Nonprofit Governance Course

Register for this Groundbreaking Course Today!

A new service-learning course has been developed in the Milgard School of Business to teach Nonprofit Governance to students who will "serve" in internships on the boards of local organizations.  This is a two-course sequence starting with TMGMT 465, Nonprofit Governance I winter 2010 followed by TMGMT 466 Nonprofit Governance II in spring 2010.

Successful business leaders are often asked to utilize their skills and abilities to better their community through service on a nonprofit board.  These leaders can find themselves feeling unprepared to benefit the organization because they lack the necessary knowledge and skills regarding nonprofit organizations and the role of governance in this sector.

Nonprofit Governance is a two-course sequence that introduces students to board membership and governance through an apprenticeship.  Each student is matched with a nonprofit organization where the student serves as an apprentice board member, with a regular board member serving as mentor.

In the first course, students:

• Gain familiarity with the operations of volunteer, nonprofit boards and the governance of nonprofit organizations
• Build skills in gathering and analyzing information related to nonprofit community organizations
• Improve interpersonal skills and overcome barriers to community volunteering at the board service level

In the second course, students:

• Learn more about organizational topics such as design and structure, leadership, governance, rights and responsibilities, and ethics that are applicable to both nonprofits and businesses
• Build skills in working on a team, meeting and communication processes, assessing results, and providing feedback to others
• Develop a richer understanding of the people, resources, and processes needed for an organization to achieve its goals

Several groups benefits from the course sequence:

• Students not only learn the course objectives outlined above, but have the opportunity to share their experiences with other students.  They gain greater awareness of the needs of the broader community and challenges of serving them, and they enjoy access to board members (who are often business leaders) who may serve as role models. 
• Nonprofit organizations gain another (often new) perspective through a student's eyes, receive analysis and suggestions for how to better achieve goals, and access to students as future volunteers, advocates, or permanent board members. 

The community as a whole gains from a growing pool of people who both understand the value of service to the nonprofit community and have knowledge and skills that are beneficial in both nonprofit and business organizations. 

The development of this course was possible due to the commitment of many people, but special thanks are due to Liz Heath at The Nonprofit Center for all her effort in helping us to create the community infrastructure to launch this important new enhancement to the curriculum at the Milgard School of Business.  Liz, along with committee chair, Rick Carr, helped to convene a committee of dedicated community volunteers to set criteria, recruit and select nonprofit agencies to participate as mentor boards. The committee's enthusiasm provided the energy necessary to make this project possible.  Thanks to the committee members for their commitment to the nonprofit sector and the development of tomorrow's leaders.

• Rick Carr - Committee Chair
• Sandy Beachler - community volunteer
• Brian Boyd - Sequoia Foundation
• Julia Garnett - Russell Investments
• Wendy Gray - community volunteer
• Linda Ishem - UW Tacoma
• Bev Losey - Brown & Brown Insurance
• Toby Murray - Murray Pacific Corp
• Gary Nomenson - Puget Sound Energy
• David Parent - Key Bank
• Steve Smith - UW Tacoma
• Greg Tanbara - Tacoma Pierce County Health Department
• Erika Tucci - Tacoma Public Utilities
• Jim Walton - community volunteer
• Scott Winship - Vandeberg Johnson & Gandara

Without a valuable hands-on internship opportunity, students in this course wouldn't get the full experience and value from this course.  Thanks to the agency boards and mentors who have opened their doors to help develop the next generation of board leaders.

We plan to make the syllabus, course plan and outline available to other universities for replication in other communities.  

For more information, contact Joe Lawless jlawless@u.washington.edu or Jill Purdy PhD jpurdy@u.washington.edu.