Term: Spring, 2006
Instructor: Tony Filipovitch, 106d Morris Hall, 507-389-5035 (office), 507-388-2264 (home)
Office Hours: My office hours are posted here. I am available in my office at those times (or other times by appointment). I also check my e-mail daily (usually several times during the day), and have an answering machine on both my home and office phone. There is no reason to flounder around, unsure of what “he wants” or confused about what you are doing; and even if everything is going fine with the coursework, there is more to learning than completing the assignments. I encourage you to visit me, in person or at a distance by phone or e-mail, many times during the course.
·
Herman, Robert D. 2004. The Jossey-Bass
Handbook of Nonprofit Leadership and Management, 2nd Edition.
·
Warda, Mark. 2002. How to Form a
Nonprofit Corporation, 2nd Ed.
Week due |
Topic |
|
Exercises |
Writing Assignments |
1/23 |
|
Post to discussion board before 1/27 |
Weekly Essay; Discussion Post; Assessment Survey |
|
Historical/Philosophical Foundations |
||||
1/30 |
Herman, Chs. 1 & 4 |
Essay for “Getting to Know” posting |
||
2/6 |
2. Social Institutions and discussions about political action |
|
Essay for Ch.2 & discussion |
|
Public Policy Issues |
||||
|
3. Legal Framework of nonprofits |
Warda, entire book |
|
|
2/13 |
3a. Federal rules re. nonprofits |
|
Essay for Legal issues; “Build” assgt. 1 |
|
2/20 |
|
|
Discussion for
Legal Issues; “Build” assgt. 2 |
|
2/27 |
4. Lobbying |
|
|
Essay for Ch. 10;
discussion; final “Build” assgt. |
3/6 |
5 Internationalization of nonprofits |
|
Essay for Ch. 5; discussion; “Getting to Know” posting |
|
3/20 |
6. Ethical decision-making, MCF Principles for Grantmakers, and MCN Principles and Practices |
|
Cumbria case study |
Attend Board meeting before 10/21; Essay for Ch. 9; discussion; Case posting |
Organizational Design |
||||
3/27 |
7 Board Leadership & Development, Good Management Principles, & What Should I Know |
|
Greenhill Community Center case study |
Essay for |
4/1 |
|
|
Essay for |
|
4/10 |
|
|
Essay for |
|
4/17 |
|
|
Essay for |
|
4/24 |
11. Careers in nonprofit organizations |
|
Design your professional portfolio |
Essay for Careers & discussion; portfolio due |
5/1 |
Final class
week—all projects completed; service learning report due; assessment survey due;
course evaluation due |
This course provides an introduction to the third (or nonprofit) sector. It is designed to provide undergraduate students with a potential career path, or to enhance the skills of those who have some experience in the third sector. This course is also a foundation for students working toward a certificate in Nonprofit Leadership. The course addresses the historical and philosophical foundations in nonprofit leadership, elements of board/committee development, public policy, and the trust the third sector holds in relationship to other social sectors.
Students will demonstrate competency in knowledge, skills, and abilities needed to function in the following areas:
Historical/Philosophical Foundations of the Nonprofit Sector
1. Role of nonprofit organizations in meeting social, religious, human service and other needs
2. Philanthropic nature of nonprofit organizations & relationship to other sectors of society
Public Policy Issues in the Nonprofit Sector
3. Legal status of nonprofits
a. Federal government
i. IRS Code & classification of services
b. State Attorney General Office
i. Articles of Incorporation & role of membership
ii. Bylaws
iii. Annual filings
4. Lobbying
5. Non-governmental organizations (NGOs)
6. Ethical decision making
Organization Design of Nonprofit Organizations
7. Board function & duties
8. Staff functions & duties
9. Strategic planning & challenges to success/viability
10. Organizational transformation
11. Careers in nonprofit organizations
Instructional Management System & Communication
Protocols:
· The course will use D2L as the instructional management system. Discussion lists, assignments, grade rosters, and other course management issues will be handled through that site.
· The software for this course will be PC-based Microsoft Office and Internet Explorer, or compatibles. I prefer to receive e-mail and course submissions to my e-mail address (not to D2L), and I can only open Microsoft Word or text files (if you are using, say, WordPerfect, make sure to send any files to me in .txt or .rtf format).
· I will communicate with you using your official MSU e-mail address; if this is not your preferred e-mail provider, make sure you have set your MSU e-mail account to forward to your preferred address (instructions are available from the help desk at help@mnsu.edu or 507-389-6654).
· I generally will reply to e-mails within 48 hours (give me an additional 24 hours over the weekends), unless I have notified the class through D2L that I expect to be away from my computer (e.g., when I am attending a national conference). If you do not hear from me within that time, please resend your question or comment as it may have been lost.
· The library has a document delivery service, and can send books or other publications that circulate (i.e., no items from the reserve or reference collection) to you if you are an online student. Information is available at http://www.lib.mnsu.edu/lib/ILL/docdel.html Remember, it will take some time for items to arrive by mail (and even longer if they have to be ordered from another library), so give yourself enough lead time if you plan to use this service. The library also has a good link for other services offered for distance learning students.
There are a number of websites that can help you decide
whether or not an online course is for you (for example, Minnesota Online or Athabascan
University or the University System of
In order to effectively address the competency areas, this course will combine (online) classroom and field projects. Students are expected to actively participate and contribute positively to the learning process.
Students are required to read and understand the chapter(s) assigned at the beginning of each topic. I have included my notes on each chapter; they are a guide, but not a substitute for reading the chapter. There will not be any tests or quizzes over the material in the readings; rather, you will demonstrate how well you have understood the readings through your weekly essays.
Each week, students will identify an article or published story about a
nonprofit agency that is related to the topic for that week. By “article,”
I mean an article published in a
refereed journal (you can find many of them on JSTOR) or an in-depth
article published in a national newspaper (NY Times,
Each student will identify a nonprofit organization with which to volunteer over the course of the semester. During that time, the student must
1. Arrange for a “mentor” within the organization who is willing to provide “insider” insight into what the student is observing in the organization and learning in the classroom.
2. Attend at least one Board meeting (before Unit 6), to observe the operation of a nonprofit Board and the relationship between Board and staff. Boards often meet only once a month, so you should plan to attend the first Board meeting that is available.
3. Assist the Board or staff in providing at least some of the “service” of the organization.
4. Prepare a final report on the organization, describing the organization and its operation (who, what, where, when, why, how), and relating it to the 12 topics we will be covering in class. This essay (10 page minimum) will be due by the Final Exam date.
Throughout the course, I will assign exercises, sometimes to each of you individually, sometimes to all of you as a group, to give you the opportunity to practice the skills that you are learning about. Each exercise will contain its own instructions and deadlines.
Since we do not meet as a class, the closest thing we have to this is the discussion lists on D2L. I will pose questions to start out the discussion, and I will monitor (but may or may not respond) the discussion. Each student must post at least one detailed reflection for each of the 12 topics for the course, and at least one response to another student’s posting. It is important that you post your responses with enough time for your classmates to reply within the week allotted for each unit; do not get behind in your discussion work. For full credit, you must use examples, details, and credible support for your position, and refer to relevant readings (your text, at a minimum) using standard citation format (you cannot provide credible support without citing what others have written!). You will receive partial credit if you do not provide support for your responses. While I will not track whether or not you read all of the postings, I strongly encourage it. You have as much to learn from each other as from me.
There is an etiquette to online discussion. I want you to engage in open, frank dialogue; but I also expect you to be respectful of each other. Comments that are harmful, abusive, offensive, or vulgar will not be tolerated. If I sense any problems, I will intervene. Should you feel intimidated or not respected, please contact me so we can consider how to proceed. A few hints:
· Re-read your messages before you send them—once it is sent, you are committed.
· Never assume that an e-mail is confidential; they are easily copied and forwarded to others.
· Also, be careful with humor; absent body language and other contextual clues, it can easily be misinterpreted.
It is your responsibility to post your responses in a timely fashion, interact with your mentors, and engage in online class activities. I expect all the work for each week to be posted by Friday of the week listed (e.g., for the week of 1/23, all work should be posted by midnight of 1/27). If there is an emergency which requires you to be away from your computer, please contact me immediately. Loss of computer connection or network services are not an excuse for not getting work submitted on time (if you lose your connection, go to another location to do your work—a public library, the ACC, a friend’s computer, etc.) You can get help with technical problems from the MSUM computer help desk at help@mnsu.edu or go the 3rd floor of the Library. You are paying for this class—make sure to get your “money’s worth.” Most importantly, this is an excellent foundation of knowledge for future activities, and it is a chance for you to learn, teach, and grow with others.
There are 140 points for the course, divided as follows:
1) Weekly essays (12@5 pts.) 60
2) Discussion postings (12@2 pts) 24
3) Exercises/Case Studies (7@5 pts.) 35
3) Final paper—report on service learning 21
The final grade may be based on a curve, but students can expect at least an A if they achieve 126 (90%), a B with 112 (80%), etc.
All assignments are due on the assigned date. Partial credit may be given for assignments
that are less than one week late, unless other arrangements have been made in advance.
Written reports are expected to be free of grammatical, spelling, and content
errors. They should be submitted in typewritten, standard formats (APA,
MLA, URSI Style Sheets). You must
familiarize yourself with the University’s Academic
Honesty Policy. I encourage you to
draw on the ideas of others—but you must also identify when you do so (you gain “brownie points” for citing the
work of others!). Plagiarism is a
serious breach of academic behavior and will result in an F for the course.
I will help you in whatever manner humanly possible. However, once the semester is over, there is not a great deal I can do. If there is something that you don’t understand, are having problems with, or need help on, please get in touch with me as early as possible.
Every attempt will be made to accommodate qualified students with disabilities. If you area student with a documented disability, please contact us as early in the semester as possible to discuss the necessary accommodations, and/or contact the Disability Services Office at 507-389-2825 (V) or 1-800-627-3529 (MRS/TTY).
There are a number of interesting and useful books and articles that might help you dig deeper into the issues raised in this course. The link above takes you to a list of some of my favorites.
© 2003 A.J.Filipovitch
Revised January 2006