Re: Nonprofit-management education

[Kate Desulis]

I'm a graduate of the public and nonprofit management program at Northwestern University. My program was part of the Kellogg Graduate School of Management. I attended classes while working and was able to apply the lessons I learned immediately. Since then, I have continued to use the skills I learned and the connections I made while attending classes.  

For me, the classes I found most useful were in marketing and management (power and politics, organizational behavior, negotiating). Through my work and various workshops and conferences, I already had a good grasp on fund raising.  The skills I lacked were how to manage staff and board members, how to motivate them, how to market my organization, and what people in the for-profit world looked at when making decisions.  

I continually use what I learned and considered it a fantastic program. I highly encourage others to gain management and business skills in addition to the traditional nonprofit courses.

[Anonymous#9]

I'm officially an alum of New York University's Wagner School M.S. program in nonprofit management, although I finished my coursework at Kellogg. I loved the coursework in both cases, especially those covering communications and organizational behavior. I would say that, in general, you can never know too much about how to handle the politics of the workplace.

I would say, though, that the least helpful aspect was in helping me, as a motivated (older) graduate trying to change careers, actually make that transition. It's been a sink-or-swim experience, and I've never thought that the schools have taken much interest (in the form of career services, etc.) in their graduates' later experiences in the real world.