Do You See A Need For More Executive Management Training In General?
Q: Do you see a need for more Executive management training in general?
Having worked for a number of nonprofits in Arizona and
California, I am now an MBA student at the University of
Montana. I'm doing a research paper on nonprofit management
training programs/institutes/seminars to explore the possibility
of creating a non-degree summer training institute here at the
UM School of Business.
Any thoughts about the following questions would be warmly
appreciated:
Which non-degree training programs are most respected nationally
for quality training?
Which non-degree training programs are most accessible to
nonprofits in the Northwest? (In the Rockies?)
Would the Northern Rockies be a desirable location for 5 to
10-day summer training programs?
Do you see a need for more management training in general?
Particular topics?
A:There is a continuing and ever-present need for
competent and professional managers of non-profit organizations, and
your desire to help educate potential staff executives is to be
commended.
I expect that you have the full and enthusiastic backing of the
University of Montana’s decision-makers. Your “paper” is no doubt
intended to conduct research, state findings, and make recommendations
to the UM School of Business.
However, in advance of your possibly independent study, it might be
greatly to your advantage to have as much direct participation as
possible from the UM School of Business to help you obtain answers the
several questions you stated in your message. Surely the educators
there would know some of the answers already.
There are a number of listings of centers for non-profit management
which cover the full range of accreditation particulars. Directly to a
number of them, or perhaps via an “umbrella” group, you should be able
to know about the “market” potential for your proposed training
institute.
Starting with the Internet Nonprofit Center’s own listing, there are
links provided there to other great resources which might be of use to
you --- as follows:
--- Internet Nonprofit Center
http://www.nonprofits.org/misc/acad.htm
--- Chronicle of Philanthropy
Research & Academic Centers On Philanthropy
http://philanthropy.com/free/resources/general/academic.htm
--- Independent Sector
http://www.independentsector.org/pathfinder/resources/acad_ctrs/
I would think that if you talked to foundation program officers and
corporate contributions managers in your proposed area of service
regarding their possible current support for such teaching and training
activities, that you could better position what it is you are going to
do to what they support --- or could want to support. You don’t want to
duplicate effort. You should have a unique mission.
Now, I’m going to express what is an unabashed, biased, and otherwise
strident call for you to be sure that you make fund-raising a meaningful
component of your proposed curriculum.
I know of far too many non-profit management programs which omit
fund-raising in the curriculum, or they allow the student to choose
whether or not she or he will want to know what fund-raising is all
about. To have such a critically important component of non-profit
management be regarded in that way is big mistake, in my opinion.
What new Executive Director, on the job’s first day, would not want to
know what the Development Department is all about? And far too many new
Executive Directors find themselves to be _the_ Development Department.
They must know what comprises the fund-raising process before they walk
through