Journal of Public Affairs Education

Nonprofit social enterprises (NSEs) have the potential to alleviate social issues significantly through entrepreneurial means. However, their unique mission and challenges require a distinct type of leadership compared to traditional nonprofit organizations. This leadership model must integrate social work and business management competencies. Unfortunately, research suggests that finding leaders with this combination of competencies can be challenging for NSEs. This raises the question of whether master’s degree programs in public administration (MPA) and nonprofit management (MNM) adequately equip students with the necessary competencies to lead NSEs. In response to this question, researchers surveyed MPA and MNM faculty using a 14-item online questionnaire. The results indicate that there are significant gaps in the current curriculum, with neither program placing strong emphasis on NSE leadership competencies. However, MNM programs cover some of these competencies more extensively than MPA programs. The findings suggest curricular and pedagogical improvement opportunities in public and private universities’ MPA and MNM programs.

This paper explores the future potential of informal learning for leadership development in the nonprofit sector through the experience of the Centre for Voluntary Sector Leadership (CVSL) at the Open University, UK. From its inception in 2016, CVSL developed learning outside the mainstream curriculum, providing open access informal learning opportunities to increase access to leadership development for practitioners in smaller nonprofit organizations. Our experience of developing and delivering this learning has encountered challenges related to institutional, sector, and policy contexts. Despite these challenges, we argue that HE-provided informal leadership learning has the potential to address issues of accessibility, timeliness, and relevance for smaller nonprofit organizations. The paper reflects on the future role of informal learning as part of an “ecosystem” of nonprofit leadership development in a volatile and marketized environment.

In recent decades, service learning as a pivotal type of pedagogy has received considerable attention in nonprofit education. This study is a systematic literature review on the pedagogical development of service learning in nonprofit education. The electronic database of the Web of Science is used to select studies from 2000 to 2024. The findings reveal six trends in service-learning pedagogy in nonprofit education: focusing on participants’ pre-course preparation, adopting diverse and innovative service-learning forms, emphasizing the “supply side” (i.e. nonprofit organizations’ capacity) in service-learning projects, promoting collaborative efforts among stakeholders, understanding the contextual factors of service learning, and developing comprehensive and multi-stakeholder evaluation systems for service-learning projects. Based on the review, the article provides some practical implications for improving service learning in nonprofit education.

This paper investigates the perspective of community members engaged with experimental learning in student philanthropy courses. While most scholarship explores the impact that student philanthropy practices have on students’ learning process and the overall effectiveness of these courses, this study aims to understand the impact of student philanthropy courses on community partners. We rely on a survey and focus groups to assess the perspectives of both nonprofits that participated in student philanthropy courses and nonprofits that decided against participating. We find that nonprofits see relational and advocacy benefits in participating in these courses, beyond the most obvious potential benefit of being awarded a grant. While we found overall satisfaction with the course, we also identified barriers to participation, which informs a list of practical recommendations. This study points to the possibility to better student philanthropy processes and improve the experience of participating nonprofits.

The focus of this article is on a course design to integrate client-based service learning with a distance-learning grants administration and management course. This course was offered through an MPA program that utilizes synchronous online instruction for public and nonprofit sector professionals to earn degrees within a compressed timeline. Students enrolled in this course developed $3.76 million dollars of grant funding proposals for 25 small nonprofit organizations within the region. The goal of the design was to enhance student learning while supporting the local nonprofit sector through client-based projects. This pedagogical approach contributed to the civic priorities of my academic institution, the MPA program mission, and my own public service values. I describe the academic institutional context and course design followed by a reflection on my experience with comments from students and nonprofit course clients. I also offer suggestions to educators who are similarly interested in client-based service learning.