Seeing Clearly: Measuring Skill Sets That Address the “Blurred Boundaries” of Nonprofit Management Education

Abstract

This article offers advice to programs that seek to emphasize the nonprofit management skill sets necessary for working across the increasingly blurred boundaries of public service delivery. Master of Public Administration (MPA) and Master of Public Policy (MPP) programs embracing the key role of nonprofits may benefit from adding a competency related to nonprofit skills to their core program competencies. We propose a list of key nonprofit skills that could be integrated into MPA/MPP program curricula, and describe an approach for how these skills could be incorporated into program-level learning and assessment plans. This could be accomplished by adding a new nonprofit competency to the Network of Schools of Public Policy, Affairs, and Administration (NASPAA) core competencies, by incorporating the key nonprofit skills into assessments of student learning in nonprofit courses, or by including such skills in the program’s required core courses for assessment of student learning outcomes.