Nonprofit Academic Centers Council

Save the Date! | NACC 2025 Conference July 9-11, 2025 in College Park, MD The NACC 2025 Conference will be held in College Park, Maryland July 9-11, 2025. This year's theme, Embracing Resilience, explores how nonprofit and philanthropic education respond to our everchanging world.

New NACC Member Research by Dr. Robert L Fischer and Dr. Duncan J. Mayer from Case Western Reserve University ??? Learning from data is a valuable skill for #nonprofit professionals and researchers. Often, data have a spatial component, and #data relevant to the nonprofit sector are no exception. Understanding spatial aspects of the nonprofit sector may provide immense value to# social entrepreneurs, funders, and #policy makers, by guiding programmatic decisions, facilitating resource allocation, and #development policy. As a result, spatial thinking has become an essential component of critical thinking and decision making among nonprofit professionals. The goal of this case study is to support and encourage instruction of spatial data analysis and spatial thinking in nonprofit studies. The case study presents a local nonprofit data set, along with open data and code, to assist the instructors teaching spatial aspects of the nonprofit sector. Pedagogical approaches are discussed. This work was originally published by the Nonprofit Policy Forum, Volume 15, Issue 1?(2024) and can be accessed below. https://lnkd.in/g-Ga8-8u

Honored to stand "in the stacks" with some of the Nonprofit Academic Centers Council board members attending this year's ISTR conference at the University of Antwerp. L to R, Nathan Grasse, Will Brown, Ruth Hansen, Angela Logan, Robert Ashcraft, Peter Weber.

New NACC Member Research by Genevieve Shaker, Ph.D. from, Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy; Meng-Han Ho, Ph.D. from National Central University; and Chen Ji, Ph.D. from LSU Shreveport??? The COVID-19 #pandemic upended college classrooms, challenging instructors to deliver classes differently while still seeking to achieve pre-planned goals. Service-learning instructors faced a quandary: discontinuing activities could compromise course integrity, but requiring service was impossible, impractical, or inappropriate. Creative solutions were needed. This study explored the learning outcomes from a replacement activity, the #philanthropic informational interview, in a #philanthropy general education class and asked whether it could generate outcomes similar to #service-learning. Data were drawn from student reflections (n = 145) from nine online course sections between spring 2020 and summer 2021. Thematic analysis identified eight learning outcomes: engaging with social issues, #nonprofit solutions to social issues, insights into nonprofits’ inner workings, philanthropy as everyone’s responsibility, enhanced empathetic understanding, value-driven career inspiration, developing interview skills, and building career capacities. These outcomes align with research about service-learning and suggest that the philanthropic informational interview can be a meaningful alternative to service-learning in some situations. This work was originally published by the Journal of Nonprofit Education & Leadership, Vol 14, Issue 1?(2024) and can be accessed below. https://lnkd.in/dds_WQpi

Hello! We’ve just experienced the #Summer Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere. This means longer days, patio nights, and in my world, the start of the Summer intensive program for our Executive Master’s students. Over the course of two to five Summers, these students complete ? of their required coursework in two-week intensive classes. We affectionately refer to the Summer experience as “drinking out of a firehose.” And yet, what I tell incoming cohorts is that your faculty are standing in front of the firehose, taking the brunt of the impact. One of my favorite quotes goes, “Ginger Rogers did everything Fred Astaire did backwards and in heels.” I tell students that their faculty are doing everything they are doing “backwards and in Chucks” (because I teach in Converse). Regardless of the metaphor, if we are doing it right, we are pouring our blood, sweat, and tears into our students. But if the last four years has taught us anything, it’s that you cannot pour from an empty cup. At the end of this past academic year, I planned to get a brief break before the start of the Summer session. Instead, I became “the most degreed home health aide and chauffeur” for my widower father for five weeks (I’ll dedicate another letter about that experience). Recently, I was chatting with a younger cousin, who spoke an uncomfortable truth to me. Knowing both the burden I carry about my work and my students, and my intensive caregiving season, he lovingly said, “We can’t afford for you to die right now!” This harsh truth was like a splash of cold water. The work that I do, that we do, cannot go on if we do not take care of ourselves. What are you doing this Summer to take care of yourself? Are you taking time to gaze at the stars? Check out a live concert? Gather with your friends and loved ones on the deck? Watch fireworks? Just be? My encouragement to you, and myself, this Summer is to do what flight attendants tell us before takeoff: “Put your own mask on first before you help someone else!” As your President, I am giving you the permission and freedom to pour into yourself, put your own mask on, and put your toes in the sand: you will thank you, and so will your students! All the best, Angela R. Logan, PhD Board President, NACC

Congratulations to our Board President Angela R. Logan, PhD for her promotion at the University of Notre Dame - Mendoza College of Business to Teaching Professor/St. Andre Bessette Academic Director of the Master of Nonprofit Administration program! ?? We are so proud of her accomplishments and look forward to her future successes!

New NACC Member Research by Elise Kieffer, PhD from Murray State University ??? This article provides background information on the establishment of an #endowment that serves specifically to provide experiential #learning opportunities for students in and around the university. This case study may serve as a guide for higher education programs in the #nonprofit discipline to promote both active #philanthropy and learning for students. This article provides an examination of student reflections following their participation in an endowment funded experiential learning opportunity with a hope of promoting this teaching method in other nonprofit and #philanthropic educational programs. The results of this analysis assist in the development of greater understanding into how the experiential learning component affected student reflections from their time in NLS 305. Additionally, analysis reveals how students understood and interpreted the real-world impact of their #grantmaking experience, in comparison to traditional classroom practice exercises. This work was originally published by the Journal of Nonprofit Innovation: Vol. 4: Issue 1, Article 4?(2024) and can be accessed below. https://lnkd.in/gKa96__Y

New NACC Member Research by Dr. William Brown from the Center for Nonprofits & Philanthropy at the Texas A&M University - The Bush School of Government and Public Service ??? ___ Examining the Role of Risk Perception and Evaluation of Nonprofit Services on Prosocial Behavior in the Context of Natural Hazards Hyunseok Hwang, R. Patrick Bixler, William A. Brown, and Arnold Vedlitz Nonprofit organizations serve an essential role in response to natural #hazards by delivering services to affected communities and those in need. However, little is known about the drivers of nonprofit-resident engagement during and aftermath of emergencies. Utilizing survey data collected in Austin, Texas, the authors address this gap by analyzing how beneficiaries of nonprofit services become #donors and/or #volunteers. Specifically, this study empirically analyzes how risk awareness and perceived #nonprofit responsiveness and satisfaction (i.e., evaluation of services) influence beneficiaries’ donations and volunteering during and after natural hazards. This relationship between #risk awareness, evaluation of nonprofit services, and prosocial #behaviors is understudied but extremely salient in the context of the expanding role of nonprofits on the frontlines of increasing frequency and duration of extreme weather events. The results indicate that the mediating role of citizens’ #evaluation of nonprofit services in the relationship between risk awareness and prosocial behavior is evident, despite the lack of significant direct effects of risk awareness on prosocial behavior. This study offers new perspectives to understanding the co-production of nonprofit services and mobilizing #community resources to prepare, respond, and recover from #climate impacts and informs ongoing conversations in urban #sociology and the sociology of #disaster. This work was originally published in Sociological Spectrum, Volume 44, 2024 - Issue 1, by the Mid-South Sociological Association and can be accessed below. https://lnkd.in/gyPUfHbn

New NACC Member Research by Dr. Ruth K. Hansen and Dr. Gregory Witkowski from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater and Columbia University ??? “Sector Theorists Should Consider How Social Values Determine Unmet Needs” is a book chapter in the volume,?Reimagining #Nonprofits: Sector Theory in the Twenty-First Century, published by?Cambridge University Press & Assessment in 2024. In this chapter, the authors explore how sociopolitical power manifests itself through for-profit, nonprofit, and public sector practices and policies. They write: While there are differences between the sectors, socially constructed preferences and sociopolitical power supersede these differences, foregrounding the needs of people with #economic, political, and social power and repeatedly leaving others’ needs unmet. Drawing on postcolonial theory, we argue that the dominant explanatory framework for the interaction of the market, #government, and nonprofit sectors—Three Failures Theory—works best for those needs that society recognizes as important. The theory is often understood as explaining the provision of goods across society, but only illustrates how certain needs are met. On its own, it unconsciously reflects and reinforces the social constructions that deem the demands of some people as important and of others as irrelevant (e.g., Schneider & Ingram, 1990, 1993). We take issue with the notion of “needs” that are taken for granted in Three Failures Theory. All needs are not the same, and some needs are recognized while others remain hidden. Gaps in provision are neither evenly spread nor random but correlate with societal #values. In essence, groups who are “on the margins” of society are often ignored or exploited because of culturally ascribed characteristics. For the #nonprofit sector, these groups represent a challenge and opportunity to show societal leadership and to engage with these needs. In this chapter, we draw on both critical #theory and social science to develop the Cross-Sectoral Bias Theory to understand which needs are likely to be met and which are likely to be excluded. We see Cross-Sectoral Bias Theory as an important supplement to the Three Failures Theory by explaining why some societal needs remain unmet. Social systems and perceptions, defined by those with power, affect the behavior of decision makers in all sectors, resulting in differing access to goods and services. By bringing critical theory into dialogue with the BIAS framework and Three Failures Theory, our interdisciplinary Cross-Sectorial Bias Theory offers a refined lens for understanding of how the three sectors define whose needs are met, and how. The full work can be accessed at the link below. https://lnkd.in/gZibDTMS

New NACC Member Research by Ha Vien and Christopher Galik from the NC State School of Public and International Affairs at North Carolina State University ??? Recent scholarship has explored the role of higher #education institutions (HEIs) in transitioning to a sustainable society, yet empirical questions remain regarding their impact on the sustainability of surrounding areas. This study aims to examine the correlation between HEIs’ #sustainability actions and local sustainability performance. Using a linear regression model and principal component analysis, this #research investigates the sustainability performance of 105 US metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) utilizing the US cities sustainable development goal (SDG) index, which includes 427 HEIs known for their sustainability efforts. The HEI sustainability performance score is calculated based on the QS sustainability universities ranking. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to examine the correlation between HEI and MSA sustainability performance in the US through individual and interlinked SDG proxies. It provides novel empirical evidence demonstrating an association between HEIs and various aspects of #community sustainability performance, contributing valuable insights to the ongoing discourse on sustainability in higher education and urban development. This work was originally published by the International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education in 2024 and can be accessed below. https://lnkd.in/g_Sc7QU4