Sunday, March 30, 2014

Fundraising is Fun and the Magic of the Nonprofit Sector

In today’s NYTIMES there is a column by Arthur C. Brooks titled,   “Why Fundraising is Fun” that explains why this is so.  So I recommend it to all your fundraisers and donors out there. 

And for all you activists out there, I found that this paragraph toward the end of the piece did a wonderful job of expressing the magical potential and promise of the nonprofit sector:

“Of course, not everyone shares the principles that motivate my institution’s scholars and supporters. But with millions of 501(c)(3)s and houses of worship nationwide, no one needs to wait on the sidelines and hope that politicians will marshal government power in service of their priorities. By investing their own time, talent and treasure, every American can bring his or her core principles to life. That can mean promoting literacy, conserving nature, saving souls or something else entirely.”


Here at Bay Path College's graduate programs in nonprofit management and philanthropy, and nonprofit strategic fundraising and philanthopy, our goal is to help students "bring [their]core principles to life" by excelling in the nonprofit sector.  

Monday, March 24, 2014

The link between Economic Inequality and the rise of 501-c4 "superpacs"

Over the last two weeks, there have been one, two, three, four, five interesting and, by my thinking, disturbing articles in the NYTIMES about the increasing disparity in wealth in the US and the increasing use of 501c-4 nonprofits to hide from the public the massive amounts of “secret” money being spent to influence the outcome of political elections. An explicit link between the two trends isn't made within the articles--but the link is not hard to make. .  


One the one hand, the increasing concentration of wealth is giving a relatively small portion of the electorate the capacity to make outsized campaign contributions and 501c4 organizations are providing this wealthy minority the means to do so in secret.   Nonprofit leaders should not allow the sector to be the instrument of such anti-democratic practices.   They should be demanding that the IRS implement rules that return the nonprofit sector to its traditional role of advocacy and greatly curtail its role in financing political campaigns.  To wit, one of the articles mentions the overwhelming opposition there is to the proposed IRS regulations that would be a first step toward accomplishing that. 

Monday, March 10, 2014

Bay Path College's New Nonprofit Graduate Course on Diversity is Well-Received by Students

In a previous blog, I spoke about the changes we made to our nonprofit marketing class.  In this blog, I want to spotlight the changes we’ve made to NMP 610: Diversity in Nonprofits.  We wanted the course to go beyond a simple acknowledgement that we live in a multi-cultural world and to help students explore the implications of this reality through the lens of self-awareness, effective organizational leadership, and the societal concept of social justice. 

To that end, Gina Joseph Collins, a former Dean at Bay Path College and diversity expert, has done a fabulous job totally redesigning the course to achieve the following learning outcomes:

·       Define concepts and frameworks related to diversity and inclusion;
·       Examine key challenges and opportunities for nonprofits in the 21st century;
·       Assess leadership styles and communication skills;
·       Make the business case for diversity and inclusion;
·       Evaluate and build on diversity initiatives within organizations;
·       Design measurements and results oriented strategies for organizational change;
·       Explore the meaning of social justice; and
·       Reflect on the value of diversity for nonprofit organizations.

Professor Collins finished teaching the new course last week for the first time and here is a student’s reaction to the course:

"My first lesson learned is that the work to be aware of the value of diversity and inclusion is never ending.  We must regularly self evaluate to determine how well we think we're doing on the issues and how well we actually are and how we will measure our success and areas for improvement.  

My second lesson learned is productivity and job satisfaction go up when diversity and inclusion have organizational top to bottom importance.  Failure to do the work, to walk the walk and talk the talk, can cause both issues to be relegated to annual seminars that receive emphasis one day a year and then forgotten.  Organizations can't afford to do that. 

I thought the course was informative and taught me that as much as I thought I knew about diversity coming into the class, there is still a lot left to understand about myself and the environment around me."