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HOW CENTERS WORK: Building and
Sustaining Academic Nonprofit Centers For a printer-friendly Adobe .PDF version of this report, click here.
Accompanying the growth and development of nonprofit management as a recognized profession has been the parallel establishment and demand for academic programs that serve the nonprofit sector. In the United States, programs focused on nonprofit studies can be found in academic departments and schools of public administration, social work, and business. However, much of the research on nonprofit management, philanthropy more generally, and many of the graduate programs focused primarily on nonprofit management, are associated with academic centers or institutes. The field of nonprofit studies has grown from the work of a set of academic centers and the faculty, administrators and staff who developed these centers. The builders of these centers provided the intellectual capital, practical knowledge, organizational skills, and, as we have learned, networks of relationships that have enabled other like minded persons to bring this topic of study to their own campuses. In this document, we share findings about the development and sustainability of academic nonprofit centers. We describe how these centers work – how they were created, who leads them, how they are lead, and how they gain academic credibility and institutional stability. We hope that this publication provides you with information to help you build, expand, and support nonprofit academic centers and the field of nonprofit studies. The statements and findings in this document are based on literature about academic centers in higher education institutions, 16 personal interviews with current or former directors of nonprofit management or philanthropy-focused academic centers, and program proposals and annual reports submitted by more than 20 nonprofit academic centers and programs funded in the past 10 years by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. The categories we use to discuss how centers work are grounded in the personal interviews and annual reports, and complemented by the literature. When we speak about academic centers in general, we use the term centers. When speaking about nonprofit management or philanthropy-focused academic centers, we use the term nonprofit center. Margin quotes are from personal interviews with nonprofit center directors. Introductory Letter/Robert F. Long In
the mid-1980s, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation began to invest in nonprofit The nonprofit organization
context at that time also played an important role in the Foundation’s
decision. Nonprofit organizations were becoming an increasing source of support
for and development of human services in the United States. These organizations
had to respond to rapidly changing budgets and roles of the business and
government sectors. As a result of the changes in the operating environment for
nonprofit organizations, new management and leadership competencies were
required of nonprofit leaders. They needed to have an increasing array of skills
to enable people and organizations to improve the quality of life in their
communities. Educational responses were needed to help prepare nonprofit leaders
for these challenges. Today, while conditions continue to change and challenges
multiply, a growing number and variety of educational programs and services now
support the field. Over 15 years ago the Kellogg Foundation made its first grants to support the development of a variety of nonprofit management education programs. The earliest of these investments included grants to new higher education responses at the University of San Francisco, Case Western Reserve University, and Indiana University. These programs continue to serve as models for other institutions developing educational responses to the needs of the nonprofit sector. Over the decade after those first investments, the nonprofit management and philanthropic studies movement grew at a rapid pace. The Foundation continued to invest in educational programs dedicated to increasing the capacity of community-based nonprofit organizations to foster creative responses to critical needs. During these years, over $15 million in grant funds was dedicated to improving the responsiveness of and access to nonprofit management and philanthropic studies programs. Beginning in January 1997, the Foundation invested an additional $12.5 million, over four years, in an initiative to further strengthen the nonprofit management and philanthropic studies movement. The initiative was designed with input from two years of field research commissioned by the Foundation. The research revealed that a bridge needed to be built between academic programs and practitioners working in the field. The research also revealed the importance of better-trained leaders and the need for racial and cultural diversity. Nineteen projects, engaged in a wide range of educational programs, were supported through the Building Bridges Between Practice and Knowledge in Nonprofit Management Education Initiative (BBI). This Building Bridges Initiative was launched with the hope that, individually and collectively, the projects would have a positive impact on the nonprofit management and philanthropic studies movement and the field in general. Results from the initiative report and evaluation indicate that the goal was indeed met. In 2000, to supplement the work being undertaken in the BBI, the Kellogg Foundation commissioned the study, Building Philanthropy and Nonprofit Academic Centers: A View from Ten Builders. The purpose of that study was to explore the development of early educational programs and the roles that academic innovators played in the development and sustainability of these programs. The summary of successful strategies those early innovators employed can, we hope, inform the work of the BBI as well as current and future leaders in the field. The Kellogg Foundation’s involvement in the nonprofit management and philanthropic studies movement has followed a natural and inductive process, learning from early investments, becoming more strategic and targeted, and engaging in more active leadership efforts. This publication is intended to provide insight into some of the key elements that are important in the success of educational programs in the nonprofit management and philanthropic studies movement. It is based on years of Kellogg Foundation investment, augmented by its commissioned research in the field, and supported by the voices of key leaders of this educational movement. Robert F. Long ory Letter/Michael O'Neill During
the last half century, and especially since the mid-1960s, Key to this development was an expanding network of academic centers. Some focused on research, others concentrated on teaching, many did both. Within their universities and communities, the centers raised the visibility of nonprofit studies and provided a base for program development, scientific inquiry, service to local nonprofits, and fundraising. The centers also communicated and cooperated with each other, especially through the Nonprofit Academic Centers Council, which now includes some 40 affiliates. Through their education and training programs, research and publications, consulting and community service, the centers have had a powerful impact on the U.S. nonprofit sector. This is perhaps most evident in the thousands of students and graduates who "voted with their feet" for the nonprofit programs and returned to their organizations with new knowledge, skills, and self-confidence. Nonprofit centers are ultimately the gift of a burgeoning nonprofit sector. Universities have made major resource commitments to the centers, especially through the work of dedicated faculty, administrators, and staff. Individual and institutional funders have played a critically important role. It is especially fitting that the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, one of the leading funders of the nonprofit academic centers, is the sponsor of this publication, which will be highly useful to both experienced and new nonprofit center leaders. Michael O’Neill |
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