In the United States, nonprofit organizations operate in a turbulent environment with limited resources.  They face complex challenges that include:

• Rapid changes in technology and information management;
• Diverse funding sources and reporting requirements;
• Intense competition in fund raising and increasing sophistication in fund raising methods;
• Compliance with complex and changing laws and regulations;
• Making their voices heard in public policy arenas;
• Serving a society that is stretched by dramatic demographic shifts;
• Recruiting committed and talented board members; and
• Carrying out program services in the face of decreasing volunteer availability.

In Latin American countries, nongovernmental organizations also face complex challenges in their operating environments. Some of these challenges are:

• Advocating for adequate laws that regulate their functioning without heavy interference from governments;
• Scarcity of funding from local philanthropy and from government;
• A retrenchment of government from key social areas;
• The growth of poverty and exclusion;
• Lack of experience in recruiting and nurturing volunteers.

An organization’s ability to respond to these environmental challenges rests squarely on the shoulders of its leaders and their imagination, dedication, and management skill.  Thus a critical leverage point to assure quality service to communities is in education and training opportunities for the preparation of these leaders.

To further the Foundation’s work to improve the quality of life in communities through improving the leadership of nonprofit organizations, grants were made in 1998 to institutions of higher education and collaborations under the Building Bridges Initiative.  Eight programs in Latin America and 20 in the United States participate in the Initiative.  The purpose, goals, and guiding principles of the Initiative include the following critical elements:

More responsive programs in higher education.  Nonprofit management practice and nonprofit management education need to be more interdependent. Academicians need to develop programs of study that are relevant to the management issues faced in the real world of practice, while practitioners need to participate in research and the institutionalization of best practices.  The Bridges Initiative promotes two-way learning between practitioners and academicians.

More widely available educational opportunities. Educational programs in nonprofit management need to be more accessible to a broader range of students.  Factors influencing this accessibility include program cost, length, and location as well as the student’s career stage.  Projects in the Initiative are developing more models of outreach, from short courses and certificate programs to graduate degrees; and more methods of outreach, from distance learning and national seminars to traditional on-campus courses.

More diverse leadership pool.  Faculty and students in nonprofit management studies, as well as leaders and managers of nonprofit organizations should be more representative of the communities served.  Participating in the Initiative means working to increase leadership diversity and inter-cultural competence at all levels.

Just as nonprofit organizations operate in a turbulent environment with limited resources, so do the academic programs in nonprofit management.  These programs face complex challenges that include:

• Recruiting students to a new field of study;
• Designing academic programs that satisfy students’ work schedules, budgets, geographical locations, and learning styles;
• Competition within the university for stable funding and competition for external funding from foundations, private donations, governmental agencies;
• Striving for academic credibility;
• Study and research in a new inter-disciplinary field that does not fit neatly within a single traditional department or college;
• Constantly changing course content to stay current with changes in the nonprofit organization operating environment (see above, for example); and
• Studying nonprofit management at a time when distinctions and relationships among the sectors are under constant revision.

It is in this context of practitioners’ need for relevant and accessible educational programs and educators’ desire to contribute to a new body of knowledge that the Building Bridges Initiative operates.