Nonprofit and Mission-Driven Management Specialization

This specialization is designed for professionals who want to become leaders and managers of nonprofit and other mission driven enterprises.  It provides students with the skills needed to enter the nonprofit field, advance their current nonprofit career, or become a nonprofit or mission driven enterprise entrepreneur. Students take the regular M.P.A. core curriculum and three electives from the nonprofit courses offered in the program. This program combines rigorous instruction with a practical orientation toward mission- driven organizational management.

To complete the program students will take a minimum of 33 credit hours. In particular, they will:

Take 24 credit hours (8 courses) in the MPA core curriculum:

1) PA 501 Essentials for Public Management in a Complex Society: Processes, Structures and Values
2) PA 502 Leading and Managing Knowledge-Intensive Organizations
3) PA 522 Effective Management of Human Resources in Environments of Scarce Resources
4) PA 532 Managing Public Financial Resources in a Changing World
5) PA 568 Strategic Competitiveness in the Public Sector
6) PA 580 Policy Evaluation Analytics
7) PA 581 Policy Design Analytics
8) PA 509 Integrative Practicum for Effective Leadership in Public and Nonprofit Organizations

Take 9 elective credit hours (3 courses) from the following:

PA 505 The Law and the Nonprofit Sector examines local, state, and Federal law as it pertains to the nonprofit sector. This includes such things as the IRS, lobbying, human resources, property, and contracts.

PA 533 Advanced Financial Management for Public and Nonprofit Organizations - This course focuses on the application of strategies and techniques used by financial managers to evaluate nonprofit and government financial condition and performance. It is intended to help students acquire the skills necessary to understand and interpret public and nonprofit sector financial information. Students will learn how to analyze operating budgets, evaluate the management of short-term resources, analyze capital budgets and long-term financing strategies and conduct financial indicator analysis to assess an organization’s long-term financial health. Prerequisite: PA 532. (3-0-3)

PA 535 Resource Development in the Nonprofit Sector provides insight and learning into fundraising, marketing, and strategic planning in the nonprofit sector. This course offers an in-depth look into finding and securing the resources necessary to the success of nonprofit organizations.

PA 540 Alternative Dispute Resolution - This course will introduce you to the formally accepted varieties of resolving disputes without going to court: negotiation, mediation, fact-finding, mini-trials court sponsored settlement procedures, and arbitration.  We will focus on process: what each term means; how the different processes work and compare with one another; when they can and cannot be used more effectively and how; and what considerations, techniques and/or factors make each kind of process work best.  This is a survey course to give a general idea of the different kinds of alternative dispute resolution methods.  Although simulations are used it is not equivalent to a full skills training program. Note: This course is also applicable to the nonprofit sector.

PA 541 Performance Measurement in Nonprofit and Public Management is an applied course which will help students understand performance measurement concepts, develop specific performance measures, and apply performance measurement techniques to solve real world problems in both the nonprofit and public sectors.

PA 543 Public Policy, Nonprofits, and Philanthropy examines the long history of charitable giving across the globe, with special emphasis on the United States. In particular, this course will focus on the philosophical roots of philanthropy, organized giving, and the role philanthropy has played in the development of modern public policy, as it pertains to health and human services.

PA 565 The Nonprofit Sector is an overview course which offers the history, growth, and evolution of the sector, which also explores some of the critical management and leadership issues facing a nonprofit manager.

PA 566 Nonprofits and the Public Sector provides an overview of the complex and important relationship between government and non-profits. This course includes a review of the history, funding schemes, the differences between grant and contract funding, recent trends, and much more.

PA 570 Social Capital and the Community - The 21st Century confronts the public sector with new challenges and opportunities. Many of these challenges and opportunities will take place on the community level; and many of those challenges and opportunities will be centered on the notion of social capital and the community. Social Capital means the building of and use of community assets, those resources available to the community through its residents or citizens, associations, institutions, and its economic life. Using an Asset-Based Community Development Approach the objective of this course is to help the student understand and use the concept of asset-based approaches to social capital and community as it relates to public administration.

PA 579 Ethics & Professional Responsibility - Focuses on the ethical problems and issues faced by individuals in nonprofit and public service organizations. Examines questions related to corruption, abuse of power, financial impropriety, ethics codes and standards in government and professional fields, whistle-blowing, and many other topics related to front-page concerns and individual problems of conscience and judgment. Traces the growth of concern about the standards of ethical behavior in government and nonprofits in the U.S. (3-0-3)