A Rural Perspective on COVID-19 Responses: Access, Interdependence and Community

Much of the press on the pandemic has been focused on urban environments where the virus was quick to spread and the numbers of cases are high. Beyond the greater risk for COVID-19-related health complications, rural populations are particularly susceptible to disruptions in the economic infrastructure of their communities. This study explores the impacts of COVID-19 on rural communities and the responses of nonprofit and other community infrastructures. Using a strengths-based approach and mixedmethods design, this qualitative research asked rural residents and nonprofit leaders about their needs, challenges, and assets as a result of COVID-19. Themes relative to access, interdependence, and community emerged from a priori categories. The research offers implications for both nonprofit education and rural nonprofit leadership.

Exploring Hong Kong Nonprofit Education Programs

The nonprofit sector in Hong Kong has developed under unique historical circumstances, including the introduction of the nonintervention policy by the British colonialism and the political transition to the Chinese government in 1997. These historical developments obviously had an impact on the development and expansion of the nonprofit sector within Hong Kong and the requisite qualifications for nonprofit employees that have been in a continuous state of flux. For example, during the 1960s, social work education in Hong Kong was developed through the influence of the professionalization movement in human service organizations, which encouraged the development of nonprofit education in Hong Kong. This study was undertaken to identify NPO/NGO degree programs at the university level in Hong Kong along with their curricula, finding 20 NPO/NGO degree programs within seven universities in Hong Kong including a total of 163 listed courses. The results show that NPO/NGO education programs in Hong Kong were developed based on an interdisciplinary perspective, that the programs highlight service provision and advocacy, while the Greater China regional contents, such as cultural, historical aspects of the Greater China, are reflected in the programs.

The Role of Financial Burden in Nonprofit Sector Commitment

Evidence about millennial work motivations and the increasing importance of compensation questions the durability of the donative labor hypothesis in explaining nonprofit sector commitment. Nonprofit graduate education offers an employment pipeline into the sector, but what if the importance of compensation is partly driven by the financial burden accrued from education? Could it be that financial burden contributes to choices about work and commitment to the nonprofit sector? Using longitudinal data of nonprofit education alumni, we inquire about their sector commitment in light of the financial burden from their degree. Findings of this exploratory study offer a starting point for future research into how nonprofit education alumni view career opportunities in the nonprofit sector.

University-Based Higher Education on Nonprofit and Nongovernmental Organizations in South Korea: Comparative Analysis between South Korea and the United States

From the early 1990s to the present, the nonprofit sector in South Korea has grown exponentially in size and scope, resulting in increased calls for the development of nonprofit education programs to educate future leaders of the nonprofit sector in South Korea. This article reports on a study undertaking to determine the scope and dimensions of the nonprofit and non-governmental organization (NPO/NGO) education in South Korea, identifying university-based nonprofit education programs in South Korea and analyze curricular content employing Wish and Mirabella’s seven-category model for evaluating curricular content in nonprofit programs. At present, South Korea offers 23 NPO/NGO degree programs at 16 universities with a combined total of 634 courses being offered as part of these degree programs. In addition, there are 45 universities offering three or more NPO/NGO related courses outside of the identified 23 NPO/NGO degree programs among the top 50 South Korean Universities, including the aforementioned 16 universities. Our findings show that South Korean NPO/NGO degree programs are more focused on advocacy and public policy related topics than on other categories of curriculum content, and with very little focus on financial management related topics in particular. The paper concludes with a discussion of the unique structure of NPO/NGO degree programs compared with programs in the United States, highlighting the proportional difference between the internal and external functions.

Striking a Strategic Balance: Enhancing Corporate Philanthropy through Service Learning

Corporate giving is increasingly important to the nonprofit sector. However, corporate philanthropy has been slow to adopt insights from the sector’s decades-long experimentation with strategic philanthropy. This article explores the question of how corporate philanthropy might leverage service learning partnerships with students in university-based nonprofit education programs to enhance strategy and maximize social impact. We propose a model for strategic corporate philanthropy comprising two axes, on which the corporation can gauge whether its giving is more proactive or reactive, and technocratic or humanistic, to find a balance between strategy and rigidity. Qualitative data were collected from a service learning project between Toyota Motor North America, Master of Public Administration (MPA) students at a Texas university, and residents of an economically challenged area of West Dallas. Findings suggest that service learning partnerships can help corporate philanthropists strike an appropriate strategic balance, whereby the corporation, individuals being served, and students all benefit.

Ethical Dilemmas in Nonprofit Governance: ARNOVA Governance Section Case Studies for Use in the Classroom and Practitioner Training

The three case studies presented in this issue continues the exploration of contemporary ethical dilemmas in nonprofit governance authored by members of the Governance Section of the Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Associations (ARNOVA). In the first two case studies in this series, published in recent issues of the Journal of Nonprofit Education and Leadership, Ruth Bernstein and Toni Aspin explore the challenges of governance when a nonprofit must consider compromising organizational values to provide services to a vulnerable population. In an examination of the collapse of a $40 million nonprofit agency, Yvonne Cafik Harrison considers a failure of board governance to protect critical constituencies and the very existence of the organization. The cases below expand the conversation regarding ethics and nonprofit governance. First, Jeff Aulgur considers the ethical challenges in contemporary presidential searches at public institutions of higher education. His exploration of the University of South Carolina System’s search for a new president in 2019 applies Karl Weick’s theory of sensemaking in organizations to nonprofit governance. Next, Dean Black, through the lens of a networked membership organization, discusses the ethical questions raised by non-financial conflicts of interest and how such disputes may damage a nonprofit’s reputation and legitimacy. In the last case, Louise Coventry explores the efficacy of the universal application of governance best practices and how scholars and practitioners must consider cultural boundaries and cultural appropriateness.

Bringing Beneficiaries More Centrally Into Nonprofit Management Education and Research

In the early 1970s, scholars studying a variety of service organizations realized that beneficiaries were not only external stakeholders who received services but they were also important organizational actors whose participation in the organization affected the organization’s structure, functioning, and outcomes. Tracing these early observations, and the related concepts of coproduction, value cocreation, and partial membership, this article considers why these ideas have not been more central to nonprofit education and research. After offering likely explanations, the article reports results from a systematic literature review in three nonprofit journals. The results show that despite the limited attention to these ideas, research findings reveal that beneficiaries are important organizational actors, whose participation in the nonprofit matters for the work of staff, leaders, and ultimately for social impact. The article concludes with suggestions for bringing beneficiaries more centrally into nonprofit management research and education.

How to Overcome the Challenge of Teaching Students With Learning Disabilities to Use Technology

Teaching students how to use the technology is the first step to integrating the technology into instructional practice. This chapter shows how to teach students with a learning disability (LD) to use a web-based publishing tool using a simple strategy. The strategy is TAP(S)3. The strategy was developed on the principles of the self-regulated strategy development (SRSD) model and the strategic instruction model (SIM). SRSD and SIM principles are evidence-based and focus on helping the struggling student succeed academically. SRSD and SIM focus intensively on writing instruction. The web-based publishing tool used as an example in this chapter is Book-Builder. Book-Builder was developed by CAST on the principles of universal design for learning (UDL). CAST is a nonprofit education research organization. Specific information about the organization can be found at http://www.cast.org/.