Mark Kramer

Founder and Managing Director
mark.kramer@fsg.org

Overview

Mark is co-founder and Managing Director of FSG and the author of influential publications on CSR, catalytic philanthropy, strategic evaluation, impact investing, and adaptive leadership.

Role at FSG

Mark oversees FSG‘s consulting practice and helps drive the vision and growth of the firm. He has led consulting engagements across all of FSG’s impact areas, with particular emphasis on philanthropic strategy for private and community foundations, CSR, evaluation, and impact investing. Mark also leads the research on many of FSG’s publications and publishes regularly in Harvard Business Review and Stanford Social Innovation Review. He is a frequent speaker around the world on topics in catalytic philanthropy, collective impact, creating shared value for corporations, new approaches to evaluation and shared measurement, impact investing, social entrepreneurship, and adaptive leadership.

Before FSG

Mark served for twelve years as President of Kramer Capital Management, a venture capital firm, and before that as an Associate at the law firm of Ropes & Gray in Boston, and Law Clerk to Judge Alvin B. Rubin, Fifth Circuit, US Court of Appeals.

Education

J.D., magna cum laude, University of Pennsylvania Law School (1985)
M.B.A., The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania (1982)
B.A., summa cum laude, Brandeis University (1979)

Affiliations

Senior Fellow, CSR Initiative, Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business in Government, Harvard Kennedy School of Government, 2004-
Reviewer, White House Social Innovation Fund, 2010
Aspen Philanthropy Group, Aspen Institute, 2009-
Selection Jury, Excellence in Corporate Philanthropy Award, Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy, 2005-2009
Lecturer on CSR, Executive Education Program, Harvard Business School, 2008
Lecturer on Evaluation, Nonprofit management Program, Stanford Graduate School of Business, 2008
Founder and Founding Board Chair, Center for Effective Philanthropy, 2000-2004
Columnist, Chronicle of Philanthropy, 1998-2003

On Working at FSG

"I started FSG because I believe that foundations, corporations, and nonprofits can change the world — and I’ve seen them do it. Yet my own experience with my family’s foundation was much less rewarding. We wrote an endless succession of checks to hard-working grantees without changing much of anything. And so I’ve spent much of my life trying to understand why some donors make a difference and others don’t. In 2000, my search led me to help create the Center for Effective Philanthropy and FSG, both in partnership with my good friend Professor Michael Porter of Harvard Business School. Over time, the two organizations separated, and FSG’s mandate broadened to include working with other types of organizations, such as major corporations, nonprofits, government agencies, and school systems."

"I am immensely proud of our team and our work here at FSG. My favorite moments are hearing laughter in the hallways and knowing that not a day goes by without someone at FSG developing new research and thinking to help increase the impact of our clients and the social sector."

Publications

Harvard Business Review:

Michael E. Porter & Mark R. Kramer, Creating Shared Value, Harvard Business Review, January 2011 (winner of the 2011 McKinsey Award as the most influential Harvard Business Review article of the year)
Michael E. Porter & Mark R. Kramer, Strategy and Society: The Link Between Competitive Advantage and Corporate Social Responsibility, December 2006 (winner of the 2006 McKinsey Award as the most influential Harvard Business Review article of the year)
Michael E. Porter & Mark R. Kramer, The Competitive Advantage of Corporate Philanthropy, December 2002
Michael E. Porter & Mark R. Kramer, Philanthropy's New Agenda: Creating Value, November 1999

Stanford Social Innovation Review:

Books & Book Chapters:

Leslie Crutchfield, John Kania & Mark Kramer, Do More Than Give: The Six Practices of Donors Who Changed the World, Wiley & Sons (2011)
Philanthropy Aid and Investment: Alignment for Impact, in Development’s Changing Face: Brookings Blum Roundtable, Aspen Institute (2008)
Porter & Kramer, Taking the High Ground, in The Accountable Corporation edited by Epstein & Hanson, Harvard Business School Press (2005)
Mark Kramer & William Bickel, Foundations and Evaluation as Uneasy Partners in Learning, in Foundations & Evaluation, edited by Braverman, Constantine & Slater, Jossey Bass (2004)

FSG Publications: