PADM 7040 Nonprofit Management Assignments

Assignments

Fall 2005

Nonprofit Overview Presentation (Individual Project) Read more details about the nonprofit overview project.

Each student will gather information on a nonprofit organization and prepare a PowerPoint presentation for the group. The background information might include the mission and goals of the organization, history, legal description, status on membership growth or lack thereof, volunteer base, and clients. Also, be sure to identify any crises or obstacles facing the organization. The best source for information will be executive directors or staff who work in nonprofits. It is possible that members of the board of directors will also have information if they are easily accessible for interviews.

We will have online discussions of the presentations. The presenter will lead the discussion by answering questions, responding to comments, etc.

At the beginning of the course the student should submit a brief description of the topic and outline of the presentation. Upon approval of this proposal the student will proceed with gathering more information.

Handbook for Nonprofit Managers (Group Project) Read more details about the handbook project.

The class will work together to develop a handbook for nonprofit managers. The pamphlet will include procedures for development of the following: Incorporation, Constitution and by-laws, Mission Statement, Budget designs, Job Descriptions (paid staff and volunteers), Projects and Activities, Committees and guidelines, Grant Information and Guidelines, etc. There should also be a section on ethics for nonprofit managers. The ethics section might list some types of examples of ethical challenges or potential conflicts and also list possible solutions.

Each student is expected to contribute content and also to help with the planning and design of the handbook. This will be an exercise in teamwork for the group and will hopefully provide a reference for everyone to use later.

Grant Proposal (Group Project) Read more details about the grant proposal.

We will form teams based on common interests in categories of nonprofit activity. Each team will be comprised of three to five members and will gather information on grant-funding sources. Hopefully the group will find a "request for proposals" (RFP) that fits one or more of the nonprofits researched by the group members. From this information the team will develop a grant proposal and presentation that could be submitted to a funding source. The format of the grant proposal or application will depend on the funding source and RFP requirements. Formats vary widely depending on the source of the funding and the type of grant. Some funding sources will have a formal application for submission while others will allow for free-form proposals. Be sure to provide either the RFP or guidelines for applications from the funding source.

Members of the team should keep track of their contributions and submit individual summaries of their efforts on this project. Group members will also rate the contributions of the other members of their group.

Topic Presentations (Individual Project)

Each student will choose a topic from the textbooks and prepare a presentation for the class. The topics will be on a concept, issue or trend related to nonprofit organizations. The student will be expected to develop the presentation and submit a draft to the professor at least one week before the topic is scheduled. Revisions will be done and the final presentation will be posted by the professor on the web site and WebCT. Then the student will lead the discussion, answer questions, and respond to comments by the other class members. The presentations you develop for the chapter topics should be in your own words. If there are some sections that must be paraphrased or quoted, you should follow the rules for papers, tests, and other assignments and reference your work. If you quote the book or other source, use quotation marks and list the page number for the location of the information in the source. If it is paraphrased, you do not use quotation marks, but do give page and source information. See the Chapter Presentation List for the online class . (Other chapter lists will be posted when those classes are running on weekends.)

Marketing Plan (Individual Project) Read more details about the marketing plan.

Each student will outline a marketing plan for the nonprofit organization that was the subject of the initial report (Nonprofit Overview Summary). Based on information gathered in that project and upon our readings, the student will suggest methods for building the membership, getting more volunteers involved, or some other campaign. The plan should also address ways the organization can better use marketing to accomplish the mission.

Threaded Discussions

A key component of this course will involve weekly discussions of selected topics. Based upon the course readings and lectures, topics will be posted each week in which students are expected to provide insightful commentary. Such analysis is only possible if you read the online lectures and assigned materials for a given unit. Students should respond to comments made by other members of the class. Read the instructions/guidelines on the threaded discussions.

Project Submission

All project files and assignments will be submitted as attachments to E-mail and formatted as outlined below unless another format is negotiated with the instructor. These files will follow the formatting and file naming conventions listed and explained below:

	Text documents will be formatted as either Microsoft Word or Adobe Acrobat *(PDF) documents.
	Data files (if needed) will be Excel files (for spreadsheet data) or Access files (if database information is required).
	Presentations will be PowerPoint files.
	Project File Names: for the proposed agreement, use "agreement.doc" as the project name; for the case study, use "case.doc" for the project name.
	Ownership of files: to indicate your ownership of submissions, use your first and last names with either a dot (.) or underscore (_) between the parts. For example: gerald_merwin_agreement.doc and gerald_merwin_case.doc
	Course Codes in Subject Line: When you are not using WebCT for email, be sure to associate your submissions with our course to aid in filtering of E-mail, use the PADM 7040 in the subject line of all messages sent to the instructor.
	Questions: Please ask questions if any part of this information is unclear.

Reference http://www.valdosta.edu/mpa/classes/padm7040/assignments.html

Updated 10/10/2005, contact Jerry Merwin