Nonprofit Administration and Management Commons^™

A Model For Evaluating Charitable Contributions In Nonprofit Organizations In Kalamazoo County, Michigan, Kristen Smith

Dissertations

Reported data suggest there has been an increase in charitable giving and the number of charitable organizations in communities nationwide over the last 20 years. It is widely believed that growth in nonprofit organizations would be a valuable asset for a community, but limited research evaluates the return on investment in these organizations. To ensure these organizations are good stewards of resources, various forms of accountability have been established, including websites like “Charity Navigator™,” which provide rankings and scores to charities nationwide. Data repositories like these make it possible to investigate variations in these organizations' funding, growth, and impact. This …

Training And Development: Communication And The Multigenerational Workplace, Michael G. Strawser

Journal of Communication Pedagogy

Communication practitioners, especially those who facilitate training and development workshops, should focus on generational differences as a subset of their communication training efforts. This article positions the multigenerational workplace and generational differences as a relevant topic for communication trainers and provides cursory information related to different generations. Ultimately, 10 best practices to address generational differences in business contexts are discussed.

Cultivating Cultural Exchange: Improving University Study Abroad Programs, Katherine Crawford

Honors Theses

My affinity for culture, both foreign and domestic, has greatly shaped my life and future career path. As I have been frequently reminded, I did not take the “typical” exchange route. However, I accredit this atypical experience to my passion towards the subject. My first immersive cultural experience occurred during a yearlong, high school, Rotary led exchange to Bourges, France. Simply put, it changed my life. I encountered the culture first hand, accepting a new normal: bisous greetings, daily baguettes, and a well-structured hierarchy. Within six months, I considered myself fluent in the language. I lived with French families, was …

How To Plan, Budget, Write, And Implement A Student Sustainability Grant, Annalisa Wilder

Honors Theses

The Student Sustainability Grant program was created to give students valuable grant writing experience and to promote a culture of sustainability on Western Michigan University’s campus. Despite the enormous opportunity that this program provides, few students apply for the grants with their sustainable ideas. Even fewer students are able to fully complete the projects, research, and initiatives that receive funding. In order to help increase the number of grants that are fully implemented and to provide students interested in writing a grant with a useful resource, this guide was created. This ‘how-to manual’ provides an undergraduate student’s perspective on the …

A Corporate Model: Aligning National Nonprofit Expectations With Regional/Local Efforts To Serve The Mission, Emma A. Powell

Dissertations

This study seeks to provide a body of knowledge and application of research to the national nonprofit audience. The focus is to study conditions that could lead to better alignment between regional staff understanding and implementation of the national expectations, by identifying alignment behaviors in five indicator areas. These indicators are fundraising, mission delivery, volunteer engagement, HR/operations, and PR/external communications.

Research in the areas of nonprofit structure design, motivation, and mission alignment continue to be significant to the sectors maturity and distinction. Corporate model nonprofit organizations structure is unique to other nonprofits within a local community. Understanding the corporate model …

Ethics In The Nonprofit Sector: A Study On The American Red Cross, Emily Smith

Honors Theses

When disaster strikes in the United States, there is one organization that is on everyone’s mind, the American Red Cross. It has operated for over a hundred years on the simple premise of delivering aid to those in need. The organization does this by reacting effectively and efficiently to natural and man-made disasters and delivering humanitarian aid to those affected. In recent years, though, the American Red Cross has come under scrutiny for mismanagement and ineffective disaster relief. The purpose of this paper is to use ethical standards of the nonprofit sector to evaluate and explain the performance of the …

Mud Volleyball Tournament Fundraiser Event Supporting The Water Project, Autumn Gammon

Honors Theses

The WMU Mud Volleyball Tournament took place on September 26, 2015 as Autumn Gammon and Morgan DeBoer’s honors thesis project for the Lee Honors College. The tournament was a fundraising event that helped bring awareness to The Water Project, a non-­‐profit organization that is dedicated to bringing clean water systems to communities throughout Sub-­‐Sahara Africa. Held at the Kalamazoo County Expo Center and Fairgrounds, the event brought together Western Michigan University students and surrounding community members for a fun-­‐filled day in the mud supporting a deserving cause.

The event took a great deal of organizing, with planning starting in the …

From Altruism To Investment: Venture Philanthropy And Its Impact On Shared Governance At Liberal Arts Colleges, Joshua D. Merchant

Dissertations

Competition for philanthropic dollars has escalated in recent years, particularly in higher education. A new type of charitable giving – venture philanthropy – has emerged and is impacting both educational policy and practice. Venture philanthropy involves donors using business models, championed practices of venture capitalists, and decision making procedures to drive their philanthropy and ongoing engagement with organizations they support.

Venture philanthropy has the potential to improve the financial vitality of colleges and universities. However, it also poses significant questions to the academy as more colleges and universities engage with donors who embrace its tenets. The primary research question seeks …

Insights Of A Wmu Student Into The Particularities Of Non-Profit Organizations: Observations From Cross-Cultural Experience In Two Organizations., Alyssa L. Lord-Hill

Honors Theses

Through my voluntary service in the non-profit sector I have been given the opportunity to experience the benefits that non-profit organizations provide and their missions and strategies to go about fulfilling them. In the course of completing my 6-month internship abroad and as founder of the German Club at WMU, these experiences have sparked my interests in non-profit organizational and success factors. Personal experience is the key to understanding and being able to accurately analyze a situation. Thus I will be using the two non-profit organizations to aid in the understanding of non-profit organizations and their counterparts, for-profit businesses. My …

An Exploratory Study Of Michigan Grantmaker Attributes And Competencies, Lisa R. Wyatt Knowlton

Dissertations

Foundation trustees and professional staff are giving greater attention to issues of accountability and return on investment, while voices of those with significant experience in the private sector inquire with increasing frequency and vigor about the organizational performance of foundations. For these reasons there must be renewed attention on the competencies and attributes of grantmaking practitioners. This study is a self-assessment by grantmakers based on the construct of Emotional Intelligence (Goleman, 1995) as well as competency studies in organizational management and leadership.

In association with the Council of Michigan Foundations, grantmakers associated with foundations holding in excess of $1 million …

Case Studies Of Organizational Evaluation In Community Foundations, Joyce Box Brown

Dissertations

Community foundations are classified as public charities (501(c) 3). They derive their funds from many donors rather than a single donor, and the board is made up of representatives from the community served. They are most often established to serve a specific geographic area. This study investigated and described how three different community foundations approach organizational evaluation— choosing proposals to fund, monitoring programs, improving programs, and assessing program impact.

The three community foundations approach evaluation not as a formal system of grant accountabilities, but as a way of systematically gathering information from various constituents for purposes of guiding important decisions. …

Lobbying In The Nonprofit Sector: A Study Of Practice And Values, Larry A. Buzas

Dissertations

Executive directors of nonprofit organizations were interviewed to determine their lobbying practices. Direct lobbying and grassroots lobbying, as defined by P. A. 94-455 were studied. Independent variables include: (a) formal organizational support, (b) organizational affiliation, (c) organizational characteristics, and (d) the executive directors' perceptions and demographic characteristics.

Data were collected during semi-standardized interviews. A random sample of 50 executive directors of nonprofit organizations in Michigan was selected. The research shows that executive directors of nonprofit organizations do lobby policy makers at the local, state, and federal levels using the following techniques: (a) face-to-face visits, individually or with coalitions, including providing …