This introductory course provides an examination of the management, operations and governance principles and practices of nonprofits in the United States. Directly and indirectly, students will learn the answers to the following questions--and more: How should and do nonprofits operate? What makes them tick? How are nonprofits similar to and different from for-profit organizations? What are the myths versus the truths about nonprofits? What are the challenges facing nonprofits now and in the near future? And so much more.

This course is designed to provide students with a full understanding of the roles and responsibilities of American nonprofit boards, individual board members and executive leadership, as well as the interplay of all, and to introduce the idea of alternative model(s). Through class, readings and assignments, students will learn the theory and the ideal and compare it with the reality. As a result, they will be able to formulate a strong board, devise a strong governance-leadership relationship, evaluate ongoing performance, and support ongoing positive outcomes.

This course is designed to provide the skills and knowledge to plan an organizational budget, to implement best practices in financial policies and procedures, to evaluate financial statements, to make financial decisions, and to comply with the legal reporting requirements.

This class offers an overview of fundraising trends, concepts, and strategies. Students will gain an understanding of how fundraising works, and learn how to design contributed revenue programs for charitable nonprofit organizations. Major topics include donor motivation, communicating your organization's worth to donors, and selecting effective fundraising strategies based on an organization's individual circumstances. Students will learn how to raise funds from individuals, foundations, and corporations. Issues of ethics in fundraising will also be explored.

This class focuses upon strategic planning/strategic management, essential skill areas for the 21st century leader. The course highlights planning models as well as key planning functions. The course is "Grounded in theory; anchored in application." Students will learn and apply a set of well-established planning tools and techniques. This course is collaborative, placing shared responsibility for learning upon all participants, students and instructor alike. This course is interactive, featuring a variety of learning tools and approaches. Real work samples are introduced and multiple learning techniques employed.

This class is about both law and ethics, underscoring that they are not synonymous. Students will gain an understanding of the legal requirements and ethical considerations surrounding everything from starting and dissolving a nonprofit to the laws of fundraising and lobbying. As a class for nonprofit leaders, not lawyers, the course is designed to allow students to appraise and interpret the legal and ethical frameworks necessary to ensure compliance and the ability to construct the right questions to ask of an attorney, the right ethical challenges to propose to staff and board and the tools and knowledge needed to design an organization that is not only legally compliant but ethically run.

Program Evaluation for Nonprofit Leaders recognizes that the nonprofit sector has entered the "Age of Assessment." This course covers both quantitative and qualitative theories and approaches to evaluation with special accent upon measuring program outcomes. The course utilizes a well respected, time tested evaluation model for evaluation and a hands-on approach to apply concrete, practical tools and techniques. Applications range from preparing an evaluation design to demonstrating specific skills such as developing logic models, survey design, and focus group facilitation. The course does not emphasize statistical or technological applications.

The course will enable participants to understand the advanced principles of marketing and public relations with the purpose of applying them as part of the strategic planning knowledge base required of any high- level nonprofit executive. By the end of the course, participants will be proficient in preparing a marketing plan and putting these principles into practice.

This course is designed to do two things: to explore some of the current trends and issues operating in the nonprofit sector at this time AND to help students gain a comfort with understanding the research of others so that they may become better consumers of research, if not also better researchers. This class explores together three specific, current issues/trends of which nonprofit leaders should be aware because of their potential impact, be it positive, negative or even neutral. The trends explored change with each offering of the class, but two are selected by the profession and the third by the class. In addition, each student will investigate, and share with the rest of the class, an issue/trend of interest to him/her.

This experiential course is focused on helping students expand their leadership/management capability through systematic assessment of their existing competencies, targeted skill development, and by providing practice in applying the newly acquired skills. A five-step learning framework is used to "drive" this skill acquisition process. During this skill development process, the student receives feedback from self-assessment results, faculty, other participants and co-workers. Topics will include: self-awareness, time and stress management, individual and group problem solving, communication, power and influence, motivation, conflict management, empowerment, and team leadership, and leading positive change.

The Capstone Project is a semester-long, learning experience focused on a specific aspect of nonprofit leadership based on a student's interests. The capstone is intended as an opportunity both to integrate all that has been learned throughout the course of the degree program and to explore more deeply a particular subject matter tied to a student's professional development. A student is required to present her/his capstone project both orally and in written form.