April 2024 - Nonprofit Academic Centers Council

A Message from Your Board President: April 2024

Angela R. Logan, NACC President

Angela R. Logan, PhD
St. Andre Bessette Academic Director,
Master of Nonprofit Administration
Associate Teaching Professor,
Mendoza College of Business
University of Notre Dame

Spring is in the Air

Hello! The calendar says it’s Spring in the Northern Hemisphere. In the northwest corner of Indiana, that can only mean one thing: I am simultaneously dealing with high pollen count days and freeze warning nights! LOL!

In all seriousness, it’s also a great time in the life of our programs: Commencement season is upon! We get to witness the time-honored tradition of the culmination of all the blood, sweat, and tears we have endured right alongside our students to get them to this point! We welcome the newest members of Nu Lambda Mu, and meet the loved ones of our students. Faculty promotions and teaching awards are also announced, and we are recognized by our students and institutions for our commitment and dedication.

For me, Spring is also a time of reflection and renewal. As a new homeowner, that means I’ve been thinking a lot lately about planting flowers, building container gardens, and welcoming slower days and patio nights. In the Christian tradition, we speak of “seed-time-harvest.” As the granddaughter of a farmer and a gardener, I learned early that you should not expect to see peppers the day or even the week after you plant them. Good things take time, attention, and care.

Our work in nonprofit and philanthropic education is no different: when our students come to us, we cannot expect them to understand de Tocqueville at Orientation. It takes time, attention, and care to get them to understand the “Four-Legged Stool of Fundraising” or how Maslow’s Hierarchy of Need impacts volunteerism. We teach our students that cultivating donors requires “seed-time-harvest:” rarely do major gifts precede annual gifts.

Good things take time, attention, and care … especially us! I hope in this season of celebration and renewal, you are able to give yourself the time, attention, and care you need to flourish and bloom! Right now, that means I’m going to sit on the deck and enjoy the sun!

Congratulations: we survived another academic year! Go get some sun!

All the best,

Angela R. Logan
Board President, NACC

By N.A.C.C.|2024-04-22T13:02:10-04:00April 22nd, 2024|President's Message|

Pursuing Impact: Mission-Driven Strategic Planning for Nonprofits

Dr. Alicia M. Schatteman, Northern Illinois University

Alicia M. Schatteman, PhD
Vice Provost for Academic Affairs
Associate Professor
Department of Public Administration
School of Public and Global Affairs
Northern Illinois University

Pursuing Impact: Mission-Driven Strategic Planning for Nonprofits

Johns Hopkins University Press, 2024

In Pursuing Impact, published by Johns Hopkins University Press (2024), scholar and former nonprofit executive director Alicia Schatteman shares her unique experience and expertise to help organizations navigate the complexities of strategic planning effectively. Going beyond the typical step-by-step manuals, Schatteman addresses the nuances that nonprofit leaders face during the planning and implementation stages and emphasizes the cyclical nature of planning while acknowledging the need for flexibility and adaptability.

Tailored to small and medium-sized nonprofits, this guide recognizes the challenges they may encounter with limited capacity and resources. Schatteman’s comprehensive six-stage strategic planning cycle offers practical insights and strategies to guide nonprofit leaders from readiness to implementation. Drawing on her academic background and real-world experience, Schatteman presents a blend of research and practical application to take nonprofit leaders through the process of identifying stakeholders, gathering data, involving the board, putting a plan together, and allocating resources. Through relatable stories and lessons learned from various nonprofits, she demystifies the process and empowers leaders to create strategic plans with impact.

Pursuing Impact helps nonprofit leaders transform their organization’s future by providing the tools, insights, and resources to drive meaningful change, align mission and vision, and achieve their goals.

Publisher Link

Alicia Schatteman is the Vice Provost for Academic Affairs and an associate professor in the Department of Public Administration. She received her PhD in public administration from Rutgers University-Newark and a master’s degree in communications management from Syracuse University. She also consults and conducts research in nonprofit strategic planning and performance measurement. Prior to returning to school for her PhD, she worked for ten years in the public and nonprofit sectors as a communications specialist and then an executive director.

Her areas of expertise include nonprofit management, public administration, performance management, public communications, and citizen participation and electronic government.

By N.A.C.C.|2024-04-16T08:54:56-04:00April 15th, 2024|NACC Member Research|

Sustainability Leadership: Theories, Paradigms, and Practices for Emerging Value-Leaders

Dr. Marco Tavanti, University of San Francisco

Dr. Marco Tavanti
Professor of Leadership
MNA Program Director
School of Management
University of San Francisco

Sustainability Leadership: Theories, Paradigms, and Practices for Emerging Value-Leaders

Planet Healing Press, 2024

Sustainability Leadership presents an essential blueprint for businesses aligning economic success with environmental and social responsibility. This insightful book bridges theoretical concepts with practical applications, emphasizing the need for a holistic approach to global social responsibility, eco-environmental circularity, and prosperity and well-being. It delves into the heart of sustainable leadership, advocating for a balance of ethical practices, environmental consciousness, and social justice. Real-world examples illustrate the urgency for leaders to adopt a systemic thinking mindset, driving transformative change toward a sustainable, equitable future. This book is a call to action for leaders who forge a path where profit, people, and the planet coexist harmoniously.

Dr. Marco Tavanti is a sustainability and leadership international scholar whose experience stretches over 30 years and whose work has taken him to more than 18 countries in Europe, East Africa, Southeast Asia, and Latin America. Dr. Tavanti’s teaching in sustainable development, leadership ethics, intercultural diversity, and NGO management is grounded in Jesuit values and his scholarship is an embodiment of the University’s mission to be of service to humankind.

Dr. Tavanti is a systems thinker whose scholarship aims at providing practical and integrated solutions to issues in international development and poverty reduction. His research methods are participatory in nature and directed at building international capacity in leaders, organizations, and institutions. Through his teaching he inspires globally engaged leaders while building professional capacity through international managerial skills across sectors.

He is President of the Sustainable Capacity International Institute (SCII-ONLUS) and CEO of its subsidiary SDG.services. He is co-founder of the World Engagement Institute (WEI), an international organization providing capacity development services for sustainable human security. He designed and directed various professional training programs on sustainable community development, indigenous human rights, anti-human trafficking and refugee service management. He has been consulting and collaborating with United Nations agencies such as the Development Programme (UNDP), the Global Compact (UNGC), the Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO). Through his engagement with the UN Global Compact he contributed to the development of the Principles of Responsible Management Education (PRME) and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

By N.A.C.C.|2024-04-15T09:28:11-04:00April 15th, 2024|NACC Member Research|

Gender Identity, Inter-Team Competition, and Leader Self-Efficacy Developmental Trajectories in a Multi-Institutional Leader Development Program

Ronald Mickler, Jr., John Carroll University

Ronald Mickler, Jr., Ed.D.
Assistant Dean-Accreditation & Strategic Initiatives
Boler College of Business
John Carroll University

Gender Identity, Inter-Team Competition, and Leader Self-Efficacy Developmental Trajectories in a Multi-Institutional Leader Development Program

David Michael Rosch, Lisa Kuron, Robert Reimer, Ronald Mickler, Daniel Jenkins

Journal of Leadership Education, April 2024

This study examines the evolution of leader self-efficacy among collegiate participants engaged in the multi-institutional Collegiate Leadership Competition, a unique pedagogical framework that incorporates inter-team challenges. Over three years, data was collected to explore whether gender identity influences the developmental trajectories of leader self-efficacy. The findings reveal that women participants consistently began their competition experience with higher levels of self-efficacy compared to their male counterparts. Throughout the competition and several months following its conclusion, both groups exhibited sustained moderate growth in self-efficacy, yet the initial disparity between genders remained unchanged. This persistence of the gender gap underscores the complex dynamics of leader development in competitive academic environments and offers crucial insights for leadership educators aiming to refine program effectiveness and inclusivity.

The research contributes significantly to the nascent body of literature on leadership education efficacy, particularly within settings that simulate real-world competitive dynamics. By maintaining a focus on inter-team competition, the study not only aligns with contemporary educational best practices—including experiential learning and student-centered pedagogies—but also provides a detailed assessment of how such approaches can be optimized to support diverse leader identity development. The results suggest that while competitive formats like those used in the Collegiate Leadership Competition foster leader self-efficacy across genders, they do not necessarily mitigate pre-existing efficacy disparities. These insights are invaluable for leadership educators who are tasked with designing programs that not only enhance leadership skills but also address gender-based perceptions in leader efficacy.

By N.A.C.C.|2024-04-15T11:51:27-04:00April 15th, 2024|NACC Member Research|