Take My Liberty MGMT 602 Class

Worth is read one to three chapters a week, though not strictly in order. The opening chapters describe the nonprofit sector in the United States, its size and variety, and the theories economists and political scientists offer for why some services come from nonprofits rather than from businesses or government.

The next chapters turn to governance and leadership: what boards are for, how they go wrong and how the board and the chief executive share responsibility.

The middle of the term covers the management of the organization itself, including strategy, accountability and the measurement of performance in organizations whose results are not profits. A case study accompanies week five.

The later chapters cover fundraising, earned income and other sources of revenue, along with topics such as advocacy and the wider environment nonprofits work in.

Each module has a short presentation or website. Every discussion opens in an odd-numbered week and closes in the even week after it, each opening week also brings a 75-point quiz, and the project waits until the final week.

MGMT 602 is carried with the project running underneath the discussions from the first week, since its stages build on one another and the deadline at the end leaves no time for a late start.

Each discussion thread analyzes the assigned case study or journal article in at least 400 words, using Worth's concepts to explain what the case shows. A thread on a board conflict, for example, might use the chapter's account of board roles to argue that the board stepped into management and recommend a clearer division of duties.

Replies, at least two per discussion and 200 words each, engage classmates' readings of the same case and add a point they missed.

The project starts with a short essay reflecting on a Christian worldview and what it means for nonprofit leadership.

Ten nonprofits are then reviewed briefly, using their websites, annual reports and the Form 990 that public charities file, so the choice of one for deeper study is well informed.

The in-depth assessment looks at that organization's governance, strategy, programs, performance measures, fundraising and finances, and ends with recommendations supported by evidence. A professional letter to the organization presents those recommendations in a form its leaders could act on.

You post and submit everything yourself, and the quizzes are yours.

MGMT 602 work goes to someone who has worked in or advised nonprofits: an executive director, a development officer, a board consultant or a program evaluator, often with a graduate degree in nonprofit management or public administration.

That experience shows in the project, where the Form 990 is read for what it reveals: how much goes to programs, how dependent the organization is on a few donors, what the leaders are paid and whether the board has the policies it should.

It shows in the discussions too, where a case about mission drift or a fundraising scandal is analyzed the way a board consultant would see it.

The worldview essay and the letter are written with care, the first reflective and the second professional and respectful.

A second reviewer checks every thread, reply and project stage for length, evidence and APA before delivery, and the same writer stays on the course.

Charities that do not file a full Form 990, such as many churches, are usually poor choices, since too little is public.

The project is the first difficulty. It has four parts, it is worth nearly a third of the course and it is due at the very end, which tempts students to start late.

Reviewing ten organizations is the second. Each needs its mission, size, revenue sources and programs pulled from public documents before one can be chosen.

Reading a Form 990 is the third. Many students have never seen one, and its schedules hide much of what an assessment needs.

The discussions are the fourth. Each one analyzes a specific case or article, and a thread that summarizes the reading without analysis earns little.

The quizzes are the fifth, worth 75 points each and falling in the same odd weeks as the threads.

Forum 1's thread and the first quiz fall in week one, and the project needs an early start, so the course is best handed over before it opens.

Your opening post for each case reaches you at the start of its week, and the responses come once classmates have posted theirs.

The faith reflection is ready in week two and the survey of ten charities by week four, leaving you time to approve the one chosen for close study.

The in-depth assessment and the letter arrive early in week eight, before the deadline.

The quote lists each discussion and the project on separate lines, with the project the largest.

Late joiners pay only for what is still open.