The importance of context becomes clear when we look at the competencies proposed in November 2011 for nonprofit managers and leaders by the Non-Profit Management Education Section of NASPAA (National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration). Members of this NASPAA section suggest that students pursuing nonprofit careers should be able to apply knowledge and understanding of
The contents of this book can serve as a foundation for these six competency areas. We go beyond building knowledge and understanding in each area and add additional topics to enhance leadership and management capacity. To orient readers and provide a roadmap of what is to come, we offer a quick overview of each part and chapter.
A Roadmap Through the Chapters
Our comprehensive approach to excelling at managing and leading nonprofits is built around competency and curriculum guidelines developed by NASPAA and by NACC (Nonprofit Academic Centers Council). A summary of the NACC guidelines appears in the Appendix, where they are mapped to the chapters in this book. The six NASPAA competency guidelines have been given earlier in this chapter. Both NASPAA and NACC recognize the importance of understanding the historical development of the nonprofit sector and its values base. These issues are touchstones for our chapters. We discuss how ideas about specific management and leadership topics evolved over time and whether or not they are backed up by theory and empirical evidence. We repeatedly return to the ways in which values influence management and leadership decisions as well as the behaviors of board members, donors, staff, volunteers, and others, and how all this affects the effectiveness of a nonprofit.
As a social psychologist and a sociologist, we are steeped in our respective disciplinary traditions. However, we draw from additional disciplines as well to introduce readers to source documents and thought leaders for the ideas in the book. All our topics and recommendations for practice are grounded in the academic literature. In choosing our main examples we made sure that readers would have enough background information and in some cases even videos for a further exploration of these cases. We also provide additional learning tools in the form of questions for discussion and exercises at the end of each of the main content chapters.
In Part One, we discuss understanding, envisioning, and creating nonprofit organizations. In Chapter One, after this introduction to the book, we give a general overview of the nonprofit sector. In Chapter Two we explore ways to consider the effectiveness of nonprofits and encourage ethical behavior among those working within them. We look at multiple dimensions of organizational effectiveness: goal achievement, resource acquisition, health and efficiency of internal processes, stakeholder satisfaction, and ability to learn and adapt. In Chapter Three we examine topics important to those interested in establishing a nonprofit organization and laying an effective groundwork for future action. We show the many different origins of nonprofits. Drawing on the entrepreneurship literature, we consider how people, capital, and opportunity come together in nonprofits to deliver social value. We also discuss how to make the case for a new nonprofit, including writing the business plan. Chapter Four covers options for organizational structure. We look at formalization, complexity, and other structural elements that influence information processing, and we consider possible structural deficiencies.
In Part Two we turn to strategizing, resourcing, and aligning, because throughout their existence nonprofits should have a mission and a vision and should acquire and manage resources to pursue them. Chapter Five covers the formulation of strategy. Topics include the general strategic orientations that nonprofits adopt and the strategic planning process. We also consider the emergence of strategies in nonprofits. Chapter Six covers resource acquisition. In this chapter we examine the variety of revenue sources employed by nonprofits, including grants, gifts, and earned income. We discuss philanthropy, addressing types of gifts and donors, as well as fund development and grant proposal writing. Chapter Seven reviews financial stewardship and management. We outline best practices for policies, accounting, budgeting, banking, borrowing, financial risk management, auditing, and financial analysis. Chapter Eight provides knowledge and tools for effective marketing. We cover the philosophy of and orientations to marketing, marketing planning, and branding. In addition we explore options for the pricing, promotion, and distribution of goods and services.
In Part Three we focus on human resources and discuss leading, managing, and delivering the mission. Chapter Nine covers boards and the broader topic of governance. We discuss the responsibilities of boards, roles of executive directors in relation to boards, determinants of board effectiveness, options for board configurations and composition, and tools for facilitating governance and managing conflict. Chapter Ten adds leadership and executive directors to the mix. We explore the basis of leadership and the responsibilities of executive directors. We also consider nonprofit founders, leadership transition, and leadership development. In Chapter Eleven we turn our attention to strategic human resource management. We look at ways to measure and build human resource capacity. We then look at human resource management through the stages of initial involvement, development, maintenance, and separation. As a follow-up to Chapter Eleven, in Chapter Twelve we explore performance as determined by ability and motivation. We offer tools to increase ability and to enhance motivation to perform.
Our final section, Part Four, covers evaluating, connecting, and adapting the nonprofit. We begin with program evaluation in Chapter Thirteen. We see an effective program evaluation process as key to accountability management. We review how to prepare for evaluation, choose an evaluat...
