Prospectus for a Masters of
Philanthropy and Nonprofit Leadership
Proposed by:
Kathy Agard, Ed.D., Executive Director, Dorothy A. Johnson Center
for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Leadership;
Mark Hoffman, Ph.D., Director and Associate Professor, School of
Public and Nonprofit Administration;
Ramya Ramanath, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, School of Public and
Nonprofit Administration; and,
Greg Cline, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, School of Public and
Nonprofit Administration
Date of Submission: October 22, 2008
Proposal for a Masters of Philanthropy and Nonprofit Leadership
Proposed by:
Kathy Agard, Ed.D., Executive Director, Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy and
Nonprofit Leadership
Mark Hoffman, Ph.D., Director and Associate Professor, School of Public and Nonprofit
Administration
Ramya Ramanath, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, School of Public and Nonprofit Administration
Greg Cline, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, School of Public and Nonprofit Administration
With this proposal, we request approval for the development of a final plan for a new Masters in
Philanthropy and Nonprofit Leadership at Grand Valley State University. We present the need for
such a degree program based on a series of factors:
a) Our University’s mission and location within a state and city that is nationally and
internationally renowned for its contributions to the field of philanthropy and nonprofit
management;
b) a 2007 study of the area conducted by the Johnson Center for Philanthropy and Nonprofit
Leadership at Grand Valley State University which estimates continuing rise in the nonprofit
sector in west Michigan and a concomitant need for leadership and managerial competencies;
c) there is projected leadership deficit in the nonprofit sector that demands creation of an
exclusive degree program that helps prepare students for leadership roles in the nonprofit sector;
and,
d) the dramatic increase in the number of academic programs focusing on nonprofit management
countrywide and a corresponding rise in enrollment within the nonprofit track in the School of
Public and Nonprofit Administration since it began in the mid-1990s.
We conclude by outlining the feasibility of the proposed program.
Desirability for a Masters program in Philanthropy and Nonprofit Leadership
a) University Mission
Grand Valley State University educates students with the mission “to shape their lives, their
professions, and their societies.” Nowhere is this mission realized more effectively than when its
graduate students move on to become leaders of our voluntary and charitable organizations.
Furthermore, there is no better way to help these students than through a program that is catered
specifically to build the theoretical and practical knowledge critical to leading and administering
these organizations.
b) West Michigan’s growing nonprofit sector
The nonprofit sector encompasses a range of diverse activities from running multi-billion dollar
hospital systems to organizing an all-volunteer neighborhood block club. Nonprofit organizations
(NPOs) are widely acknowledged to create social and societal benefit. It is less widely known that
the sector provides critical economic benefit at all levels of the U.S. and Kent County economies.
The National Center for Charitable Statistics estimates the nonprofit sector of the U.S. economy
to have annual gross receipts of nearly $1.1 trillion. This is nearly 10 percent of the total annual
Gross Domestic Product. The Johnson Center for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Leadership
2
estimates that in 2006 the nonprofit sector in Kent County had an employment base of 40,280
people and a total economic impact of $2.2 billion. The sector is therefore estimated to account
for nearly 9.75 percent of all jobs in Kent County. Changes in the traditional manufacturing base
of West Michigan economy have resulted in the nonprofit Spectrum Health being the current
largest employer in Kent County. Grand Valley State University and St. Mary’s Health are also
nonprofit organizations who are among Kent County’s ten largest employers (Community
Research Institute, 2007). The nonprofit sector is a major economic force in our local economy
and exhibits all characteristics of equivalent growth in the years ahead.
Michigan, in general, and Grand Rapids, in particular, is home to several nationally renowned
philanthropic foundations and nonprofit organizations. Listed below are some of the features that
make Michigan and Grand Rapids particularly attractive as home for a program exclusively
catered to nonprofit management and leadership studies. Michigan is:
-
-
-
Home to three of the largest private foundations in the world: W.K. Kellogg
Foundation, the Kresge Foundation, and the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation.
According the Foundation Center (2007), Kellogg, Kresge and Mott rank 5th, 15th,
and 18th with respect to their asset size in the country.
Home to one of the oldest and the largest regional association of grant makers (the
professional association of all of the grant making foundations): Council of
Michigan Foundations
Home to one of the first and most successful state membership associations of
nonprofit organizations: Michigan Nonprofit Association (MNA). MNA has a $20
million endowment fund
Home to one of the first and most successful college volunteerism programs:
Michigan Campus Compact
Home to one of the first and most successful networks of community based network
of volunteer associations: Volunteers of Michigan
Home to one of the first state-government commissions on service: Michigan
Service Commission
One of two states in the nation with community foundation services covering every
county in the state. There are over 90 community foundation organizations in
Michigan out of approximately 700 such organizations nationwide. The other state
with statewide coverage is Indiana. Ohio is home to the very first community
foundation (Cleveland) and together these three states in the Midwest are home to
almost 50% of all of the community foundations in the nation. The Council of
Michigan Foundations leads a three-state effort on several issues for the community
foundation field
Over 300 family foundations exist within a 45-minute drive of Grand Rapids. Three
of the largest (top 100 based on assets) community foundations in the nation are in
West Michigan (Fremont, Grand Rapids, and Kalamazoo)
One of the leading consulting groups to foundations nationwide is located in Grand
Rapids (The Williams Group)
Michigan has a strong network of United Way organizations
Nearly all of Michigan hospitals are nonprofit organizations (protected from
corporate health care by the Michigan certificate of need legislation) as well as other
ancillary care services such as Visiting Nurse, hospices, and many nursing homes
According to the Chronicle of Philanthropy (2003), Grand Rapids is the second most
generous community in the nation (per capita), second only to Salt Lake City, Utah
3
Our community in Grand Rapids has demonstrated a strong multi-generational philanthropic
commitment by corporate leaders and closely held businesses to private charitable investments in
the development of our community. Successful local companies and business leaders are
generous in their giving from their corporate profits, their personal gifts, and the grant making
foundations they have established. The state of Michigan and our city of Grand Rapids, in
particular, is therefore in constant need for professionals with the requisite skills to lead and
manage it.
c) Leadership deficit in the nonprofit sector
The Bridgespan Group team (Tierney, 2006) predicts a stunning gap in senior, executive
nonprofitleadership in the years ahead. They note that over the next decade, the sector would be
in need for more than half a million new nonprofit leaders. This projected leadership deficit is the
result of a host of key factors including the growing number of nonprofit organizations, the
retirement of managers from the vast baby-boomer generation, movement of existing nonprofit
managers into different roles within or outside the sector, and growth in the size of nonprofits.
To deal with this challenge, the report suggests that the sector, first and foremost, must urgently
invest in preparing new managers. A program such as what we conceive in this proposal is a
critical preemptive step in this direction.
This would not be the first time that Grand Valley State University and the School of Public and
Nonprofit Administration, has acted upon an anticipated demand. At a time when nonprofit
management and leadership studies was just emerging as an independent field of inquiry, the
School of Public Administration (as it was originally named from 1990-1996 and previously
referred to as School of Social Thought and Public Affairs, 1983-1990) made the progressive
move to rename itself as the School of Public and Nonprofit Administration and simultaneously
introduced courses specifically dealing with nonprofit studies.
d) Programs dedicated to philanthropy and nonprofit leadership nationwide and in Michigan
The founding of academic programs in nonprofit studies has dramatically arisen across the nation
over the past two and half decades in response to the rapidly changing sector. The reason for the
ten fold increase in nonprofit graduate programs over the past decade may be attributed,
according to O’Neill (2007, 170S) to several macro trends including growth in the number of
nonprofit organizations, the increasing professionalization of the sector and to such micro events
as the initiative of academic entrepreneurs, support of university officials, and that of key funders
like the Kellogg Foundation, the active interest of national organizations like NASPAA and
Independent Sector, publicity in trade journals like the Chronicle of Philanthropy and Chronicle
of Higher Education, the creation of NACC, and above all the enrollment response of students as
these programs began to be offered.
Working professionals seeking nonprofit management graduate or certificate programs can
choose from opportunities in schools of business, public administration, social work and
nonprofit management. Mirabella and Wish (2000) identified more than 90 graduate-degree
programs in the United States that had three or more courses in nonprofit management. This is a
dramatic rise since 1990 when Wish and MiraBella (1998) identified only 17 such graduate
programs that had three or more courses in nonprofit management. As of 2006, there were 130
such programs. The most recent data indicate that there are more than 255 colleges and
universities that provide at least one class in nonprofit management, including 157 schools that
4
offer at least one course within a graduate department (Nonprofit Academic Centers Council,
2008).
These departments not only help provide a “big picture” of philanthropy, but also study
how nonprofit programs succeed; investigate who gives and why; publish the latest
research; train leaders; educate donors; organize conferences; promote volunteering;
inform the public on the impact of giving; and, advise local nonprofit organizations.
Nonprofit Academic Centers Council (2008).
Within Michigan, Western Michigan University offers a non-degree seeking graduate certificate
in nonprofit leadership and administration.
Student Interest
Currently, the School of Public and Nonprofit Administration’s (SPNA) Masters in Public
Administration (MPA) program offers graduate education to nonprofit-oriented students, along
side those that public management, urban and regional policy and planning, health care
administration, and criminal justice . Since its inception in the mid-1990s, the nonprofit
management concentration of the MPA program has grown in popularity. This increase in
popularity is evidenced in those who graduate with a nonprofit concentration. The graduate
certificate in nonprofit management and the nonprofit specialization track in the Master of Public
Administration program has become the fastest growing segment of our graduate program (please
see table 1 for the number of graduating students in various concentrations in the program in the
past five years).
The rising number of students enrolling in the nonprofit track and the graduate certificate
program, and the preponderance of nonprofits in the region are all indications that there is a
strong regional market for a two-year Master’s degree in Philanthropy and Nonprofit Leadership.
Emphasis within MPA program
Criminal Justice
Health Administration
Nonprofit Management &
Leadership
Public Mgt and Urban/Regional
Affairs
Urban/Regional Policy & Planning
Unknown
2002-03
200304
2004
-05
2005
-06
2006
-07
Total
0
10
9
5
5
12
0
5
19
3
3
13
2
4
12
10
27
65
13
14
6
14
9
56
0
10
1
12
1
16
4
14
1
7
7
59
Table 1: Number of graduates against each concentration in the MPA program (2002-07)
5
Feasibility and Impact on existing resources
The immediate objective of the Master of Philanthropy and Nonprofit Leadership is to offer a
large number of students already attracted to GVSU with a degree title that better matches their
course work and their career objectives. It is also to advance GVSU’s reputation as a leader in
the field of nonprofit management and philanthropic education. This would match Dorothy A.
Johnson Centers’ widespread reputation in applied research and professional training.
The long-term objective of the proposed program is to increase the number and quality of
nonprofit-oriented students drawn to GVSU. By increasing synergy with the Johnson Center,
which has a national reputation in applied research and professional training, a Master of
Philanthropy and Nonprofit Leadership can significantly enhance GVSU’s recognition as a center
of excellence in the field of volunteerism, philanthropy and the nonprofit sector.
Staffing
The new program will be created utilizing SPNA’s current menu of class offerings. As such, the
initial impact on resources will be small. Currently, SPNA has only one full time instructor
dedicated to the nonprofit curriculum. Her efforts are supplemented by other SPNA faculty,
Johnson Center staff, and practitioner-adjuncts. It is highly desirable that a second full-time
faculty member be added to SPNA whose primary area of interest is volunteerism, philanthropy,
and the nonprofit sector. Efforts in this direction are already underway vide a recently posted
announcement. It should therefore be noted that this would be true even without the proposed
new program due to the growth of the nonprofit management concentration within the MPA
program.
The Master of Philanthropy and Nonprofit Leadership has implications for the budget of the
School of Public and Nonprofit Administration for:
an increase for adjunct budget to compensate for faculty release time for program
coordination;
a tenure-track position in the third year of the program;
a half-time COT;
a half-time professional staff person to coordinate service learning courses and internships;
an increase in departmental funding for publicity and recruiting.
Because of the growth in the number of students in the MPA's nonprofit concentration, an
additional faculty position is needed for someone specializing in philanthropy, volunteerism, and
the nonprofit sector. Whether this should be a new position, or reallocated from a public or
policy-focused position in SPNA, should be based on the total enrollment in SPNA programs.
If the prospectus is approved, the plan will be developed during the 2008-09 term. The degree
could be in place for the 2009-10 term.
6
Table 2: Time-line for acquisition of new staff
Year 1
New Faculty FTE
Support staff (COT)
0.05
Professional staff *
0.05
Students
20
* Service Learning / Internship coordinator
Year 2
0.05
0.05
30
Year 3
1
0.05
0.05
40
Year 4
Year 5
1
0.05
0.05
50
1
0.05
0.05
50
Accreditation
No accrediting body currently exists for the field of nonprofit studies. Should Nonprofit
Academic Centers Council (NACC) or the National Association of Schools of Public Affairs &
Administration (NASPAA) initiate an accreditation procedure for nonprofit and philanthropic
studies programs, we would anticipate the Master of Philanthropy and Nonprofit Leadership
program to be a strong candidate and seek approval from the administration to initiate the
process. The Nonprofit Academic Centers Council (NACC), it must be noted, was formed in
1991 and currently publishes curricular guidelines. The Johnson Center is a member of the
NACC and Dr. Kathy Agard, Director of the Johnson Center and SPNA faculty member,
participated in the development of the guidelines. These NACC guidelines will serve as a guide
as we develop our program. In formulating our proposed curriculum, we will pay careful attention
to the NACC guidelines.
Curriculum and Admission
The Master of Philanthropy and Nonprofit Leadership relies on current GVSU offerings, mostly
in the MPA program. The proposed program would be primarily created by using already existing
courses offered in the Masters of Public Administration program. It would appeal to those
students that are seeking leadership role in nonprofit institutions including nonprofit
organizations, foundations, community-based organizations operating in a variety of different
subsectors such as health, environment, human services, education to name just a few. It would
be abreast with the best practices being developed in the study of volunteerism, philanthropy, and
the nonprofit/nongovernmental sector. Increased quality in the nonprofit courses would also
increase the quality of the MPA program. When less overrun by nonprofit-oriented students, the
MPA could be refocused on its original mission of preparing students for leadership in local
government.
The Master of Philanthropy and Nonprofit Leadership will compliment the Master of Public
Administration and the Masters of Health Administration at SPNA, sharing courses with both
programs. The MPA program would continue to have a nonprofit concentration for students who
desire an intersection in public and nonprofit sectors. The MHA could potentially develop an
emphasis in hospital development; health care and community development. The intersection of
health care and nonprofit management is particularly pertinent for the state of Michigan wherein,
as pointed out earlier, all hospitals and most healthcare facilities are nonprofit entities. The
program attracts a large concentration of nonprofit leaders from faith-based institutions, including
international nongovernmental organizations and faith-related nonprofits, in the region. Grand
Rapids is known as home to several religious congregations and religiously-based community
service agencies. The U.S. constitution determines all religious organizations as part of the
7
nonprofit sector and as such, a course offering that speaks to the management of such
organizations will provide yet another potential source of learning for students. We envisage
offering courses that cater to the particularistic nature of the faith-sector and their leaders.
Course offering in communication, business, accounting, marketing and social work will augment
the core program. After consultation with other departments, the final plan will incorporate
appropriate offerings from other programs as electives. Appendix A presents a hypothetical
example of our proposed curriculum.
Admission requirements will conform to current standards established for other masters degrees
offered through School of Public and Nonprofit Administration (letters of recommendation,
personal statement of purpose, required undergraduate GPA of 3.0 or the equivalent, GRE scores
in 40th percentile, verbal and quantitative; analytic writing score of at least 4). We additionally
propose to conduct a personal interview of incumbents during the first year of the program. The
proposed curriculum combines courses offered through the nonprofit management graduate
certificate program, the Master of Public Administration program, as well as electives in the
Seidman College of Business and the School of Social Work. The degree requirements leading to
the Master in Nonprofit Management and Leadership will include a minimum of 39 graduate
credit hours, including 9 courses (27 credit hours) and 4 electives (a minimum of 12 credit hours).
The total hours 39 credit hours is commensurate with the other masters degree programs offered
by the School of Public and Nonprofit Administration. Pre-career students would have to
complete an additional 6 credit hours towards a service learning project/internship.
It might be expected that the Master of Philanthropy and Nonprofit Leadership will draw students
away from the MPA program. However, at Cleveland State University, which started a nonprofit
masters program last fall, none of the 16 students entering the new program were transferring
from other programs. Thus they believe their new Masters program expanded their market rather
than cannibalized their other Masters’ offerings. At SPNA, we had a similar experience with our
Masters in Health Administration (MHA) offering wherein the first year we did lose students
from the MPA program to the MHA program but starting year 2, the MPA program was able to
grow even larger owing the additional space now available to accommodate MPA students.
Outside of SPNA, the Master of Philanthropy and Nonprofit Leadership is not expected to draw
students away from other programs.
Physical resources
The Master of Philanthropy and Nonprofit Leadership will use courses already in existence.
There is, however, some addition and modification in courses anticipated. There is no additional
special physical resource needed. The addition of the new program will undoubtedly contribute to
continuing increase in students enrolling in SPNA graduate courses.
Because of the endowed “Dorothy A. Johnson Collection for Philanthropy and Nonprofit
Leadership,” library resources are more than adequate to support a Master of Philanthropy and
Nonprofit Leadership. The Council of Michigan Foundations donated its library to GVSU and
created an endowment fund for the "Dorothy A. Johnson Collection for Philanthropy and
Nonprofit Leadership." The Johnson Collection and related collections, taken as a whole,
comprise one of the most comprehensive collections of information sources on volunteerism,
philanthropy, and the nonprofit sector.
8
References
Chronicle of Philanthropy (May 8, 2003). Where they live, how they Give: Study finds percentage
donated to charity lowest in Santa Clara County. Accessed online at http://www.sfgate.com/cgibin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2003/05/08/BU204336.DTL on July 3, 2008.
Foundation Center (2007). 50 Largest Independent Foundations by Asset Size. Accessed online at
http://foundationcenter.org/findfunders/statistics/pdf/11_topfdn_type/2005/top50_aa_in.pdf on
October 22, 2008.
Mirabella, R.M. and Naomi B. Wish. (2000). The “best plce” debate: A comparison of graduate
eeducation programs for nonprofit managers. Public Administration Review. Vol. 60, No. 3,
pp.219-230.
Nonprofit Academic Centers Council (2008). About NACC. Accessed online at
http://www.naccouncil.org/ on July 3, 2008.
Tierney, T. (2006). The Nonprofit Sector’s Leadership Deficit: Executive Summary. The
Bridgespan Group, Inc.
Wish, Naomi B. and Roseanne M. Mirabella. (1998). Curricular Variations in Nonprofit
Management Graduate Programs. Nonprofit Management and Leadership, Vol. 9, No.1, pp. 99109.
9
Appendix A: Prototype Curriculum
I.
REQUIRED COURSES (9 courses: 27 credits)
PA 664 Foundations of the Philanthropic Sector
PA 660 Civil Society in the U.S.: History and Ethics
PA 661 Nonprofit Management Practices
PA 612 Nonprofit Resources: Human/Financial 13.0
PA 663 Nonprofit Organization and Public Policy
PA 535 Fund-raising, Grant Writing, and Social
Entrepreneurship
PA 670 International Philanthropic Perspectives
PA 611 Qualitative, Quantitative Research and
Data- based Management
PA 665 Philanthropy and Nonprofit Leadership
Capstone Experience
NACC
Revised
2.0
PA 520
3.0 and 4.0
Minor Edits
5.0
Minor Edits
Merged (PA662/665)
6.0
Minor Edits
10.0
1.0
Major Edits
NEW
Minor Edits
Minor Edits
Pre-career Student Requirement
PA 692 Public Administration III: Professional Experience Internship
II.
ELECTIVES (4 courses: 12 credits)
We envisage offering elective courses that cover critical areas of current interest. These courses,
as stated earlier, will primarily draw on our existing pool of course offerings. After consultation
with other departments, the final plan will incorporate appropriate offerings from other programs
such as communication, business, accounting, marketing and social work as electives. These
offerings will not only reflect recommended course offerings as per NACC guidelines but will
additionally draw on our ongoing discussions with local and regional nonprofit leaders. These
discussions will offer us with much needed feedback on the content of courses best suited to the
needs of nonprofit organizations in West Michigan. We currently identify some critical areas of
interest to include: Foundations and Grantmaking; Philanthropy and Voluntary Action;
Information Management and Technology; Management and Leadership; Marketing and
Communication; and, Accounting and Financial Management.
These courses will be supplemented by workshop offerings and an option to do a Master’s thesis.
10