Doing the Business of Nonprofits: Ideas to Realities through Grantwriting and Fundraising

Students in this class will learn a lot about philanthropy in the United States and the role of nonprofits in contributing to healthy, sustainable communities. We’ll look at the historical role of charitable giving before and after contact and the evolving role nonprofits have played and are playing in the U.S.  As a part of this inquiry, we’ll consider what it takes to create a nonprofit and grow and sustain existing organizations.  We’ll also focus on Development Readiness tm   for these organizations and how using this approach helps ensure a sustainable organization that benefits, for example, from an empowered and engaged board and staff as well as contemporary and ongoing strategic planning. The ethics of nonprofit organizations will also be considered as will professional development and volunteer recruitment and management. We’ll learn about grant writing and fundraising for nonprofit, tax-exempt organizations. This portion of the course will also include effectively finding funding sources for organizations and their programs. Each student will be asked to identify and develop an organization and a project over the course of the quarter. The organization and project can be based on an existing nonprofit or one that is created for the purposes of the class. Credit equivalencies will be awarded in Organizational Development, and Grantwriting and Fundraising.