Nonprofit MBAs

The Harvard Business School and a nonprofit career would seem to be a contradiction in terms. Yet some candidates for the MBA (master's degree in business administration) want to use it in the nonprofit sector--just when this sector needs all the help it can get to fulfill President Reagan's hopes for private efforts offsetting federal social cutbacks. And both student and corporate contributions support a fund helping students afford to take summer jobs for nonprofit organizations.

This summer one student will seek to improve management and fund-raising in an agency aiding the third world; another in a group safeguarding consumer energy interests.

But the precise summer tasks are less significant than the long-term potential of MBAs with nonprofit leanings. If any organizations need effective administration it is those charged with using resources wisely yet unable to measure their success or failure by the convenient yardstick of cash.