FOR RELEASE MAY 7, 2001:         

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Kellogg Study Finds Linking to Community Valued Most by Nonprofit Management Students

Battle Creek, Michigan – A recently released study examined several aspects of nonprofit management education and found that nonprofit management students’ satisfaction with their chosen educational program is heightened when the program features connections between the academic experience and the nonprofit community.  Though not generalizable to all nonprofit management education programs, the study points to a powerful link between learning and doing.  The study was funded by the W. K. Kellogg Foundation.

The research, conducted by Applied Research (East Lansing, Michigan), surveyed 256 nonprofit management students in certificate and master’s programs at six universities across the country.  The six universities are part of a larger Kellogg Foundation initiative entitled ‘Building Bridges between Practice and Knowledge in Nonprofit Management Education.’ The research findings are published in a paper entitled Building Bridges Initiative Cluster Evaluation: Survey of Nonprofit Management Students.  Click here to view the paper on the Building Bridges Initiative web site. 

To assess satisfaction, researchers listed a series of experiences associated with academic programs and asked students how satisfied they were with each element.   These academic experiences fit into two broad categories: linking or bridge features and traditional academic characteristics.  The linking or bridge features emphasize the connection of research or theory to practice. The following table presents the findings on this topic.  Researchers used a 5-point scale ranging from very satisfied (1) to very dissatisfied (5).  Thus, the lower the mean (M) for any single item, the more satisfied students were with that element.  The table also includes the percent of students who were satisfied (1 or 2) and not satisfied (4 or 5) with each element of their educational experience.

Student Satisfaction with Aspects of Nonprofit Management Programs

When choosing a nonprofit management program, students indicated that they valued programs that linked to the community, either directly or through courses or research.  Yet, while remaining an important reason to be attracted to a program, student responses suggest that this element, the bridge to the community, is less satisfying than the traditional elements of their programs.  One explanation may be that linking/bridges experiences are a recent and less conventional form of education.  It may be that faculty and nonprofit professionals are still uncomfortable or unsure of how to operationalize these linkages.  It is also possible that these linkages are less valued by the academic institutions and thus receive less attention than the more familiar and valued traditional experiences.  Still another possibility is that students are unfamiliar with these linkages and how to rate or value them.  Regardless of the possible explanation, it seems clear that students value these community linkages as an important dimension of their education and that academic programs should focus more time and attention on making more or improving the quality of these linkages.

An initial report from this survey (released in February, 2001) covered the statistical makeup of the nonprofit management student population. A second report (released in March, 2001) looked at nonprofit professionals’ reasons for returning to school.  A second nonprofit management study, conducted by Applied Research and funded by the Kellogg Foundation, is scheduled for completion in early 2002.  This new study will research whether students’ preferences change over time and what types of impacts their educational experiences have on their work and their life.

Click here to view the complete paper, "Building Bridges Initiative Cluster Evaluation: Survey of Nonprofit Management Students" on the Building Bridges Initiative web site. 

The Building Bridges Initiative and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation

Building Bridges Initiative

The Building Bridges between Practice and Knowledge in Nonprofit Management Education Initiative, now in its fourth year, supports the development of comprehensive educational programs for managers and leaders in nonprofit and third sector organizations.

• There are 19 Bridges projects based in the United States and eight programs in Latin America and the Caribbean. 

• The ultimate goal of the Building Bridges Initiative is to raise the quality of life in communities by enabling nonprofit managers serving those communities to be more effective through increased opportunities for training and education, as well as greater relevance of nonprofit management curricula in higher education. 

Grantees have designed projects and programs to conduct research, train future nonprofit leaders, or increase knowledge about nonprofit management practices.

W.K. Kellogg Foundation

The W. K. Kellogg Foundation was established in 1930 to “help people help themselves through the practical application of knowledge and resources to improve their quality of life and that of future generations.” 

• To achieve the greatest impact, the Foundation targets its grants toward specific focal points, or areas.  These include: Food Systems and Rural Development; Youth and Education; Health; and Philanthropy and Volunteerism.

• Grants are concentrated in the United States, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the southern African nations of Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Lesotho, Swaziland, and South Africa.

For more information about the Kellogg Foundation, please visit http://www.wkkf.org.  For more information about the Building Bridges Initiative, please visit http://www.CenterPointInstitute.org/Bridges. 

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