Draft Proposal for a
Master of Philanthropy and Nonprofit Leadership
Desirability
The following section documents evidence of need for a graduate degree in Philanthropy and
Nonprofit Leadership at Grand Valley State University based on: 1) the mission of the University and its location within a state and city that is nationally and internationally renowned for its contributions to the field of philanthropy and nonprofit management; (2) 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; (3) the 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, (4) 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.
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.
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 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
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
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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
Grand Rapids is particularly philanthropic due to the commitment of corporate leaders and closely held businesses to private charitable investments in the development of the 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 Grand Rapids, in particular, is therefore in constant need for professionals with the requisite skills to lead and manage it.
The Bridgespan Group team (Tierney, 2006) predicts a stunning gap in senior, executive leadership 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
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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.
Over the two decades and a half, volunteerism, philanthropy, and the nonprofit sector have grown as a self-conscious, independent area of study, with its own journals, professional bodies and curricula. Academic programs in nonprofit studies have 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 is the national trend toward professionalization of the sector (Mirabella and Wish, 2000). Responding to the pressure of increased professionalization, more than 255 colleges and universities provide at least one class in nonprofit management, including 157 schools that 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).
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 are interested in government service. 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.
Table 1: Number of graduates against each concentration in the MPA program (2002-07)
Total
Emphasis within MPA program
Criminal Justice
Health Administration
Nonprofit Management &
Leadership
Public Mgt and Urban/Regional
Affairs
Urban/Regional Policy & Planning
Unknown
2002-03 2003-
04
0
10
9
5
5
12
13
0
10
14
1
12
2004
-05
0
5
19
6
1
16
2005
-06
3
3
13
14
4
14
2006
-07
2
4
12
9
1
7
10
27
65
56
7
59
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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. It would be abreast with the best practices being developed in the study of volunteerism, philanthropy, and the nonprofit/nongovernmental sector.
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.
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. This will provide yet another potential source of students. We envisage offering courses that cater to the particularistic nature of the faith-sector and their leaders.
The Master of Philanthropy and Nonprofit Leadership will be primarily built on existing courses.
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.
No accrediting body currently exists for the field of nonprofit studies. The Nonprofit Academic
Centers Council (NACC) 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.
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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.
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.
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