| Nonprofit
Fridays unites future nonprofit leaders BY
MATT GETTY The
future owner of an independent movie house could learn a lot from
an aspiring human rights organization director. At least that’s
what public administration professor Margo Bailey and arts management
professor Robert Goler are banking on with their new Nonprofit Fridays
program, a series of monthly Friday afternoon discussions aimed
at uniting students who share the goal of working in the nonprofit
sector but have a wide variance in their areas of study. This
semester alone AU has offered close to a dozen classes that refer
directly to the nonprofit sector either in their course titles or
their descriptions. From marketing to media relations to management
to grant writing, classes dealing with the sector regularly draw
business, arts management, communication, and public administration
students alike. But with all these students in separate classrooms,
and separate schools, Bailey wondered if they might be missing out
on one of their most valuable resources—each other. “I
knew that each of these different programs were offering course
work in nonprofits,” explained Bailey. “So I felt there
was an opportunity to start an interdisciplinary conversation on
the sector.” To that end, she contacted Goler and representatives
from the School of Communication (SOC) and the School of Inter-national
Service (SIS) last summer to gauge their interest in the program.
Both SOC and SIS supported the effort, but Goler, who saw in it
a twofold benefit for his arts management students, went one step
further, partnering with Bailey to stage the project’s first
two events in October and November, “Direct Advocacy and Community
Engagement,” and “The Impact of the 2004 Elections on
the Nonprofit Sector.” “There’s
no code of law that deals just with museums,” said Goler. “The
laws just lump all nonprofits together as a whole. A theatre company
gets dealt with the same way as the American Red Cross. So it’s
important for us to build alliances with others in the sector not
only because we deal with the same issues, but also because we have
distinctive needs as well, and we need to make sure our voices are
heard so that those needs are part of the conversation.” Beyond
bringing the students together, Nonprofit Fridays also draws on
the wealth of nonprofits in the area by bringing local experts to
campus to speak on a range of issues. This semester, for instance,
Anne L’Ecuyer, director of arts policy information at Americans
for the Arts, outlined her organization’s programs to promote
the arts within local communities and Jeff Krehely, deputy director
of the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, detailed
his expectations for the impact of President Bush’s reelection
on the nonprofit sector.
Although Nonprofit Fridays is only in the pilot stage this semester,
both Bailey and Goler believe there’s been enough student interest
to continue and possibly expand the program through the spring semester.
“I know that more and more of our students are interested in
the nonprofit sector,” said Bailey. “We just need to continue
find ways to bring those students together from across the campus.” |
