The Nonprofit Leadership Certificate: From Credits to Career

[Pages:23]The Nonprofit Leadership Certificate: From Credits to Career By

Francinia D. McKeithan

A paper submitted to the faculty of The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree

Master of Public Administration Spring 2011

This paper represents work done by a UNC-Chapel Hill Master of Public Administration student. It is not a formal report of the Institute of Government, nor is it the work of School of Government faculty.

Executive Summary The Nonprofit Leadership Certificate Program at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) has risen to answer the nonprofit sector's call for the professional skill development nonprofits need to manage their organizations. Since its origin in 1995, over 110 students have completed the program. The purpose of this study was to examine the knowledge and skills gained from completion of the Nonprofit Leadership Certificate Program and to assess the Certificate's relevance to alumni careers with specific focus on alumni working in the nonprofit sector. Responses were collected from a pool of 101 certificate alumni at a 48.5% response rate. Overall, respondents expressed satisfaction with the effect the Nonprofit Leadership Certificate, with 86% of those surveyed noting satisfaction with the Certificate's effect on their professional lives. This paper examines the survey responses, draws program specific conclusions based on the responses, makes connections to existing literature, and provides recommendations for future study.

Background The Nonprofit Leadership Certificate Program ("The Program") began in 1995. Since that time, the Program has focused on preparing students for leadership roles in North Carolina's nonprofit sector. The Program is interdisciplinary and draws upon the expertise of faculty from the University's Schools of Business, Information and Library Science, Law, Public Health, Social Work, and Government, as well as professionals in public agencies, foundations, businesses and the nonprofit community. After completing the Nonprofit Leadership Certificate Program, graduates have been exposed to a variety of competitive skills, including how to:

? Analyze financial statements, ? Develop strategic marketing, advocacy and fundraising plans, ? Understand 501(c) (3) compliance issues, ? Work with and develop a board of directors, ? Effectively develop and manage staff, and ? Work with the media. Lastly, the Program exists in a state with over 10,000 nonprofits.1 According to the Employment Security Commission, nonprofits provide over 400,000 jobs ? almost 10% of all jobs in N.C. Furthermore, the nonprofit sector puts $33 billion into the state's economy each year.

Problem Statement In 2001, the MPA program facilitated focus groups of Nonprofit Leadership Certificate graduates to inform curriculum development for the Program. Thirteen individuals with graduate level degrees who were involved in nonprofit management attended the two groups. The focus groups communicated the need for additional training in Fundraising and Development, Personnel and Human Resource Management, Managing Technology, and Strategic Planning. Members of the group also expressed a desire for networking and maintaining a network of support for Program alumni. No other examination of UNC's Nonprofit Leadership Certificate had been completed since this time. Moreover, the Program had no documented measure of the manner in which alumni careers have benefited from the knowledge and skills gained from Certificate coursework prior to this investigation.

Research Question and Hypothesis What career benefits do alumni of the Nonprofit Certificate Leadership Program report? My hypothesis was that those alumni working Middle or Executive/Senior Management positions in nonprofit organizations would report satisfaction with the benefit of the knowledge and skills gained from the Nonprofit Leadership Certificate Program at a higher rate than alumni that were not in similar positions. A second hypothesis was that alumni would say that they have benefitted from the focus and content of the Certificate's required coursework by using that knowledge and skill in their career work.

Research Design and Limitations The survey tool (Appendix A) was adapted from the Kellogg Alumni Survey, as discussed by Larson (2002), Fletcher (2005), and Herman & Renz (2007), for use among the alumni of the UNC Nonprofit Leadership Certificate Program. The analysis included 26 items that asked alumni to assess the extent to which they learned about specific NACC2 standards through formal course work in the Nonprofit Leadership Certificate Program.3

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Data Collection & Sampling Of the total 113 alumni listed in the School of Social Work's database, contact information was confirmed for 101 prospective participants.4 The questionnaires were delivered to the potential 101 subjects using the Qualtrics electronic survey mailer.

Response Rate and Respondent Demographics 49 alumni completed the survey. This represents a 48.5% (49/101) total response rate.5 Alumni were asked questions about their age, gender, educational background, current and past employment, and program affiliation.

Gender: Survey respondents were significantly more likely to be female (81%) than male (19%). Age: Most respondents were between the ages of 30 and 39 (51%). The next largest response group was alumni between the ages of 20 and 29 (33%). Education: 14 of those surveyed were affiliated with the Master's Program at the School of Social Work. The second largest cohorts were composed of students that graduated from the Master of Public Administration and the School of Law (6 alumni each). Employment: 13% indicated Executive/Senior Management positions, while 35% designated positions in Middle Management. Program Characteristics: Respondents were concentrated among more recent graduates: 2010 (9 respondents), 2004 (7 respondents), 2007 (5 respondents), and 2006 (5 respondents) respectively. No responses were from alumni who completed the Program prior to 2000.

Literature Review The first conference addressing university-based programs in nonprofit management education was convened in San Francisco during 1988. In the years that followed, numerous academic conferences were held specifically to discuss nonprofit management education.

Scholars have written about the number of Nonprofit Master's degree programs, where these programs are housed, and the types of courses offered in these programs.6 However, information on the outcomes and impacts of university based graduate nonprofit degree programs has been scarce.

The 1980s and 1990s saw the beginning and rapid expansion of nonprofit management education. The field was virtually nonexistent in 1980; by the year 2000, the literature on the topic focused on practical concerns including program rationale, curriculum, faculty, students, funding, alumni and employer satisfaction, and the best place for such programs within universities.

The first attempt to determine the success of a nonprofit management degree program did not occur until 1992. Crowder and Hodgkinson reported the results of a survey of faculty and directors that showed respondents were optimistic about the success of their programs. Indicators identified as measures of success included:

? Understanding and appreciation for nonprofits gained by students; ? Greater awareness of students of the sector's critical role in society; ? Involvement of professionals from the nonprofit sector in these programs; ? Continued success and growth in enrollment; ? Growth in number of classes, students, and projects; ? A stronger and more involved group of students to advocate for nonprofit causes; and ? Increased acceptance of nonprofit issues as legitimate questions of public good and service

delivery by the department, the college, and areas of state and local government. The results of this study pointed to the excitement generated by the development of these programs, but did not address the question of impact.

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In 1996, a flood of research and information was generated when the University of San Francisco held a second conference on nonprofit management education. Amid these papers were several that focused on the design of nonprofit management programs through an analysis of stakeholder, but not alumni, views.7

Mirabella and Wish conducted interviews at 10 locations where universities offered some type of master's degree with an emphasis on nonprofit management or a separate nonprofit management degree.8 This study, conducted in 1999, marked the first study of the outcomes of nonprofit management education. Alumni of the programs agreed that indicators of program effectiveness included enhanced networking opportunities, acquisition of requisite management skills, and employment/career advancement. The Building Bridges Initiative Cluster Evaluation9 surveyed alumni from six nonprofit management graduate and certificate programs affiliated with the Building Bridges Initiative. The most important finding in this study was the ample evidence that alumni had garnered new skills and were thinking and acting differently because of these skills. Alumni reported increased confidence in their management abilities along with gained ability in applying theory to practice. Moreover, these alumni spoke of new or improved skills in strategic planning, human resources, fundraising, budgeting, and proposal writing.

In 2005, Fletcher surveyed alumni of three of the oldest and largest nonprofit management master's degree programs. Respondents gave positive responses about the degree to which the program prepared them for a managerial position, increased their knowledge relevant to their careers, and prepared them for managing the internal and external functions of nonprofit organizations. Herman and Renz10 later considered the implications for curricular content of nonprofit management programs drawing on a survey of 88 alumni of a Master of Public Administration program with an emphasis in nonprofit management. These implications included decisions about course changes, justifications for special course topics, and the placement of nonprofit management education within programs of various disciplines.

Methods of Analysis The previous paragraphs featured past research on nonprofit management education. In my research, analysis of quantitative data involved descriptive statistics, including frequencies, cross tabulations, and means in addition to inferential statistics such as tests for measures of correlation between variables.

Findings The most distinguishing characteristics among all survey respondents were that:

? 63% are currently employed with a nonprofit organization. ? 48% are working in positions of Middle to Senior/Executive Management ? 94% were satisfied with the overall progression of their career path.

Career Impact It is clear from the survey results that alumni thought the Nonprofit Leadership Certificate Program had a positive effect on their careers. Overall, 45 of the 49 respondents reported at least one of the following since attending the program (Appendix D):

? 24% become more aware of career options; ? 38% expressed increased clarity regarding their career direction; ? 40% felt that they were well-prepared for a management position in a nonprofit organization; ? 51% felt that they were more likely to assume or had already assumed a leadership role in a

nonprofit organization.

While 86% of all respondents professed satisfaction with the Certificate's benefit to their careers, 82% of those currently working in nonprofit organizations were satisfied with the Certificate's benefit to their professional life. In addition to this, 97% of those working in nonprofits report satisfaction with the overall progression of their careers (Appendix C).

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Knowledge and Skills Gained from Coursework Alumni working in nonprofit organizations were asked to what degree the eighteen areas contributed to their knowledge and skills (Appendix B, Table B1). Responses ranged from 1 to 10. A level 1 response denoted coursework contributed "not at all" to the respondent's knowledge or skill in the area and 10 meant coursework contributed "a great deal."11 Thus, the higher the mean score for an area of the curriculum, the more alumni perceive the program's contribution to that specific set of knowledge and skills. The area of knowledge/skill with the highest mean was Nonprofit Legal Structure (M= 7.31).

Importance of Knowledge and Skills to Work Alumni working in nonprofit organizations were also asked to indicate how important each of the eighteen knowledge and skill areas was to their work (Appendix B, Table B2) using the 1 to 10 response range described above. The area of knowledge/skill with the highest mean value for importance to their current work was Program Development and Management (M=8.25).

Comparison of Knowledge and Skills Gained to Importance of Knowledge and Skills to Work A side by side comparison of the mean values and the differences in means for Program contribution and importance to work of each knowledge and skill area can be found in Appendix B, Table 3.

Interestingly, the highest difference between mean scores was found in the area of Nonprofit Legal Structure, a difference of -2.75. Respondents felt that they gained considerable knowledge and skill from the Certificate's coursework on Nonprofit Legal Structure, but many did not find this knowledge/skill area to be nearly as important to their current work. Similarly, respondents working in nonprofit organizations said they learned more about Accounting (difference in means = -1.16) and Fundraising and Development (-0.48) than is important to their current work.

In contrast, those respondents working in nonprofits found some knowledge/skills to be of greater importance to their current work than the contributions from Certificate coursework. These included Media and Public Relations (difference in means = 2.19), Marketing (1.75), Information Systems Development and Management (1.62), and Program Development and Management (1.58).

In order to measure the association between respondents' perceived importance of various management functions and the degree to which the Certificate helped them develop that skill, Pearson's Correlation Coefficients were computed for each of the 18 knowledge and skill areas. (Appendix B, Table B 4)

Of the completed correlations, 14 out of 18 had r values below .50 and reflect low to moderate correlations between the compared sets of scores.12 Low correlations indicate that high scores in one variable are not strongly associated with high scores for another variable. Moderate correlations point to moderate associations between variables. Accounting, Public Policy Advocacy, Ethics and Values, and Nonprofit Legal Structure were the areas with the strongest relationship between knowledge/skills gained from the Curriculum and importance in the respondent's current work. Several factors play into these correlations including alumni employment position, time since completing the certificate, and the respondent's application and retention of Certificate coursework and may explain these varied responses.

Cross tabulation was also used to explore several relationships present in this study (Appendix C). One finding from this examination is that that those in Middle Management to Executive/Senior positions did not profess more associated benefit from certificate learning (45.7%, N= 41) than those working in nonsupervisory positions.

There is also a strong relationship between employment in nonprofits and career satisfaction (Appendix C, Cross Tabulation 4). Of the 30 respondents working in nonprofit organizations, only one expressed dissatisfaction with the progression of his/her career path. The direction and focus provided by the Certificate (and reported by respondents) are likely to have contributed to this high level of satisfaction.

Satisfaction with Program Elements Appendix D shows alumni satisfaction with various elements of the Program. It includes a combination of interpersonal elements, such as collaboration and faculty mentoring, as well as academic elements.

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Many reported having a greater understanding of the work that nonprofits do as well as the practical skills needed for work in nonprofit organizations.

Conversely, there were several program elements that alumni wanted added or changed. These concerns and suggestions are reported in Appendix E, Tables 1 and 2. Key findings included the demand for amplified connections between theory and practice, coordination across programs, increased networking opportunities, and greater emphasis on program development and grant writing.

Conclusion and Recommendations

One research question guided this research: What career benefits do alumni of the Nonprofit Leadership Certificate Program report?

From this research question, two hypotheses emerged. One hypothesis proposed that alumni working in Middle to Executive/Senior Management positions in nonprofit organizations would report benefits of the knowledge and skills gained from the Program at a higher rate than alumni that are not in similar positions. This hypothesis was not supported from the findings of this report.

Alumni that are working in Operations and Non-Management positions in nonprofit organizations report benefits of the skills and knowledge gained from Certificate Program at a higher rate than those working in Middle to Executive/Senior Management positions. Additionally, many of the respondents who are not working in nonprofits report significant benefits that they attribute to the knowledge and skills gained from Certificate coursework.

The second hypothesis was that alumni would say that they have benefitted from the focus and content of the Certificate's required coursework by using that knowledge and skill in their work. Alumni found course content current, instructional quality high, and coursework connected to practice. Although there were differences in the mean scores for each area of knowledge and skill, alumni have gained knowledge and skills from Certificate coursework that they are able to use in both nonprofit and private sectors.

However, there is still a need for more involved programmatic linkages between practice and knowledge such as collaboration between students and local nonprofit organizations (Appendix E, Table E 1) Furthermore, many alumni expressed a desire for increased opportunities for networking among students in the Certificate Program in addition to opportunities for networking with nonprofit executives. This desire was also expressed in studies conducted by Mirabella and Wish (1999), Larson (2002), and the study of the Certificate Program that was conducted in 2001. The high number of requests for networking opportunities present among this study's respondents highlights a need in the Program that is still going unmet.

Strategic changes will be required in order to respond to these requests. The Program can offer more networking opportunities, but these events will not be cost effective if students do not actually attend. Because of the interdisciplinary structure of the Program, there may be additional difficulty identifying an optimum location/time for such an event to take place. Also, any course offerings/faculty additions will be restricted given the University's current budget limitations.

Future exploration of the Program should focus attention on the employee knowledge and skills that nonprofits in North Carolina seek. If the Program desires stay true to its mission to educate leaders for work in the state's nonprofit sector, the program should survey organizations in the state to ensure that it maintains and develops a curriculum that is aligned with the needs of the sector. Further research could explore the NACC quality indicators and craft a survey that would be distributed a survey among these organizations.

The Nonprofit Leadership Certificate Program does prepare students to meet the demand for well trained nonprofit leaders in the state of North Carolina. The Program provides a plethora of learning opportunities for students/professionals who choose to either complete the Certificate in its entirety or enroll in select courses. Much like the credits offered, no two careers are just alike. Each participant takes his/her learning from the Certificate and transitions into a career.

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1 North Carolina Center for Nonprofits, 2010 2 Nonprofit Academic Centers Council 3 Components of the survey included: Background Information, Application to and Preparation for Practice, Career Impact, Program Experience and Satisfaction, and Demographic Information. The survey contained yes/no questions, multiple-choice questions and rating scale questions, along with open-ended questions. 4 To verify the most recent contact information for graduates of the program, contact information was obtained from the School of Social Work's Alumni Office. 5 This study included several limitations. First, many of the questions in the survey tool examined elements of satisfaction with the Nonprofit Leadership Certificate. "Satisfaction" is limited to each individual's interpretation of the term, and there is no definite way of knowing the specific aspect each respondent had in mind when he/she responded to the online survey questions nor can we assert that respondents would answer as they did on the initial survey if they were asked to respond to the same questions again. As with any survey, this appraisal was limited in its ability to show causality. While this study has shown that alumni possessing the Certificate of Nonprofit Leadership express satisfaction with their careers after having participated in the certificate program, it cannot ascertain that obtaining the certificate is, in fact, what led alumni to actual satisfaction with the certificate's benefits to their career. Further, a selection bias exists given that those who are most satisfied with their careers, university affiliation, and/or those who are still working in nonprofit organizations may have been more likely to respond to this survey because of their positive associations with these experiences. 6 Rubin, Adamski, and Block, 1989; Heimovics and Herman, 1989; Hall, 1994 7 Tschirhart, 1998; Renz, 1996 8 Mirabella and Wish, 1999 9 Larson, 2002 10 Herman & Renz, 2007 11 It is important to note that for Likert scale variables, the mean score should be viewed with caution. This is because Likert scales are not interval level scales, and the concept of a mean requires that intervals be uniform. For the purpose of this project, the average values for each of the learning outcomes are presented with the intention of ranking how well the program is working to enhance student abilities on the various learning outcomes. 12 Based on Pearson Correlation interpretation for social sciences

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Acknowledgements: Countless thanks are due to the members of my Capstone committee (chair Margaret Henderson, Mat Despard, and Gordon Whitaker) for their crucial input and guidance offered during this process. I also thank Teresa Edwards, of the Odum Institute, for her thoughts and feedback in crafting and implementing the survey. Lastly, I want to thank the alumni of the Nonprofit Leadership Certificate Program who gladly took the time to thoughtfully reflect on their experiences with the Program.

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