Syllabus
NGO Management: Best Practices
American University SIS-635.003
Spring 2009 Tuesdays 5:30 PM – 8:00PM in SIS 200
Instructors: Joseph Eldridge and Robert Tomasko
Overview
The purpose of this course is to give students an opportunity to apply management best practices
to the challenges of running a non-governmental service or advocacy organization. It focuses on
acquiring the knowledge needed to organize an effective NGO “from the ground up.” Equal
emphasis throughout the course will be given to practicalities of management that keep an
organization afloat, and the dynamics of leadership that move it forward.
The course will focus on the application of evidence-based practices. It will build on students’
previous study in management and policy development, organizational behavior, psychology, and
strategic communications. It will draw on recent research in fields such as behavioral economics,
and cognitive and social psychology that are just beginning to influence contemporary
management practice.
Topics to be covered range from goal setting, fundraising, strategic planning, and organization
design, to the more mindset-oriented approaches used to identify opportunities, motivate
colleagues, build momentum, use power, and win hearts-and-minds. How NGOs grow and
evolve from organization to institution will also be considered. Special emphasis will be given to
the emerging practices used by social entrepreneurs and how they can be applied in a broad range
of NGOs.
Throughout the course attention will be given to the ways NGOs conduct effective activism and,
and several international human rights, peace, and development-oriented case studies will be used
to provide practice applying these concepts to current pressing issues.
The course is intended for students who plan on, or are considering, a career in nonprofit serviceproviding or advocacy organizations. For students who may have previously had internships or
fulltime employment with such groups, this course will help them distill, learn from, and share
these experiences. Because management is, in part, a verbal activity, the course will be taught in a
way that is highly interactive with all students having multiple opportunities to make
presentations and lead discussions.
The course will be team-taught by Joseph Eldridge and Robert Tomasko, AU instructors with
extensive experience in both nonprofit human rights and private sector management. They will
draw from the best practices of both realms. To make the course as real world oriented as
possible, we will invite guests who have leadership roles in NGOs and foundations to join in
several of the class discussions. Students will be expected to do some background research about
these individuals and their organizations in advance of their class visits.
Class Time
There will be 14 class meetings, each of 2 1/2 hours duration. This time we are together will be
used for:
• Instructor presentations
• Case study reading and discussion
• Guest presentations and discussions
• Student reports on their assigned readings
• Student reports on their “shadow NGO”
• NGO team presentations
• NGO team meetings (most will be held outside class time)
Course Outline
Jan. 13th/1st class: Introduction; The Pivotal Role of Mission, Intended Impact and Purpose
Introduction to the course and its participants: scope, ground rules, assignments, and evaluation.
Brief introduction into the universe of NGOs and the challenges facing their leaders. Why learn
from the private sector? Who is the customer of an NGO?
The inner and outer games of management.
Discussion of purpose, mission, impact, vision and values. Examples from the nonprofit and
private sectors. Characteristics of strong mission statements. Condensing a mission and vision
into an “elevator pitch.”
Intended impact. Every NGO has a “theory of change”: a set of cause-and-effect assumptions
about what is required to bring about its intended impact. These are implicit in their actions, and
sometimes conflict with the NGO’s explicit statements.
The difference between an organization and an institution.
Each student will choose an NGO to research and “shadow” throughout the semester.
To make the course as interactive as possible students will be divided into teams to create from
scratch an imaginary nongovernmental organization. They will identify a specific problem area
a new NGO could address and its intended impact on the problem. They will then draft its
mission statement, goals, budget and fundraising strategy. They will also develop its strategic
plan and formulate programs and activities consistent with its mission. At appropriate points
throughout the course each team will present the results of its planning to the rest of the class who
will be asked to assume the role of board members of that NGO who are providing oversight and
advice. Teams will meet outside of class and on Blackboard.
First team assignment (start in-class): “Create an NGO” by developing its mission, intended
impact, theory of change, vision and values statement.
Readings:
Peter Drucker et al, The Five Most Important Questions You Will Ever Ask About Your
Organization (Jossey-Bass, 2008) – Recommended for purchase.
Mark Kramer, “Who Exactly are the ‘Customers’ of a Nonprofit Organization?”
Chronicle of Philanthropy, May 31, 2001.
Eric Werker and Faisal Ahmed, “What Do Non-Governmental Organizations Do?”
Harvard Business School Working Paper, May 2007.
Tracy Thompson, “Profit With Honor: How Bill Shore Links Charitable Works With
Profit-making Enterprises,” Washington Post Magazine, Dec. 19, 1999.
Bill Drayton, CEO of Ashoka [interview], Stanford Social Innovation Review, Spring
2004.
“Globalization With a Human Face – and a Social Conscience,” Knowledge@Wharton,
May 19, 2003.
James Austin et al, “Capitalizing on Convergence,” Stanford Social Innovation Review,
Winter 2007.
Jane Wei-Skillern, James Austin, Herman Leonard, and Howard Stevenson,
Entrepreneurship in the Social Sector (Sage, 2007)
Philip Selznik, Leadership in Administration (1957)
Jan. 20/AU holiday – no class meeting
Each team should schedule a meeting during this week to finalize the mission, intended impact,
and theory of change. They should also discuss the readings assigned for last week in terms of
their “NGO,” and prepare a first cut of answers to Peter Drucker’s Five Questions, which they
will present at the Jan. 27 class.
Jan. 27/2nd class: Governance and Getting the Most from a Board
The role of a trustee and how to be a good one. Board development: what is the role, structure,
and function of a board of directors? What is involved with recruiting, cultivating and nurturing
the board? How to make the board a vital part of the organization. The difference between
management and governance.
The legal, regulatory and tax environment in which NGOs operate.
Team assignment: Develop a governance strategy for your NGO. Identify potential board
members and make a plan to recruit them.
Readings:
Hopkins, Bruce R. Starting and Managing a Nonprofit Organization: A Legal Guide.
Hoboken, NJ: Wiley and Sons, 2005
Stoesz, Edgar and Raber, Chester. Doing Good Better: How to be an Effective Board
Member of a Nonprofit Organization. Intercourse, PA: Good Books, 1997.
Taylor, Chait and Holland, “The New Work of the Nonprofit Board,” Harvard Business
Review, Sept.-Oct. 1996.
BoardSource, Starting a Nonprofit Organization, 1999.
Paul Jansen and Andrea Kilpatrick, “The Dynamic Nonprofit Board,” McKinsey
Quarterly, No. 2, 2004.
Feb. 3/3rd Class: Setting Direction
What is strategy? What is the difference between a strategy and a strategic plan?
Fixers and growers: making something bad go away vs. creating something new. Merit-finding
vs. fault-finding. The pivotal role of positive emotions. Does happiness drive altruism? Is
altruism enough to bring about positive change? Why is success often harder to deal with than
adversity?
Seeing opportunities and leverage points. Why do some people see opportunities and openings
that others miss? Appreciative inquiry. Using constraints to drive creativity. Letting go of past
strategies. Putting it all together: SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats).
Looking at your current situation from the outside-in.
Looking at the future through scenarios. Using scenario planning to rehearse the future.
In-class team assignment: Identify 4 alternative future scenarios for your environment by
applying the Global Business Network methodology. What threats and opportunities will each
pose for your NGO? How might your strategy change to adapt to each scenario?
Competition and collaboration among NGOs: coalitions, networks, and rivals. Lessons from
game theory.
How entrepreneurs use goals.
Team assignment: Plan a strategy for your NGO. Identify its competitive environment, its
desired positioning within that environment. Do a SWOT analysis.
Readings:
Allison, Michael and Kaye, Jude. Strategic Planning for Nonprofit Organizations:
A Practical Guide and Workbook. San Francisco: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2005
Julia Hanna, “Getting Down to the Business of Creativity,” Harvard Business School
Working Knowledge, May 14, 2008.
Kevin Coyne et al, “Breakthrough Thinking From Inside the Box,” Harvard Business
Review, Dec. 2007.
Robert Tomasko, Bigger Isn’t Always Better (Amacom Books, 2006)
Feb. 10/4th Class: Leadership
The difference between managing and leading. Leadership as an expression of personal
commitment. Matching leaders with situations.
Leadership tools: exercising soft and hard power. Key levers: agenda, time, support, limelight,
network. Followership.
Common leadership pathologies (narcissism, ego-centric leadership, excessive control) and the
role of boards in preventing and dealing with them.
Team assignment: Assume you are board members of your NGO and are charged with hiring a
CEO for your organization. What kind of a person would you look for? What process would you
use to select someone?
Readings:
Joseph Badaracco, “We Don’t Need Another Hero,” Harvard Business Review, Sept.
2001.
Barbara Kellerman, “What Every Leader Needs to Know About Followers,” Harvard
Business Review, Dec. 2007.
Michael Maccoby, “Why People Follow the Leader,” Harvard Business Review, Sept.
2004.
Lynn Offermann, “When Followers Become Toxic,” Harvard Business Review, Jan.
2004.
Daniel Stid and Jeff Bradach, Strongly Led, Under-managed, Bridgespan 2008.
Abraham Zaleznik, “Managers and Leaders: Are They Different?” Harvard Business
Review, May-June 1977.
Feb. 17/5th Class: Developing a Business Model and Organizing Around It
[Note: Reflection papers on the functioning of your NGO teams are due Feb. 16.]
What is a business model? Examples from the for-profit and non-profit sectors.
Measuring what most matters.
Core competence and distinctive competence. Differentiating and positioning. Getting a focus:
positioning around a distinctive competence. Building a brand identity.
Organizing around strategy: pros and cons of alternative organizational forms; how much
hierarchy is necessary; internal networks and cross-organization structures. Organizing with
teams.
Characteristics of well functioning teams; lessons from student’s reflection papers.
Team assignment: Describe the components of your NGO’s business model. What is its brand?
What organization form is most appropriate for it; how might this form evolves as your
organization grows. Reflect on how effectively your NGO team is functioning; develop an action
plan for improvement.
Readings:
John Sawhill and William Davidson, “Measuring What Matters,” McKinsey Quarterly,
2001, No. 2.
Philip Harvey and James Snyder, “Charities Need a Bottom Line Too,” Harvard Business
Review, Jan.-Feb. 1987.
Susan Colby et al, “Zeroing In On Impact: In An Era of Declining Resources, Nonprofits
Need to Clarify Their Intended Impact,” Stanford Social Innovation Review, Fall 2004.
V. Kasturi Rangan, “Lofty Missions, Down-to-Earth Plans,” Harvard Business Review,
March 2004.
BBMG, Branding for Social Good, 2007.
Kenneth Chenault, “It’s the Customer’s Brand, Too,” Washington Post, Oct. 15, 2007.
Feb. 24/6th Class: Communicating With Key Constituencies
How does an NGO develop a media and public communication strategy and why is it important?
What are the most effective tools and techniques for formulating and disseminating the mission
and the message? What are the most relevant media and how can they become a tool for message
delivery? What is the impact of the internet?
Advocacy that gets understood: frames, narratives, and words that work. Lessons from the global
climate warming movement.
Team assignment: Create a communications strategy for your NGO.
Readings:
Martha Lagace, “Connecting With Consumers Using Deep Metaphors,” Harvard
Business School Working Knowledge, May 5, 2008.
Chip Conley and Eric Friedenwald-Fishman, [excerpt from Chapter 7 “Emotion Trumps
Data”] Marketing That Matters: 10 Practices to Profit Your Business and Change the
World, 2006.
Jonathan Isham and Sissel Waage, Ignition (2007)
George Lakoff, Whose Freedom? (2006)
Frank Luntz, Words That Work (2007)
Geoffrey Nunberg, Talking Right (2006)
Mar. 3/7th Class: Fundraising I
The art and practice of traditional fundraising. Proposal development. What are the dynamics and
skills required for effective fundraising? What are the things to be mindful of when establishing a
fundraising strategy? Donor cultivation, including foundations, direct mail, corporate, major
donors, and membership approaches. What are the components of a successful fundraising
proposal and key success factors?
Team assignment: outline a comprehensive funding strategy for your NGO - one that uses the
lessons from the guest presentation and makes the fine distinction between an NGO that is
“donor-driven” and an NGO that is “donor-sensitive”
Reading:
Karsh, Ellen and Fox, Arlen Sue. The Only Grantwriting Book You’ll Ever Need. New
York: Carroll & Graf Publishers, 2006 – Recommended for purchase.
Mar. 10/Spring Break – no class
Mar. 17/8th Class: Fundraising II Getting Off the Dole
[Review the course to date. Suggestions for mid-course corrections.]
The class will examine case studies of organizations (CARE and Doctors Without Borders) who
actually turned down donations and grants, and will be introduced to the key ideas behind social
entrepreneurship that can help NGOs become self supporting by generating revenues from their
activities and assets.
Key distinctions: managed vs. unmanaged; managers vs. entrepreneurs; social vs. business
entrepreneurs. Watch and discuss Stanford Graduate School of Business video case studies of
three social entrepreneurs.
Techniques for reducing donor dependence by generating revenue: the Community Wealth
Ventures model. Advantages and pitfalls of pursuing profits. Warm-up class exercise: the
National Cathedral in Washington DC is in serious financial difficulty. What revenue-generating
possibilities might it consider?
Team assignment: Apply the Community Wealth Ventures approach to identify entrepreneurial
revenue possibilities for your NGO.
Readings:
J. Gregory Dees, “Enterprising Nonprofits,” Harvard Business Review, Jan.-Feb. 1998.
William Foster and Jeffery Bradach, “Should Nonprofits Seek Profits?” Harvard
Business Review, Feb. 2005.
Bill Shore, “Doing Good By Doing Well”, McKinsey Quarterly, 2001, No. 2. (Saturday)
Community Wealth Ventures, The Community Wealth Seeker’s Guide: Mapping Your
Assets and Identifying Your Opportunities, 2001.
Mar. 24/9th Class: Managing an Ongoing Organization (Decisions and People)
The importance of seeing the world as it as; lessons from behavioral economics and systems
thinking about why this is often so difficult.
Motivation. Designing jobs that motivate (job descriptions, performance measures and
evaluation). Commitment through involvement. Helping people feel they are integral to the
decision making process, not a cog in a machine. Becoming a great place to work. Tapping into
the gift economy. Burnout prevention, coping with time pressure, creating flow.
Team assignment: Lay out the 5 most significant people management challenges your NGO will
face. Describe how you will address each one.
Mar. 31/10th Class: Managing an Ongoing Organization (Projects and Money)
Characteristics of good goals: SMART.
Financial management, overhead costs, growth capital.
Team Assignment: Assume you suddenly found your largest source of revenue would be unable to
fund your NGO. What steps would you take to cope with the shortfall?
Apr. 7/11th Class: Extending your reach
How to manage an NGO’s growth: scaling-up, mergers, networks, alliances, branches and
affiliates, internet-based growth, cross-border expansion, alums, and outsourcing. What to do in
what circumstances. Getting leverage from celebrity endorsements and sponsorships (“cobranding”).
Team assignment: Develop a growth plan for your NGO including strategy, mechanisms, and
resources needed.
Readings:
Jeffrey Bradach, “Going To Scale: The Challenge of Replicating Social Programs,”
Stanford Social Innovation Review, Spring 2003.
Campbell, Taft-Pearman and Lee, Getting Replication Right, Bridgespan, 2008.
William Foster, “How Nonprofits Get Really Big,” Stanford Social Innovation Review,
Spring 2007.
William Foster, “Money to Grow On,” Stanford Social Innovation Review, Fall 2008.
Heather McLeod Grant and Leslie Crutchfield, “Creating High-Impact Nonprofits,”
Stanford Social Innovation Review, Fall 2007.
Jane Wei-Skillern [interview], “The Growth of the Social Enterprise,” Harvard Business
School Working Knowledge, Oct. 6, 2003.
Maisie O’Flanagan and Lynn Taliento, “Nonprofits: Ensuring That Bigger Is Better,”
McKinsey Quarterly, 2004, No. 2.
Martha Lagace, “Nonprofit Networking: The New Way to Grow,” Harvard Business
School Working Knowledge, May 16, 2005.
Stephanie Strom, “Charities Trying Mergers To Improve Bottom Line,” The New York
Times, Nov. 11, 2007.
Apr. 14/12th Class: Changing Course, Dealing With Bumps in the Road
Keeping up with changing circumstances; dealing with the challenges of success: the ACCION
example.
Momentum and resilience - developing a plan for building your NGO’s momentum. Using
systems thinking to anticipate limits to growth.
Convincing others to change course: a review of recent research findings from cognitive and
social psychology about winning people’s hearts-and-minds.
Turning around failing performance: case study of the first five years of Teach for America.
Readings:
Maria Otero, “Microfinance at the Crossroads,” Forbes, May 19, 2008.
Vikram Akula, “Business Basics at the Base of the Pyramid,” Harvard Business Review,
June 2008.
Virginia Anderson and Lauren Johnson, Systems Thinking Basics (1997)
Larry Greiner, “Evolution and Revolution as Organizations Grow,” Harvard Business
Review, May 1998
Apr 21/13th Class: Learning From Experience
Learning from your experience; learning from the experiences of others. After-action reviews;
benchmarking; positive deviance; encouraging productive dissent. Using Open Space to take
stock. Discussing the undiscussable; making inconvenient truths easier to hear. Becoming a
smart consumer of the latest management practices: avoiding the halo effect; relying on evidencebased management practices.
Team presentation: Recap the decisions you have made about your NGO. What have you learned
from this group project?
Readings:
Gary Emmons, “Encouraging Dissent in Decision-Making, Harvard Business School
Working Knowledge, October 1, 2007.
Gary Klein, “Performing a Project Premortum,” Harvard Business Review, Sept. 2007.
Phil Rosenzweig, “The Halo Effect, and Other Managerial Delusions,” McKinsey
Quarterly, 2007, No. 1.
Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert Sutton, “Act on Facts, Not Faith: How Management Can
Follow Medicine’s Lead and Rely on Evidence, Not on Half-truths,” Stanford Social
Innovation Review, Spring 2006.
Apr. 28/14th Class: Making it Personal; Wrap-up and Review
Is activism a phase a person goes through or a lifetime career? The differences between a job, a
career, and a calling. “This is what I was put on earth to do.” Getting ready for the long haul: the
4 stages of an NGO activist’s career. Building on strengths, not remedying deficiencies. Carrying
the cause to other settings. Personal momentum and resilience; burnout avoidance. Knowing
when it’s time to let go.
Individual exercise: Develop a personal career plan building on the ideas discussed over the past
semester.
Keeping up with the latest ideas in management after this course ends.
Recap/wrap-up: general discussion, what have you learned? Course evaluation.
Ground Rules
1. We have lots to cover. Please come on time (or a few minutes early).
2. Being present is important. Advance permission from the instructors is required if it is
necessary to miss any of the scheduled class sessions.
3. Plan to be available for out-of-class meetings with your NGO team (apx. 1-2 hours per week).
4. The course will be highly interactive. Active participation in class discussions and team
meetings is important.
5. To get the most benefit from the NGO guests who will speak at a number of class meetings,
students are expected, in advance of their appearance, to do some “quick-and-dirty” research
about each speaker’s background and the work of their organization, and use this to formulate one
or two questions to ask of each speaker.
Student Evaluation and Expectations
Students will be evaluated on their performance on three assignments:
1. Class briefings. Prepare a critical review and analysis of the key lessons for NGOs from the
readings assigned to you during the semester; present these lessons to the class (in 10 min or less)
at times throughout the course assigned by the instructors, and make a strong, convincing
argument that will encourage others to read the particular article or excerpt. As possible, relate
the ideas in the readings to your own experience. Use PowerPoint slides and/or a one-page
handout as appropriate. (30% of final grade)
2. Reflection paper to stimulate action learning. Due before the start of Week 5. Answer in two
pages maximum: What are the 3 most important attributes of well-functioning, spirited teams?
Reflect on how well your NGO team has functioned. What did it do best? How could its
functioning have been improved? What might you have done differentially that would have
contributed to the team’s performance? What will you do differently in the rest of your team
meetings this semester? (20% of final grade)
3. Comprehensive Profile of an NGO’s Management Practices. During the first week of class
each student will choose a real world NGO to research and “shadow” throughout the semester.
Select an organization with which you are familiar or one you would like to know more about.
Pick one you can easily obtain information about. Students will write, on a rolling-basis each
week, a 300-500-word description and assessment of how their organization deals with the issues
covered that week in class. These papers will be based on both primary and secondary sources.
Focus on functionality more than deficiency – identify what your NGO is doing right. Students
should also be prepared to discuss their observations in class each week. At the end of Week 7
these papers will be turned in to the instructors for an interim review. At the Week 14 class
students will turn in a tightly edited version of these papers that synthesizes the NGOs current
functioning, along with a one-page memo to the head of their NGO advocating the adoption of a
specific relevant management practice covered in this course. This memo will describe briefly the
practice, explain why it is important to this organization, and highlight the specific benefits it will
provide. It will also comment on what will be needed to successfully implement the practice in
the context of the NGO selected. (50% of final grade)
All students are expected to attend each class having done and thought about the readings
assigned for that class, and except in cases of emergency to notify the instructors in advance if
they need to miss a class. Students are also expected to attend and actively participate in their
NGO team meetings and in-class presentations. Unexcused absences, lack of class preparation,
and nonparticipation in the team project will diminish a student’s grade.
Students are expected to be familiar with their rights and responsibilities under the University’s
Academic Integrity Code.
Readings
Readings are indicated on the Course Outline during the week they will be discussed. This is an
incomplete list – additional readings will be available on Blackboard. Some of these are required
for all students; some will be individually assigned to students who will present a summary of
them in class. Most of the readings are from books and journals aimed at management
practitioners. All required and recommended readings, except for the two books recommended
for purchase, will be posted on Blackboard.
Instructors
Joseph Eldridge is the University Chaplain of American University and responsible for
managing the programs of the Kay Spiritual Life Center. For over 25 years he has been involved
with Latin American human rights and development issues. He founded an NGO, the
Washington Office on Latin America, and established the Washington operation of the Lawyers
Committee for Human Rights (now Human Rights First). He is on the board of directors of the
Arca Foundation, and is an ordained minister in the United Methodist Church. He has a doctor of
divinity degree from Wesley Theological Seminary, and recently received the Louis B. Sohn
award from the United Nations Association for his contributions to advancing human rights.
Robert Tomasko, a Professorial Lecturer at American University has had a career that has
straddled the worlds of activism and business. He is author of four management books and has
spoken about the ideas in them to audiences on six continents. He has worked as a consultant on
issues of organization and strategy to companies including Coca-Cola, Exxon, Infosys, Marriott,
Mitsubishi, Petroleum Authority of Thailand, PetroPeru and Toyota. He has been an advisor to
UNICEF and the Auditor General of Canada. For seven years he evaluated the performance of the
American companies who were signatories of the Sullivan Principles on how well they violated
the apartheid laws of South Africa. He studied organization at Harvard Business School and with
community organizer Saul Alinsky. He has a masters degree from Harvard Graduate School of
Education where he specialized in organizational learning.
Contact information
Joe Eldridge: 202-885-3336
eldridg@american.edu
Bob Tomasko: 202-362-5210
tomasko@american.edu
Both instructors welcome individual meetings with students outside of scheduled class hours.
Please contact either of us to schedule a convenient time and place.