The group held their first conference at the Harvard Business School on January 17, titled "Shattering the Glass." The conferences have become so popular a limit was placed on the number of participants.

Alfus was determined to extend the group's success beyond the conferences.

"The response to the seminars was so dramatic [that] we felt compelled to go one step beyond [them]," she said.

The group considered endowing a professorial chair, but rejected the idea because it would primarily fund research pursuits.

Instead, the women decided to donate not just their money but their business experience. In its current incarnation, the Marjorie Alfus/Committee of 200 Initiative supports the development of case studies for use in HBS classrooms.

"We felt we would have much more impact in an area that we ourselves are so importantly involved in: our members themselves represent the composite of women business leaders in different industries," Alfus said.

The group strongly considered launching the program at Columbia, explained Judy R. Herbercorn, a C200 executive who is also on the Harvard Business School (HBS) Board of Trustees.

"Then I rattled a few cages at Harvard. Harvard offered to match the gift," Herbercorn said. "The rest is history."

Alfus and C200 each gave $250,000 and HBS matched the donation with a $500,000 contribution.

Each case study costs approximately $25,000, due to research, labor and publication costs.

But C200's donation involves more than money; its involvement allows HBS access to its members and their business experience, members say. Many of the cases will likely be written about C200 members.

"Since their members do comprise many of the most important business-women in the country the access is as important as the money," said Myra M. Hart, an assistant professor at HBS and coordinator of the Marjorie Alfus/C200 initiative.

Hart, who graduated from HBS in 1981, says that she hopes the case studies will provide a set of "positive role models for both the women and men to look at."

The fact that a case study includes female protagonists might be noted in a case catalogue so that teachers or companies could deliberately select examples with female representation, according to Bird.

C200 hopes that greater representation of women in HBS case studies will encourage more women to enroll in business schools. Currently, business schools lag far behind other types of professional schools in gender equality.