attended introductory classes in personal finance. A SquashSmarts alum who was a current Penn student at the time also spoke with the middle school students.

“Sharing meals and bonding time with Penn students was inspiring to SquashSmarts kids,” Singh said. “It showed them that they can do this if they want to.”

The logistics of organizing the day-long event were challenging, Singh said, but with the help of SquashSmarts’ “amazing” staff, over 30 middle school students participated.

“I think it’s a challenge that SquashSmarts faces often, which is how do you understand the situation that students are coming from, while trying to give them these opportunities,” Singh said. “Because even though it seems very feasible from our point of view, they just have other constraints that are sometimes hard to fathom.”

She hopes the day-long program at Wharton becomes an annual event organized by SquashSmarts fellows.

Capita added: “When the fellows bring students onto Penn’s campus, that’s so impactful for the SquashSmarts students because even though Penn is right there, for so many public school students it is not something that is accessible or welcoming. I hope that’s something that we can build on even further, in terms of mentorship and those connections to the students.”

For Singh, who has volunteered for community organizations since she was a middle schooler, the fellowship gave her the ability to see how decisions are made at a nonprofit and the impacts they can make.

“My first biggest takeaway from my fellowship was that I definitely want to continue to be on the path to build my own nonprofit organization one day,” Singh said. “My second biggest takeaway is just how well [Stephen Gregg] deals with people; he is one of the most inspiring group leaders I’ve ever worked with.”

Singh noted that in her current position as a product manager with Venmo, she aims to emulate Gregg’s approach to leading meetings, which she described as: “Sit back, listen, ask questions and give your opinions at the end. If you have a challenging topic to get to, socialize it before you come to the large forums. Also, make everyone feel involved. [Gregg] remembers every person’s name, every detail about that person.”

Sydney Flynn, a 2024-’25 fellow, also grew up volunteering at community organizations and always knew she wanted nonprofit service to be part of her career. That’s why she highly values the boardroom exposure she gained through her fellowship.

“It was also nice in the realm of business school – where a lot of people are motivated by all different reasons and have big aspirations in their career – to have a cohort of people who care a lot about the community, really being involved in where you are, understanding the city that you’re in and giving back,” Flynn said.

Capita noted that one of SquashSmarts’ strengths as an organization is its developed board. “They have strong board governance practices, so it’s a place where our fellows can get a really grounded understanding of how boards work,” she explained.

“The other thing that they do really well, which other organizations are trying to do, is they make sure their board includes parents and other Philadelphia community members,” Capita said. “So in terms of what a robust, well-working board that is serving their population looks like, SquashSmarts is a great example of that.”

Gregg said having fellows participate in board meetings was just as beneficial for the board members. “For SquashSmarts, having young, smart professional MBA students on your board – even if they feel that they might be joining as a deer in headlights and they don’t understand your organization – provides an energy to the existing board, which I think is very special,” he said. “Having their physical presence and having their voice representing that generation is invaluable.”

Community Connections

Jacqueline Keene, also a 2024-25 Board Fellow, said she and Flynn aimed to connect with the Philadelphia community while students at Wharton. They got the chance starting with their first board meeting, held at the Philadelphia Phillies ballpark to kick off SquashSmarts’ 25th anniversary celebrations. Over 500 people connected with the nonprofit attended “Squash Night@The Phillies,” giving Keene and Flynn the opportunity to meet students, families, staff, volunteers, board members and donors all in one evening.

Keene was interested in serving specifically on SquashSmarts’ board because of her passion for education equity. “SquashSmarts creates a community through squash while also supporting students academically and personally,” she said. “They do a lot of work to help them through high school, the college application process and figuring out what they want to do post-high school. That definitely aligned with my interests.”

Keene also looked forward to gaining civic leadership experience – specifically around nonprofit governance. “I was also excited more broadly about connecting with the nonprofit board community and being with a group of people who I felt shared my interests and who I could learn from some of their experiences as well,” she said.

Flynn added that she was grateful to be paired with an established organization like SquashSmarts because that made communication and interactions easy. “They’ve been phenomenal about bringing us in and including us in a lot of their meetings and being very responsive whenever we have questions or want exposure to a certain aspect of the business,” she said.

During their fellowship, Keene and Flynn hoped to create a more structured network of SquashSmarts board fellows alumni. “That’s definitely a challenge because a majority of Wharton graduates move out of Philadelphia,” Flynn noted. Current fellows send former fellows updates on SquashSmarts and are trying to figure out what types of events will entice alumni to attend.

Explained Gregg: “We try to pass along the message that, as a result of this program – and whether you stay connected to SquashSmarts directly or not – we hope you have a better understanding of the nonprofit world and that you’ll stay involved in nonprofit work, whether as a volunteer, a board member, a donor, or a leader as you go through your professional career.”

In addition to engaging with the nonprofit, fellows attend information sessions at Wharton about topics such as nonprofit fundraising and fiduciary responsibility as a board member.

“That’s where the partnership with SquashSmarts has been really valuable,” Flynn said. “Because I could sit in a classroom all day and learn about all these different topics, but actually seeing how they play out has been really helpful.”

SquashSmarts’ connection to the University of Pennsylvania isn’t limited to the Wharton School. A Penn graduate serves on SquashSmarts Advisory Board. A recent all-American squash player from Penn works as SquashSmarts’s director of squash and fitness. Penn Squash players and coaches volunteer for the nonprofit. And several years ago, a board fellow from Wharton connected Penn’s Dental Medicine program with SquashSmarts. Since then, Penn’s mobile dental clinic has provided SquashSmarts students with free dental cleanings every year.

The partnership between SquashSmarts and Wharton is also important for the Philadelphia community, Capita pointed out.

“The nonprofit fellowship program changes the perspective that outsiders have of Wharton and Penn because, from an outsider’s perspective, there’s a sense that it’s this big moneyed institution that isn’t connected to Philadelphia or doesn’t really care about Philadelphia,” she said. “SquashSmarts is a great example of a program that helps build those bridges.”

In 2023, just months after new owners took over Vault + Vine, a café and plant shop in Philadelphia, nearby construction shut down the street and sidewalks, cutting off foot traffic. With revenue falling, the owners turned to The Merchants Fund, a 171-year-old nonprofit that supports small businesses in the city. The organization provided a $10,000 emergency grant and business coaching that helped keep the shop open. More than two years later, the café is back on solid ground.

Founded in 1854, The Merchants Fund (TMF) began much like a mutual aid society for retired storekeepers — long before Social Security or private insurance existed. For more than 150 years, it provided monthly pensions to retired merchants in Philadelphia. In 2007, the nonprofit shifted its mission to support active small businesses facing financial hardship. While TMF no longer accepts applications from retired merchants, five elderly individuals still receive monthly pensions.

Today, The Merchants Fund offers grants and coaching to help small business owners recover from setbacks and build long-term stability. The nonprofit prioritizes support for populations that have historically been marginalized or lacked equitable access to resources, including Black, Indigenous, and people of color, immigrants and women. Most of the merchants that TMF assists own brick-and-mortar stores along commercial corridors in low-income neighborhoods.

“That’s where we see a ripple effect from our grants and coaching,” said Jill Fink, TMF’s executive director. “Strong neighborhoods are comprised of strong, healthy businesses.”

Fink, who ran a café for 13 years and once received a TMF grant herself, knows firsthand how support can mean the difference between staying afloat and shutting down. The Merchants Fund provides two types of funding: emergency grants for businesses hit by disasters like fires and floods, and stabilization grants to help owners get back on track or make key improvements.

“The stabilization grants are typically for businesses operating at a deficit,” Fink said. “Often, it’s become more challenging to operate because of broken or faulty equipment they haven’t been able to replace.”

In 2021, TMF began offering free business coaching to grant recipients. Depending on the business owner’s needs, coaching may cover lease negotiations, marketing, financial planning or day-to-day operations.

“If someone’s operating model isn’t solid and we’re giving them a grant to fix one thing, are we really giving them the full suite of tools they need to be successful?” Fink said. “If we really want to have a deeper impact, then offering grants along with coaching and support services makes the most sense.”

The Merchants Fund operates with a staff of four, a handful of volunteers and a 2025 budget of $1.73 million. That includes $500,000 from the Philadelphia Department of Commerce to support businesses disrupted by public works projects. Beginning in July 2025, the department increased its support to $2 million annually.

In 2022, TMF shifted from a private foundation to a public charity, loosening grant requirements and expanding access. But demand has quickly outpaced available funds. Before the pandemic, nearly every approved applicant received about $10,000. In 2024 and 2025, that amount fell to between $6,000 and $7,000 as applications surged.

Fink hopes to step up fundraising so TMF can increase average grant sizes to $15,000, reflecting inflation and the rising costs of doing business in Philadelphia.

To further meet the needs of local businesses, the nonprofit is piloting a low-interest loan program through a Community Development Financial Institution. TMF guarantees the loans and covers interest payments – helping ease cash flow for entrepreneurs without credit histories and offering refinancing options for those already in debt.

Board Fellows Bring Strategic Support

A partnership with the University of Pennsylvania has connected The Merchants Fund with Wharton MBA students through the Golub Capital Nonprofit Board Fellows Program. Students join as nonvoting board members while completing a strategic project for the organization and coursework at Wharton in governance and leadership.

“For a small organization like The Merchants Fund, having really smart, capable individuals with skills like project management has been invaluable,” Fink said.

Board fellows have contributed to strategic planning and operational improvements. TJ Radigan, MBA ’22, and another board fellow helped lay the groundwork for a long-term strategic plan in the wake of national calls for racial justice. They facilitated numerous conversations with Fink and board members about how to embed equity in TMF’s grantmaking strategy.

“They wanted to make sure they were being responsive to community needs and advancing equity [by exploring other ways to use their capital], without sacrificing the traditional way — through grants — that The Merchants Fund has always supported small businesses,” said Radigan, now an economic researcher with the McKinsey Global Institute.

In addition to exploring alternatives to direct grantmaking — such as loan guarantees — the fellows streamlined TMF’s data systems. Over the years, the nonprofit’s grantmaking records had become scattered across multiple platforms.

Radigan helped TMF staff consolidate and clean their data, creating a prototype dashboard to visualize it – a project that subsequent board fellows would carry through to completion. The tool had long been on Fink’s wish list.

“That was something I’d wanted for years,” she said. “But we didn’t have the capacity or skill set to make it happen until the Wharton fellows came in.”

Stephen Serrao, MBA ’24, and another board fellow partnered with Fink and board members to assess the nonprofit’s long-term goals and priorities. “The organization had put out a strategic vision a couple years earlier, so we were trying to understand where the board’s energy should be focused to advance that vision,” Serrao said.

Building on Radigan’s prototype dashboard, they collated and analyzed a decade of grant data to track where funds had been allocated and how those businesses were performing.

“It was striking to see that there are concentrated areas in the city where small businesses — particularly small, diverse businesses — still struggle,” Serrao said. “We were inspired by how the organization readily embraced our insights and was beginning to direct more attention and resources toward those clusters to drive positive impact.”

Now an MPA candidate at the Harvard Kennedy School, Serrao said the fellowship gave him a newfound appreciation for the complexity of nonprofit board work — and helped him realize that delivering on the organization’s vision required a “sustained, all-hands-on-deck effort to lift up those who might otherwise remain marginalized.”

Peter Gonzales, TMF’s board chair, likened the fellows’ contributions to bringing in an expensive consulting team — something the nonprofit couldn’t afford. “We don’t have the staff to take on a project like that, and we want to dedicate as much of our funds as we can to supporting the small businesses that need it most,” he said.

Gonzales added that the Penn partnership goes deeper than the fellows’ involvement. “There’s a strong feeling of engagement, support and interest from Wharton,” he said. “It’s not just about giving the fellows the best experience — it’s about lifting up the missions of the nonprofits they partner with.”

Fink agrees. “I want the board fellows to feel they’re contributing in a meaningful way — that their work makes a real impact on our organization and the businesses that we support.”