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Colleges and Schools

Program Requirements

Complete a master of nonprofit administration (MNA) degree for a comprehensive preparation for leadership and management within the nonprofit sector.

The MNA is a 36-semester-hour degree, requiring 13 core courses and five electives. Each graduate course is two semester hours. While you can complete the degree in just 21 months, the average time for this program is two-and-a-half years.

Electives

Elective courses for all graduate business and nonprofit degrees can be chosen from the wide range of courses available in the School of Business and Nonprofit Management. The core courses listed below cannot count as electives. You may be able to complete a graduate business or nonprofit certificate through your elective credit.

View all graduate business and nonprofit courses.

Master of Nonprofit Administration Core Courses

Click on a course names below to read a description of the class.

The degree requirements listed below are for students who begin their program during the 2015–2016 academic year (August 2015 and later). Some of these courses will be new as of August 2015, and their course descriptions are not yet available in the catalog.

Please review the full academic catalog for the year you enrolled at North Park for official requirements for completing your degree. The catalog, a School of Business and Nonprofit Management advisor, and our course schedules can assist you in planning your course sequence to complete your program.

      This course develops an understanding of human behavior in changing organizations and the managerial awareness, tools and methods that increase effectiveness. The course explores principles and theories about individuals and groups at work, motivation and interactive drives and processes for satisfying needs, organization strategies for effectively utilizing people and creating the environment to achieve goals of people and companies. The course also examines ethical issues and the rational integration of ethical thinking and decision-making in competitive organizations. New models of teams, organization structure and organizational development practices are studied as the product of today's transforming organizations.

      This course examines the importance of ethical leadership and decision-making to the success of high performance organizations. Ethical issues are examined from a variety of perspectives, analyzed utilizing multiple ethical issue typologies, and possible outcomes determined through the application of a number of decision-making formats. Frameworks for ethics and leadership are assessed and interpreted in light of the leadership behaviors in a number of ethically challenging situations. Finally, students will assess their own ethical leadership views and generate leadership development plans.

      This course provides both basic and advanced financial planning and management skills necessary in today's nonprofit organization. Successful financial planning and business development strategies will be combined to create a financial plan which achieves the goals of the organization. Included are basic principles of managerial accounting. Fund accounting, budgeting, cash flow analysis, expenditure control, long-range financial planning, audits, and grants and contracts are studied, as applied to nonprofit organizations.

      Basic principles of managerial accounting, fund accounting, budgeting, cash flow analysis, expenditure control, long-range financial planning, audits, and grants and contracts are studied, as applied to nonprofit institutions.

      This course focuses on developing a working knowledge of marketing as it applies to nonprofit organizations. Emphasis will be placed on developing a customer orientation, marketing planning and organization, and developing and organizing resources.

      Focusing on the interplay among the corporate, government, and nonprofit sectors, this course will address the issues and current trends in corporate social responsibility and sustainability. The triple bottom line of social, environmental, and economic results will be explored. Topics covered include: sustainability, public private partnerships, corporations' role in climate change, supply chain responsibility, stakeholder engagement, cause and social marketing, environmental responsibility, socially responsible investing, sustainability reporting, transparency, and human rights.

      A foundation course examining the origins and societal role of private nonprofit organizations including their social, political, economic, cultural, and ideological importance in American society and compared against the global non-governmental sector and organizations. Major types of nonprofit organizations are studied, as well as distinguishing organizational characteristics of third-sector institutions as contrasted with business and government organizations. Current trends in the nonprofit sector and projections for the future are analyzed.

      This course is designed to improve understanding of the elements, processes, and dynamics of board governance and volunteer management in nonprofit organizations. Course includes analysis of the respective roles of the board, executive director, staff and volunteers in nonprofit organizations. Focus on means and methods to enable boards and volunteers to maximize organizational effectiveness. Students will learn how to assess and improve the effectiveness of a board, the senior leadership, volunteers, and the overall governance of the organization.

      This course covers the fundamentals of effective resource development as they pertain to nonprofit organizations. Principles and best practices of fundraising are studied, including the fundraising process (i.e., organizational readiness, case development, donor pyramid, strategic planning, management and research). The principles that undergird effective fundraising practices will also be reviewed, including the historical, organizational, legal, ethical, and theoretical contexts of fundraising.

      This course takes an in-depth look at the annual give techniques and processes by which financial resources are secured by nonprofit managers and fundraisers. Attention is given to direct mail, phonathon, email, event, and social media fundraising programs for individuals along with advances in technology and research for fundraising.

      This course examines the assessment of effectiveness against service delivery objectives. The course uses the logic model and other theoretical models to better understand the outcomes and assessment process. Case studies will highlight evaluation issues for improved organizational performance. Prerequisite: Any SBNM course. This may not be the first course in the SBNM academic program.

      This course is the capstone for the MNPA and MHEA degrees. The primary objective of the course is the development of a perspective of the executive leader's job and responsibilities from a conceptual as well as operating standpoint. Within this context, elements to be studied include: governance structure and issues, establishing and reinforcing the nonprofit organization's mission and values, delineating an effective strategy, developing and using information flows to provide management control and performance and effectiveness evaluation, structuring the organization, and allocating human and financial resources. Ethical issues will be discussed throughout the course as pertaining to the nonprofit environment.