MA in Nonprofit Management

This course introduces students to the purposes of and strategies for program planning in nonprofit organizations. The primary focus of the class is building the knowledge and skills required of program professionals. Students explore and examine theories, concepts, approaches, and processes fundamental to program planning and evaluation. Using research, reflection and practical application, students will explore the development, implementation, and evaluation of programs that aim to effect change and build capacity of individuals, families, and communities.

Development (also often referred to as “advancement”) is what empowers and supports nonprofits in doing the work of fulfilling their stated missions. If you think of a nonprofit organization’s programs as the essence of what it does for its cause or community, the work of development is that of garnering the resources necessary to make that good work possible. For many (though not all) nonprofits, the key component to resource development is fundraising. This course, therefore, focuses primarily on the fundamentals of fundraising, from preparing a fundraising plan through acknowledging and recognizing donors appropriately for their support.

Among the many types of organizations that exist, what is a nonprofit? Are they an aberration in a capitalist economy or an intentional counterpoint? What impels people to establish them and support them? Is it to fulfill a need in society or in themselves? And are they worth the effort and resources people put into them? This course will explore all these questions as it surveys the development of the nonprofit sector and examines some of the theories that attempt to explain its existence and purpose in the American social and economic context.

This course focuses on the practical application of financial statement analysis and the use of financial information to make decisions in nonprofit organizations. Students will explore financial definitions, concepts and structure of non-profit accounting principles, financial statements, and basic tools for interpreting financial information. Ultimately, students will develop confidence in reading and interpreting the financial position of an organization and use financial statements, along with knowledge of an industry and information about the marketplace, to make informed budget and financial decisions.

Every organization must successfully address opportunity, challenge, and change or wither. Usually, there is no shortage of ideas and passionate perspectives. How does an organization adapt and evolve, develop forward-looking futures for itself, and decide its best course of action? Strategy, innovation, and resilience constitute knowledge and are the bedrock of a vibrant, sustainable organization. Students will study current and emerging theories of organizational strategy, innovation, and resilience. Drawing on content from this and previous courses, students will apply, evaluate, and develop approaches to leading effective strategic thinking and execution, and fostering innovation and resilience including the integration of environmental, human, and financial sustainability in businesses and NGOs. Readings and resources will lean strongly toward what working practitioners require and find most useful in their work.

This course provides students with a practical understanding of old and new concepts, techniques, and theories of nonprofit/human service organization resource development. Students will think creatively about resource generation and learn how to build a story to express organizational need. The course includes a substantive section on the preparation of an effective grant application and exploration of frequent issues like knowing one’s capacity to get the job done or creating and implementing outcomes and ensuring realistic expectations and infrastructure for implementation success. The course concludes by highlighting the power in developing non-monetary resources through collaborative partners and building coalitions in order to be more successful systems of financial independence.

This course explores the role of ethics in organizational management and the inherent dilemmas facing leaders in private, public, or nonprofit organizations. Students will examine various strategies, approaches, and models of reasoning about ethical issues and explore how personal values and positional power impact decision-making.

Change agents in every setting confront conflicted situations and have leadership roles therein. Such individuals have an ethical duty to know themselves well enough to first, do no harm. That duty includes understanding conflict and identity as enduring factors in ordinary human experience and leadership challenges. Conflicts press for choices among stakeholders competing interests and needs, often threatening identity along with the presenting issues. Drawing from developmental, conflict, and leadership theories and applications, this course examines mental models of leadership, how personal and group identities form and change as they develop, and how these factors impact leadership and conflict styles, effectiveness in change making, and capacities for critical reflection and foresight.

This course introduces leadership theory and managerial roles to plan, organize, implement, monitor, and evaluate organizational change efforts. Strategic communication plays a critical role in the change-management process, and students will examine best practices in organizational leadership and change management. The course thus introduces leadership theory and some best practices of change leadership such as to scan, focus, align, mobilize, and inspire. The course will focus on several key areas such as: why leaders need to guide staff through periods of change and help transform organizational culture, why formal and informal leadership behaviors are needed at many levels of an organization, and why multiple intelligences are needed not only to manage and lead change, but also to predict and address resistance, anxiety, and the forces of inertia that can sabotage even small change efforts.

Skillful leaders foster workplace culture, practices, and relationships that support learning, satisfaction, and strong performance among employees. Employees, in turn commit their knowledge, skills, and energy to the organization’s success. Through the interdisciplinary lens of human resource development, students explore the value and benefits of developing people and performance in diverse and inclusive work environments. Theories related to training, organizational development, performance improvement and systems create the landscape for students to explore the practical aspects of organizational culture and systems that support the development and well-being of employees and organizational stability.

This course introduces students to the practice of adaptive leadership, an approach to leadership well suited for times of continuous change under conditions of significant uncertainty within systemically complex environments. Students explore why leading change is so challenging, engaging with leadership tools and tactics that help improve the odds of achieving positive change for the greater good. By diagnosing the essential from the expendable, and tackling stubbornly persistent problems where seemingly obvious solutions face unexpected resistance, students learn to bring about meaningful change to the status quo. Applying a systems approach to change, students examine the differences between technical and adaptive work and the role of each in change efforts, reasons for change initiative failures, frameworks and processes for change, stakeholder identification and engagement, conflict optimization, and adaptive communication strategies. Students identify a leadership challenge from lived experience and engage in the practice of adaptive leadership to make progress on it. The course is recommended for those with leadership experience past or present, limited to extensive, successful and otherwise — upon which to reflect during the course and within which to contextualize the application of course tenets.

The course provides an opportunity for students to design and execute an individualized project to integrate and expand on skills and knowledge attained throughout their graduate program. Working with a faculty advisor, students pursue their professional interests by taking one of two approaches, either writing an extended research paper or conducting and reporting on a practical project of use to an organization of their choice. Both approaches involve a written report/artifact and presentation.