Nonprofit graduate education: Who gets the degree and why?

Abstract

The field of nonprofit education is rapidly growing, but the nonprofit literature has a noticeable gap about the impact of nonprofit education degree programs on their graduates, the organizations that employ them, and the wider nonprofit sector. This article reports findings from a study investigating the profile and motivations of students completing these nonprofit-related degrees. A survey was deployed to alumni from three different nonprofit graduate programs (i.e., nonprofit management and philanthropic studies), and findings indicate that students are largely similar across schools and primarily drawn to the degree for its nonprofit nature. Differences are noted about the appeal of nonprofit graduate programs between in-service and pre-service students. These findings are rich with implications for students, researchers, and most of all the administrators and faculty of these graduate programs.