Curriculum & Courses

This introductory course sets the context for the unique and fundamental role the nonprofit sector has played in American society, both historically and in current communities. In particular, the course will address the distinctions among nonprofit, government and private corporate culture and structure, including inherent opportunities and challenges the nonprofit sector by necessity confronts and embraces. Changing perceptions of the nonprofit sector, as well as fundamental changes in how the nonprofit sector represents itself, will be explored. Students will be exposed to current policy issues and the trajectory of the evolution of the field.

As mission-based organizations, nonprofits have unique considerations when applying ethical considerations to their daily work with staff, volunteers, beneficiaries, donors and the public at large. Ethics in any field incorporate considerations of trust, honesty, equity, transparency and disclosure, but in the nonprofit sector these values are under additional scrutiny due to the public trust on which the sector relies, as well as donor dollars. Beyond mere theory, this course will ground ethics considerations in real-world scenarios and help develop a framework through which new and unique ethical dilemmas may be navigated.

Whatever its size, scope, or funding, every nonprofit organization has a governing body authorized to exercise power on behalf of the community it serves, in furtherance of its nonprofit mission. In today’s environment of rapidly increasing transparency combined with the growth of the nonprofit sector, it is critical for nonprofit managers to understand how to lead and govern effectively. This Nonprofit Governance course is designed to prepare students to develop, manage, and work effectively with governing boards of directors and trustees, all of whom have the shared goal of meeting the mission of an organization. Topics include: (1) the work of the board, including legal, ethical and fiduciary oversight; strategic thinking and planning; ensuring resources; (2) the stakeholders involved in governance of an organization, including the board (composition and structure) and shared leadership with other staff and management; and (3) board culture, including board development, board dynamics, meetings, and board engagement.

This course provides a comprehensive overview of fundraising and development in the nonprofit sector and introduces students to basic terminology and concepts in the field. The various fundraising vehicles are surveyed and participants learn to apply fundraising strategies as they balance individual donor and institutional needs. Relationship building, the solicitation process, the psychological dynamics and the realities of asking for money are examined as students refine their skills through analysis of case studies and participation in role playing exercises. A full array of written formats used by fundraising professionals including mission statements, grant proposals, acknowledgment letters, and campaign appeal materials are introduced. While students develop an understanding of the essentials of fundraising operations, they also examine the larger issues confronting today’s fundraising managers as well as explore the relationships between fundraisers and a nonprofit organization’s management structure and other stakeholders.

This introductory course focuses on the unique marketing and communications needs and challenges of today’s mission-focused nonprofit organizations, and explores how new marketing communications technologies are reshaping the way nonprofits must promote their work and share their impact, both online and off. In this class, students will:  (1) learn new nonprofit marketing principles, strategies, and tactics uniquely applicable to the needs and priorities of mission-focused organizations and social causes; (2) develop decision-making skills by applying these concepts to in-the-trenches challenges within diverse types of nonprofit organizations; and 3) through a highly interactive mix of lectures, field trips, and in-class exercises, develop a basic marketing/communications plan appropriate to various stages of a their nonprofit organization’s life cycle. One focus will be on new methods of marketing and communications available through new technological platforms, including social media. Another focus will be on how to use basic marketing data to measure and evaluate a marketing campaign and track its progress, using supporter data available to all nonprofits. Students also will be exposed to the variations in marketing and communications when addressing various stakeholders in the nonprofit sector: individual donors, grant makers, beneficiaries, the media and key networks of supporters, participants, and influencers online.

Agile and innovative managers and leaders make the difference between failed organizations and successful ones; beyond theory, successful management means the difference on the ground between those organizations that have closed their doors and those that have adapted the organizations to new technologies, processes, and models. "Managing the Mission-based Organization," a core course for the Nonprofit Management curriculum, will provide a grounding for basic and intermediate management skills for achieving effective impact in the nonprofit sector. Students will master management tools and skills and learn to apply them across the organization. Through academic literature, practical cases and dynamic interactions among the instructor, students, and guest lecturers, each student should develop a complete and holistic approach to a management framework appropriate to the mission-based organization.

Data analytics and resultant metrics analysis are skillsets now being utilized and even required in the nonprofit and philanthropic sector at a rate and level of sophistication never before seen. Unlike the for-profit sector, metrics evaluation methodology in a mission-based environment is not always obvious nor agreed upon by stakeholders. In this class, you will discuss the research and practice methodologies related to nonprofit organization and program evaluation. We will explore a model for evaluation that includes both qualitative and quantitative benchmarks of success. Through the development of an intentional approach to data and analytics, students will learn how to assess service needs and determine the effectiveness and efficiency of individual program components or entire service systems.

This course provides a comprehensive set of financial management tools for nonprofit professionals, including managers and staff, whether they oversee financial statements and reporting or need to translate financial statements and reporting across stakeholders. This course emphasizes the requirements for nonprofits in recording and budgeting the financials to support the organization’s mission. Additionally, the course will provide students with the ability to analyze financial statements and answer financial questions typically asked by stakeholders such as the governing board, donors, the public, beneficiaries, media, and regulators. Finally, the course will identify the risks and opportunities found in an organization's financial information to increase the public's confidence in and understanding of the organization's mission and operations.

Capstone projects afford a group of students the opportunity to undertake complex, real-world, client-based projects for nonprofit organizations, supervised by a Nonprofit Management program faculty member. Through the semester-long capstone project, students will experience the process of organizational assimilation and integration as they tackle a discrete management project of long or short-term benefit to the client organization. The larger theoretical issues that affect nonprofit managers and their relationships with other stakeholders, both internal and external, will also be discussed within the context of this project-based course.

This Business of Nonprofits course is designed to prepare students to identify, understand, consider, and manage common business and related legal issues arising in the operation of a nonprofit organization. Operational legal issues are pervasive in every aspect of nonprofit management and governance, including: (1) decisions on organizational structures, (2) the design of collaborative relationships, (3) entering into contracts, (4) human resource issues, (5) the creation and use of intellectual property, and (6) the assessment and management of risks. Because of the increasingly complex legal environment nonprofits face, managers knowledgeable about the topics covered in this course will be better equipped to contribute to the structuring of external business arrangements and relationships, as well as to manage internal operational matters. This elective course is intended to provide a solid foundation of practical business and business law basics to managers, board members, and consultants working for nonprofit organizations.

Foundations of all types—family, private, community and corporate- have a long and storied history in the United States, reflecting philanthropic support of both many of the largest undertakings in the public sphere as well as myriad community-based and mission-specific causes. Philanthropic dollars flowing through foundations have given rise to both praise for innovative solutions that can be taken to scale as well as criticisms as mere tax dodges by a perceived “money class” wielding outsized influence on social justice and other major legal and cultural movements. This course will engage students using historic and contemporary policy and practical contexts to expand their understandings of foundations of various types and scopes, how they distinctively approach their missions, grant making, and metrics, and how they influence (or don’t influence) policy.

Whether through a speech to key donors, a published op-ed column, an annual report or media interview, leaders of nonprofit organizations must be compelling storytellers. Although other courses in the Nonprofit Management M.S. program helpfully concentrate on the strategy and tactics of communications outreach and social media engagement, the intensive focus of this elective will be on developing students’ capacity for literate writing and speaking across a range of public forums and institutional challenges that face nonprofit organizations. Through a combination of readings, discussion and, most importantly, a diverse range of writing assignments and creative exercises, students will emerge with a new level of editorial proficiency in creating the kind of written and spoken communications that support a nonprofit’s development, promote its public service mission, and manage difficult political, legal and institutional issues that distract organizations from achieving their mission-driven goals. Students will learn best practices for crafting persuasive communications in an increasingly complex and time-sensitive media environment.

This course analyzes the ways in which philanthropists and nonprofit organizations plan for and respond to disasters. Disasters create immense need quickly. People have responded generously to many natural and human-created disasters that have led to thousands of victims either domestically or globally. The nonprofit sector has often played a leading role, functioning both on the front-lines with first responders and creating a second response that bridges the period of relief and rebuilding. New technologies have often been deployed to improve fundraising as well as disaster relief. Disasters create both a sense of community born of the common experience of suffering and exacerbate differences within communities as those of lowest means struggle the most to recover. Disaster relief and recovery is ripe with questions about who to help and how to best help, presenting ethical dilemmas for the best intentioned of nonprofit leaders. The course will focus on the United States but both readings and assignments include some international comparisons.

Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) is an increasingly salient practice in the charitable sector. Done well, DEI practice – such as more diverse recruitment policies, more inclusive organizational culture, and greater attention to the equitable distribution of programmatic outcomes – helps nonprofit and foundation managers and leaders attract and retain talent, improve programmatic outcomes, and lend greater credibility to the work of the charitable sector.

The need for such practice is evident: most nonprofits and foundations are not representative of the communities they serve; the accumulation of wealth that enables large private foundations to exist exacerbates the very issues they may seek to combat; and in seeking to help those affected by inequality, nonprofits and foundations may reproduce the same patterns of inequality within their own organizations.

Despite the growing need for effective DEI practice, much of the knowledge of it is diffuse and disconnected. At times, practitioners can’t even agree on the basic terms. Yet in this disagreement lies a clue: pursued deeply, a DEI analysis leads one to conclude that mainstream institutions, and the broader society of which they are a part, are ultimately designed to make DEI difficult to understand, much less enact. This means that DEI practice eventually names and pushes back on the very power relations and institutional dynamics that surround us in the charitable sector and make our work possible. To reckon fully with DEI means to question the very assumptions and relationships on which our sector is based.

This course aims to equip students with critical faculties and practical tools to be informed and ethical practitioners of DEI in the charitable sector while remaining alive to the tensions between DEI and current sector practice.

Institutions of Higher Education and Medicine account for more than 25 percent of all charitable giving in the United States. This course examines the contributions of educational (Eds) and medical (Meds) institutions to the nonprofit world and the fundraising models specific to these types of institutions, both their similarities and distinctions. Through assigned readings, case studies, and course discussions, students will increase their awareness and understanding of best practices in fundraising, financial and political structures, and the role of these Eds and Meds within their communities. The successful student will complete the course with an extensive understanding of fundraising strategy, revenue streams, governance, organizational structure, leadership models, public policy, industry trends, development careers, and fundraising best practices as they relate to medical and educational organizations.

This course provides a comprehensive overview of the grants process, with specific reference to the research, writing, and managing of a range of grant types. The grants process is considered within the context of an institution’s total fundraising strategy as well as its overall mission-based goals. The course covers the range of possible grant-giving institutions, including government, corporate, and foundation, as well as the various types of grants, such as challenge, and their respective considerations for the fundraiser and nonprofit institution. Emphasis is placed on developing competitive proposals, accurate budgets, and appropriate systems of administration.

The philanthropic model of the twentieth century resulted in remarkable social accomplishments, but now, its inadequacies, restricted vision, and organizational inefficiencies are proving insufficient to allow the nonprofit sector to respond fully to the magnitude of capital needs for large-scale social problems. Significant innovation currently is underway that is expanding the frontiers of traditional philanthropy with approaches that tap social investing and private investment capital to address social problems such as poverty alleviation, homelessness, and the lack of access to healthcare, as well as global environmental challenges, such as climate change and natural resource degradation. This class will focus on this “new frontier” in philanthropy and social investment, and will provide a comprehensive analysis of new actors, new organizational models, and new mechanisms that are helping to expand the traditional philanthropic toolbox. The class also will examine the challenges faced by these actors and what is needed to apply and maximize the impact of these tools. The class will complement the core nonprofit management curriculum and will reflect the up-to-minute dynamism within the nonprofit fundraising sector. It is designed for second-year nonprofit management students with a firm knowledge of traditional fundraising tenets and approaches. A basic knowledge of for-profit financial instruments is recommended but not required.

An effective international nonprofit delivers its global mission with leaders and directors strategically managing the organization in its local and global context.   This course is designed to equip students with a practical framework for international nonprofit management. Students will consider various cultural and ethical perspectives; analyze local, national and global stakeholders in the public and private sector; distinguish among various nonprofit models used for legal and geographic purposes; determine how to leverage sophisticated funding sources, such as multi-lateral organizations; and model financial and programmatic management for on-the-ground mission delivery.

This Internship course is offered through the Career Design Lab. Please speak with a student advisor for information about the internship process.

This course helps students understand the role of planned giving within an organization’s overall fundraising efforts. Introduces students to the various instruments of planned giving as they learn about the financial and personal considerations driving donor decisions. Through an examination of the legal, financial, and individual personal factors, the course exposes students to the full range of constraints and opportunities involved in planned giving. Students learn to design proposals sensitive to both donor and institutional needs.

This seminar will provide students with an overview of the regulatory and enforcement context for charities and foundations in the U.S. from both a theoretical and a practical direction. The course will cover the policy, legal and regulatory underpinnings of the nonprofit sector, focusing on the simultaneously independent and interlocking nature of federal and state oversight. The discussion will review lifecycle issues for a charity, including formation and operation of the entity and the major constraints and opportunities inherent in a charitable legal structure. In particular, the class will address the interaction between the regulatory structure and issues such as fundraising/charitable solicitation (including via social media), related and unrelated business activity, social mission/hybrid organizations, political/lobbying constraints and transparency requirements.

This course provides a rigorous analysis for the design and management of the major and leadership giving program in the majority of nonprofit organizations. This class will examine the strategic skills to incorporate these initiatives into a balanced philanthropic program. From donor acquisition in an Annual Giving Campaign to The Ask for a Leadership Gift in a Capital Campaign, there will be an emphasis on understanding the donor and developing relationships. Students will learn how to identify major gift prospects from a strong annual giving program, build a major gift program, organize fundraising campaigns, establish a timeline, introduce explicit leadership expectations, and develop strategies to maximize the collective resources of volunteer leaders, donors and colleagues. Students will also explore how to position special gift opportunities within the context of a long-range strategic planning process.

** Courses offered outside the Master of Science in Nonprofit Management program may be taken with the Academic Director's approval. 

Now more than ever, philanthropic leaders must navigate a shifting landscape: more demand for programs and services, more attentive governing bodies focused on return on investments, a more competitive national and international marketplace among philanthropic organizations, and more social media outlets to unite or divide diverse stakeholders aiming to influence elected leaders. In the current political environment, there exists ever more scrutiny among policymakers and the general public about the value of the philanthropic sector as a whole and the extent to which public policy should support the sector. Learn the “rules of the road” used by high-performing foundations and nonprofit organizations committed to generating public will and influencing public policy in support of communities worldwide.

With this course offered in the fall of a presidential campaign and dozens of statehouse races, national experts in public policy, coalition building, and strategic communications will share cutting-edge practices proven to yield favorable policy results: How do you define and measure success in advocacy? How do you engage authentically with affected community leaders and other stakeholders with shared interests? How do you develop strategic plans, audience segmentation, messaging, and tactics that break through in a crowded marketplace of ideas? How do you develop a business plan to secure and align your financial and human capital to optimize and sustain impact?

Students will be exposed to cutting-edge policy debates as examples of advocacy campaigns, compare local, state and federal issue campaigns and learn of the network of stakeholders that play roles in public policy and advocacy in the nonprofit sector.

The traditional nonprofit fundraising model has helped to finance the discovery and development of healthcare technologies and systems, but today, new approaches are needed to prevent, diagnose, and treat urgent emerging global health threats. This class will examine factors that have led to current challenges in global health service delivery and technology development, and public/private partnerships that are helping catalyze new philanthropic tools and innovative hybrid nonprofit/social financing mechanisms to respond to these challenges.

There is a tremendous amount of enthusiasm about social purpose approaches to business: entrepreneurs, investors, charities, foundations, advisors, academics, millennials, employees, consumers, policy makers, media, bloggers, etc. Many see opportunities for investment capital from philanthropy and other investors to converge on addressing social problems and meeting social needs that are otherwise in the gap between philanthropy and business. Some enthusiasts are unbridled in their support; others are pessimistic (or even antagonistic) about the theory and the practice; still others are just making it happen. This course will engage students from the perspective of philanthropy and the charitable sector in helping them understand how the convergence opportunity was identified and is still be defined, what tools/forms, perspectives, and barriers that exist to pursuing those opportunities in practice, and the regulatory perspectives that might enhance or undermine those realities.

Philanthropy has been part of human culture for thousands of years. In the first two decades of the 21st century, a distinct philanthropic practice has emerged in the quest to help resolve complex societal problems: “strategic philanthropy.” Born of business-based practices and contrasting with the previous centuries of philanthropic giving—where the “charity” mindset was more pronounced—the basic elements of strategic (or “outcome-oriented”) philanthropy include choosing discrete goals, selecting and articulating strategies for deploying specific resources, working with partners and networks, measuring performance and then recalibrating strategies in light of those metrics. Using case studies and dialogue with guest speakers, participants will examine how the elements of strategic philanthropy have been applied to current and past global and local challenges such as pandemics, racial equity, climate change, educational attainment, human rights advancement, and others. The course will analyze how a new generation of donors have cascaded into philanthropy and created new strategies, and perhaps philosophies. Participants will analyze the strategic philanthropic sector broadly, delve deeply into specific examples, and then apply what they learn to create their own strategic solutions and philanthropic action plans.