The Harvard Business School will receive a $10 million donation to establish programs in not-for-profit management from a former chair of the University's Board of Overseers, school officials said yesterday.

The contribution, the gift of John C. Whitehead, a prominent New York philanthropist, will be used to create the John C. Whitehead Fund for Not-For-Profit Management.

School officials said they were thrilled with the donation.

"I think it's wonderful," Business School Dean Kim B. Clark '74 said last night.

"It's great for the Harvard Business School and its students to have such a program," he said.

Clark added that Whitehead is "a role model for students."

According to the dean, the new fund will aim to deepen the understanding of not-for-profit management through research and teaching. It will also encourage "social entrepreneurship," for both not-for-profit and for-profit organizations.

Clark cited Boston's City Year project as an example of successful social entrepreneurship. The City Year project is a year-long program for high school students, who take time off from their studies to perform community service in schools and elsewhere.

"It's probably one of the most successful programs of its kind," Clark said.

A University-wide Effort

The Kennedy School of Government, the Harvard Business School, and the Divinity School are exploring ways to cooperate on the study of not-for-profit organizations.

The Kennedy School already has a not-for-profit management program similar to the Business School's new initiative, school officials said.

"We're trying to find ways of working together; there are projects we've collaborated on together," said Lecturer in Public Policy Christine W. Letts, who teaches an introductory class on not-for-profit management at the Kennedy School.

"The field needs the level of energy collaboration can bring to it," Letts added.

According to Letts, one-third of the Kennedy School's students go to work for not-for-profit organizations.