Nonprofit Management Education in the United States.

Overview & Synopsis

This paper describes the growth and outlines the place of education in the management of nonprofit organizations in the United States. The discussion of nonprofit management education focuses on education in the formal sector, at the graduate level. There are more than 1.5 million nonprofit organizations in the United States, nearly double the number of 25 years ago. Of the factors that have contributed to the growth of nonprofit management education, the most important is the growth of the nonprofit sector itself. As nonprofit management education programs were developed, they were based on assumptions about nonprofit leadership and management that asserted that nonprofit management is different than other management, and that nonprofit management education programs should focus on the entire nonprofit sector, rather than on subsectors. It was also assumed that there was a market for such programs, and that they could draw on a body of research, but need not have identical curricula. Overall, these assumptions have been supported. In the future, it seems probable that the management of nonprofit organizations will continue to differ from the management of for-profit concerns. The field of nonprofit management education will adapt to the changes to be expected in education and in society. (SLD)