A Message from Your Board President: June 2024

Angela R. Logan, PhD

Angela R. Logan, PhD
St. Andre Bessette Academic Director
Master of Nonprofit Administration

Associate Teaching Professor
Mendoza College of Business
University of Notre Dame

Summer! Summer!! Summertime!!!

Hello! We’ve just experienced the Summer Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere. This means longer days, patio nights, and in my world, the start of the Summer intensive program for our Executive Master’s students. Over the course of two to five Summers, these students complete ⅔ of their required coursework in two-week intensive classes. We affectionately refer to the Summer experience as “drinking out of a firehose.”

And yet, what I tell incoming cohorts is that your faculty are standing in front of the firehose, taking the brunt of the impact. One of my favorite quotes goes, “Ginger Rogers did everything Fred Astaire did backwards and in heels.” I tell students that their faculty are doing everything they are doing “backwards and in Chucks” (because I teach in Converse). Regardless of the metaphor, if we are doing it right, we are pouring our blood, sweat, and tears into our students. But if the last four years has taught us anything, it’s that you cannot pour from an empty cup.

At the end of this past academic year, I planned to get a brief break before the start of the Summer session. Instead, I became “the most degreed home health aide and chauffeur” for my widower father for five weeks (I’ll dedicate another letter about that experience). Recently, I was chatting with a younger cousin, who spoke an uncomfortable truth to me. Knowing both the burden I carry about my work and my students, and my intensive caregiving season, he lovingly said, “We can’t afford for you to die right now!” This harsh truth was like a splash of cold water. The work that I do, that we do, cannot go on if we do not take care of ourselves.

What are you doing this Summer to take care of yourself? Are you taking time to gaze at the stars? Check out a live concert? Gather with your friends and loved ones on the deck? Watch fireworks? Just be?

My encouragement to you, and myself, this Summer is to do what flight attendants tell us before takeoff: “Put your own mask on first before you help someone else!” As your President, I am giving you the permission and freedom to pour into yourself, put your own mask on, and put your toes in the sand: you will thank you, and so will your students!

All the best,

Angela R. Logan
Board President, NACC

By |2024-06-25T08:52:05-04:00June 25th, 2024|President's Message|

Visiting Faculty Positions, University of Oregon

The University of Oregon’s School of Planning, Public Policy, and Management is hiring for two Visiting Assistant Professor positions for the 2024-2025 academic year. One position focuses on community and regional planning, while the other centers on public administration. Ideal candidates include ABD or recent PhDs, particularly those with interests in nonprofit sectors. Responsibilities include teaching core and elective courses, advising students, and contributing to departmental activities. These roles offer a supportive, inclusive environment and are located in Eugene, Oregon.

By |2024-06-18T09:42:39-04:00June 18th, 2024|Job Posting|

Regis University is seeking a Term Instructor to join its team

Regis University is seeking a Term Instructor to join its team. The role involves teaching and curriculum development within the institution. Ideal candidates will possess a Master’s degree or higher, relevant teaching experience, and a commitment to student-centered learning. Responsibilities include delivering engaging lectures, assessing student performance, and participating in departmental activities. This position is based in Denver, Colorado, and offers an opportunity to contribute to a dynamic academic environment.

By |2024-06-18T09:35:45-04:00June 18th, 2024|Job Posting|

Teaching Spatial Data Analysis: A Case Study with Recommendations

Duncan J. Mayer and Robert L. Fischer, Mandel School
Dr. Robert L. Fischer

Dr. Robert L. Fischer
Grace Longwell Coyle Professor in Civil Society
Jack, Joseph, & Morton Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences
Director, Center on Urban Poverty and Community Development
Case Western Reserve University

Dr. Duncan Mayer

Dr. Duncan J. Mayer
Social Scientist and Statistician

Teaching Spatial Data Analysis: A Case Study with Recommendations
Nonprofit Policy Forum, Volume 15, Issue 1 (2024)

Learning from data is a valuable skill for nonprofit professionals and researchers. Often, data have a spatial component, and data relevant to the nonprofit sector are no exception. Understanding spatial aspects of the nonprofit sector may provide immense value to social entrepreneurs, funders, and policy makers, by guiding programmatic decisions, facilitating resource allocation, and development policy. As a result, spatial thinking has become an essential component of critical thinking and decision making among nonprofit professionals. The goal of this case study is to support and encourage instruction of spatial data analysis and spatial thinking in nonprofit studies. The case study presents a local nonprofit data set, along with open data and code, to assist the instructors teaching spatial aspects of the nonprofit sector. Pedagogical approaches are discussed.

Robert L. Fischer joined the Mandel School in 2001 as a senior research associate, became an associate professor in the tenure track in 2017, tenured in 2020, and full professor in 2024. He has authored more than 60 peer-reviewed publications and generated more than $15 million in extramural grant funding as principal or co-principal investigator. Dr. Fischer has served as director of the MNO program since 2012 and teaches two courses in the program. He is the lead full-time faculty member teaching in the MNO degree program, and led the work to it being in the inaugural cohort of accredited nonprofit masters programs in 2019.

Additionally, Dr. Fischer served as co-director of the Center on Poverty and Community Development since 2005 and as director since 2022. He has also been an active member of the school’s steering committee, curriculum committee, budget committee, library committee and has served as chair of a standing committee on the faculty senate. He currently serves on the board of trustees of both the St. Lukes Foundation and the Woodruff Foundation in Cleveland. Dr. Fischer has been a generous institution-builder at the Mandel School and CWRU and a frequent contributor to the academy.

Dr. Duncan Mayer earned his Ph.D. in social welfare from the Mandel School in 2023. His dissertation is entitled, “Essays on Community-Organization Dynamics,” and Rob Fischer served as his dissertation chair.

By |2024-06-17T16:20:33-04:00June 17th, 2024|NACC Member Research|

“The Interview Inspired, Shocked, and Moved Me:” Philanthropic Informational Interviews as a Pandemic Alternative to Service-Learning

Dr. Genevieve Shaker

Dr. Genevieve Shaker
Donald A. Campbell Chair in Fundraising Leadership
Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy

Dr. Meng-Han Ho

Dr. Meng-Han Ho
Assistant Professor of Business Administration
National Central University, Taiwan

Dr. Chen Ji

Dr. Chen Ji
Assistant Professor of Nonprofit Administration
Louisiana State University Shreveport

“The Interview Inspired, Shocked, and Moved Me:” Philanthropic Informational Interviews as a Pandemic Alternative to Service-Learning
Genevieve G. Shaker; Meng-Han Ho; Chen Ji
Journal of Nonprofit Education & Leadership, Vol 14, Issue 1
(2024)

The COVID-19 pandemic upended college classrooms, challenging instructors to deliver classes differently while still seeking to achieve pre-planned goals. Service-learning instructors faced a quandary: discontinuing activities could compromise course integrity, but requiring service was impossible, impractical, or inappropriate. Creative solutions were needed. This study explored the learning outcomes from a replacement activity, the philanthropic informational interview, in a philanthropy general education class and asked whether it could generate outcomes similar to service-learning. Data were drawn from student reflections (n = 145) from nine online course sections between spring 2020 and summer 2021. Thematic analysis identified eight learning outcomes: engaging with social issues, nonprofit solutions to social issues, insights into nonprofits’ innerworkings, philanthropy as everyone’s responsibility, enhanced empathetic understanding, value-driven career inspiration, developing interview skills, and building career capacities. These outcomes align with research about service-learning and suggest that the philanthropic informational interview can be a meaningful alternative to service-learning in some situations.

Genevieve G. Shaker, PhD, is the Donald A. Campbell Chair in Fundraising Leadership and professor of philanthropic studies at the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy. Professor Shaker’s research focuses on fundraising and fundraisers, philanthropy education, and higher education advancement. Emerging research interests include the roles and practices of fundraisers around the world. She is the lead editor of the fifth edition of Achieving Excellence in Fundraising (2022), a key educational resource for the field.

Meng-Han Ho, PhD, is an assistant professor in the Department of Business Administration and an associate director at the Asian Institute for Impact Measurement and Management at National Central University, Taiwan. She received her Ph.D. from Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy. Her research focuses on social enterprises, social innovation, nonprofit management, and management education.

Chen Ji, PhD, is an assistant professor at the Louisiana State University in Shreveport. Her primary research focuses are nonprofit management and philanthropy. Her research encompasses various areas including social entrepreneurship, strategic management, and nonprofit financial sustainability.

By |2024-06-19T12:38:04-04:00June 17th, 2024|NACC Member Research|

Endowment Funded Experiential Learning: Facilitating Student Engagement

Elise Lael Kieffer, Murray State University
Elise Lael Kieffer, Murray State University

Elise Lael Kieffer, Ph.D.
Program Director and Assistant Professor
Nonprofit Leadership Studies,
Organizational Communication and Leadership

Murray State University

Endowment Funded Experiential Learning: Facilitating Student Engagement
Journal of Nonprofit Innovation: Vol. 4: Issue 1, Article 4 (2024)

This article provides background information on the establishment of an endowment that serves specifically to provide experiential learning opportunities for students in and around the university. This case study may serve as a guide for higher education programs in the nonprofit discipline to promote both active philanthropy and learning for students.

This article provides an examination of student reflections following their participation in an endowment funded experiential learning opportunity with a hope of promoting this teaching method in other nonprofit and philanthropic educational programs. The results of this analysis assist in the development of greater understanding into how the experiential learning component affected student reflections from their time in NLS 305. Additionally, analysis reveals how students understood and interpreted the real-world impact of their grantmaking experience, in comparison to traditional classroom practice exercises.

Dr. Kieffer’s first love was musical theatre. She earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Jacksonville University (Florida). After graduation, she began a successful career as a performing artist on the East Coast and Midwest. She left performance to return to school for her Master’s in Public Administration and Nonprofit Management from Tennessee State University. After earning that degree she moved to New York and worked for an international humanitarian aid organization, specializing in fundraising. While her primary assignment was growing the base of individual donors, she is also remembered for the dramatic growth in funding coming from foundations and corporations under her leadership.

The next chapter in her nonprofit sector journey combined her passion for the arts with her growing commitment to strengthening community engagement and building sustainable organizations. She moved to rural Cumberland County, Kentucky, at the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains to found the Burkesville Academy of Fine Arts (BAFA). This interdisciplinary arts education organization offering year-round arts education and performance opportunities for children was launched in rural South- Central Kentucky. BAFA found strong support through local youth serving organizations such as 4-H and the public schools, becoming an integrated part of youth development across the region.

With a long-time aspiration to play a role in the development of leadership and management capacity for those serving the community, in 2017 her family relocated to Tallahassee, Florida, for Dr. Kieffer to pursue her PhD at Florida State University. While studying arts administration, with a focus on nonprofit leadership and management, she focused her research on strengthening rural nonprofit arts organizations. During her academic journey, she has pursued scholarship and engaged in teaching across the leadership and management curriculum. Among her many professional awards, it is worth noting that she was recognized with the Emerging Scholar Award at the International Society on the Arts in Society in 2019, 2020, and 2021. In addition, she received the Emerging Scholars Award at the International Conference on Diversity in Organizations, Communities, and Nations in 2021.

Upon receiving her Ph.D., Dr. Kieffer joined Murray State University as Program Director and Assistant Professor of Nonprofit Leadership Studies and Director of the Murray State Nonprofit Resource Center. Her textbook “Rural Arts Management,” will be released by Routledge in July.

By |2024-06-17T16:20:58-04:00June 17th, 2024|NACC Member Research|
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