Category Archives: Engagement

#GIVINGTUESDAYNOW AND COVID-19

 

Give the widespread usage of technology in every facet of our lives, it’s not surprising that individuals across the United States supported the online movement, #GivingTuesday, in record amounts last fall.  On December 3, 2019, individuals supported a variety of charitable causes with more than 4 million gifts totaling roughly $510 million.  This amount represented a 28% increase from the amount given during the 2018 #GivingTuesday campaign.

Given the growing need by nonprofits working to address the COVID-19 pandemic, #GivingTuesday organizers are urging individuals and nonprofits to rally together to support their local communities’ efforts to address the impact of the coronavirus.  On Tuesday, May 5, 2020, a new online campaign will attempt to drive global generosity, civic engagement, business and foundation action to support nonprofits all over the world working to slow the impact of coronavirus.  #GivingTuesdayNow is an opportunity when individuals can come together and give back in any way they can, no matter who or where they are.

The #GivingTuesdayNow campaign is being organized by a global network of nonprofit leaders, business partners, and generous individuals, including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the United Nations Foundation, PayPal and NBC/MSNBC serving as the signature media partner.  #GivingTuesdayNow is similar in form and function to the late Fall appeal, but now there is an even greater sense of urgency to support our community and social services.

How can individuals help?  On May 5, individuals are encouraged to participate in the effort using whatever means they can and to use social media to spread their participation and recognize others using the #GivingTuesdayNow hashtag to create a global feeling of unity and support.  Organizers of the effort offer several opportunities to participate including donating to nonprofits in their communities working to help ease the suffering of millions affected by COVID-19, supporting local small businesses—especially those that may be able to donate products or services to nonprofits on the front lines of the pandemic, and demonstrations of gratitude to healthcare workers, service providers, and other essential workers who risk their own health on a daily basis.

What should nonprofits do? Given the urgency of the situation, using social media to reach your audiences helps you communicate key information quickly, create a sense of urgency, and share your updates to people in and out of your traditional networks.  Before #GivingTuesdayNow begins, nonprofits must take some time to plan through their efforts to reach out to donors, volunteers, advocates, and social media followers.

As soon as possible, nonprofits need to sketch out the draft of their #GivingTuesdayNow plans, including developing the storyline or theme for their messaging.  An organizational plan doesn’t need to be overly detailed given the urgent need and short turnaround time, but nonprofits should think through how this storyline will be woven into messages across multiple channels, including your website, e-mail, Facebook, Twitter, blogs, and other social media channels used by the nonprofit.

Storytelling and Planning.  Your story may focus on your organization’s heroes, the impact of your programs and services, or those you are serving during this pandemic.  Whatever its focus, organizations need to be consistent with messaging throughout the day and use the different channels to build a story.  Sending out one message on #GivingTuesdayNow will not work neither will sending a similar message through all of your channels.

You need to entice your supporters to want to learn more and seek out your updates among the many that they’re going to receive from other worthy causes.  It may help to draft your #GivingTuesdayNow messages all at once so that you can see the natural progression of your messaging across channels and throughout the day.  Your updates should be spread out across the day.  Start with strong messaging that ends with a “donate now” option and follow that throughout the day with informational updates that further your storyline.

Recruit organizational supporters!  #GivingTuesdayNow efforts will succeed only if you get others to tell your story.  Whether you’re the nonprofit executive director, marketer, or fundraiser, you cannot do the work alone.  You simply do not have the vast network needed to reach the numbers necessary to see a huge impact on your efforts.  But, your online supporters do!  Tapping into your most active volunteers and loyal donors and asking them for help will result in your #GivingTuesdayNow updates being seen by more people when they add their own thoughts and words of encouragement to your shared posts and forwarded emails.

#GivingTuesdayNow should not be a replication of your #GivingTuesday efforts.  We are in an unprecedented time of need and urgency, and your messages should accurately reflect your organization’s efforts to combat the COVID-19 virus.  With a well-developed storyline and messages customized to tap into the personality of each platform, nonprofits will not only be able to succeed in educational efforts and fundraising but also be able to reach out to their local communities with words of gratitude for those on the frontline and words of encouragement for everyone whose lives have been upended by the coronavirus.

Experiential-by-Design in Nonprofit Education

The University of San Francisco’s Leo T. McCarthy Center for Public Service and the Common Good  has been in the forefront of integrating community engagement in higher education. Recently, McCarthy Profiles for Community Engagement Learning included the reflections of Dr. Marco Tavanti on the MNA and now USF offered Academic Global Immersion (AGI-Rome) on Refugee Service Management as an example of experiential learning for global-local engagement (pp. 26-27).

Experiential learning, community engagement and project based education are probably the most important values behind the MNA Program. Our best practices in integrating professional experience and community have been recognized as emerging innovations and effective practices for nonprofit management education (NME), a field pioneered by Dr. Michael O’Neil in the MNA Program and his research.

In the accreditation process with the Nonprofit Academic Center Council (NACC) this feature of the MNA program was recognized as distinction of this degree as a learning beyond the classroom and beyond just service. In an article recently published by Journal of Nonprofit Education and Leadership (JNEL) the advantage and strategic process of of integrating  a Nonprofit Management Education (NME) programs like ours into experiential learning is crucial.

Access the entire article here:

2018 Experiential-By-Design: Integrating Experiential Learning Strategies into Nonprofit Management Education – Tavanti&Wilp JNEL

This is an excerpt from the Tavanti & Wilp JNEL 2018 article on the integration of Experiential Learning and Community Engagement into Nonprofit Management Education. These reflections and classifications should help Higher Education Institutions to thing strategically on how to integrate High Impact Practices (HIPS) into their curricula and programs.

“Learning through real-world experiences is a valued pedagogy in higher education and an essential method for educating effective nonprofit managers in the 21st century. The practical fields of management education and nonprofit management education (NME) aim to develop appropriate skills, competencies, and mind-sets relevant to administrative, organizational, and leadership careers. These objectives cannot be sufficiently accomplished through in-class lectures and activities only. They require more hands-on and community-centered approaches that increase student exposure to real-world situations while benefiting the capacity development needs of nonprofit organizations (NPOs) and the sector. When the NME field started offering nonprofit-specific graduate programs in the United States with the University of San Francisco’s Master in Nonprofit Organization Management (MPA/NOM in 1983), later renamed Master of Nonprofit Administration (MNA in 1985), the need for experiential learning was not as urgent as today. Most of the students in the early development of the field were professionals with several years of experience in the sector. They sought theories to understand their own practices, along with university recognition for their leadership advancements (O’Neill & Fletcher, 1998; O’Neill & Young, 1988). The priority in these early years involved identifying the proper curriculum content rather than reflecting on the most appropriate pedagogical methods of delivery. In addition, because the students were already bringing their experiences into the classroom reflections and exercises, the need to utilize more community-centered methods was less of a priority. Michael O’Neill, along with Dennis R. Young and other NME pioneers, argued that the field had emerged to prepare those who were currently working in it or were preparing to be leaders and managers of private not-for-profit organizations, while educating public and private sector leaders and managers to interact more effectively with nonprofits (Dobkin Hall, O’Neill, Vinokur-Kaplan, Young, & Lane, 2001). Today, the distinction between very experienced and less experienced professional students is a major characteristic of the student population. This demands more strategic attention about how instructors teach and students learn, while providing more opportunities for university–community partnerships for capacity development. Properly designed experiential education activities, courses, and programs are fundamental for advancing the professional capacity of the sector and its future leaders (Cacciamani, 2017; Fenton & Gallant, 2016).

[…] “In graduate NME, experiential learning is and should be more than active learning or service learning. It is about working with NPOs to increase their organizational capacity, while accompanying students to become more effective in their competencies and capacity to consult, assess, and collaborate. The current shifts from experiential learning to experiential education and from service learning to community-engaged learning show the contributions of these models. The strategies and contextualization of the experiences in the University of San Francisco’s MNA Program can be adapted by other institutions and NME programs. They can do this by considering a community-centered model of education (Model 1), by considering a pedagogical praxis of students and community transformation (Model 2), and by designing programs that are relevant to local and global communities (Model 3).”

Model 1

This illustration shows the progression that NME program need to have to expand from a Teacher-centered model of teaching and learning into a Student-centered and beyond into a Community-centered type of experiential and project based methods

Model 2

This illustration shows how the methods for teaching and learning through experience and immersions align with the analysis and contextual engagement values of the Ignatian Pedagogical Paradigms expressed as Praxis Learning.

Model 3

This illustration highlighting the AGI-Rome methods for refugee service and forced migration management indicates the importance of connecting the global immersion with the local engagement for educating global-local (glocal) mindsets while promoting capacities for working beyond borders.

[…]  “Active learning, problem-based learning, project-based learning, service learning, and place-based learning are some of the more well-known methods associated with experiential education (Godfrey, 1999). With the growth of NME programs internationally, there is also a clearer need for educating professionals not only with theoretical, philosophical, and historical notions but also with feasible projects and activities benefiting the learner and the partnering organizations.

Experiential learning is a growing field characterized by specific applied methods, a value-based philosophy, and shared benefits across teaching, learning, and communities. “Experiential education is a philosophy that informs many methodologies in which educators purposefully engage with learners in direct experience and focused reflection in order to increase knowledge, develop skills, clarify values, and develop people’s capacity to contribute to their communities. (Association for Experiential Education, para 4). This definition is not exclusive to formal education, but it is relevant to a general approach to teaching, learning, and engagement. A wide diversity of methods, strategies, and approaches relate to practices of experiential learning across disciplines. However, such a diversity is also a source of confusion in the field.

Wurdinger and Carlson (2010) provide a useful overview of the most effective approaches to experiential learning:

  1. Active Learning: A group of experiential learning activities associated with classroom strategies such as role playing, simulation, debates, presentations, and case studies.
  2. ProblemBased Learning: Inquiry-based learning activities through in-depth investigations, self-directed research, and group-work inquiries.
  3. ProjectBased Learning: A type of experiential learning that stimulates students’ interests while developing their project management capacity, technology, and research skills and analytical presentation capacity. It can be individual or group work, teacher directed, student directed, or a combination of the two.
  4. Service Learning: A well-known approach to teaching and learning that often includes planning (community needs), action (service), and reflection (learning). The emphasis is on learning. It can be student centered or community based.
  5. Placed-Based Learning: A learning focused on a particular place or context. It is a holistic approach to education that uses the immersion into a context to support the vitality of a community. It can be far (global) or near (local).

Excerpt from:

Tavanti, M. & Wilp, E. A. (2018). Experiential-By-Design: Integrating Experiential Learning Strategies into Nonprofit Management Education. Journal of Nonprofit Education and Leadership (JNEL), Special Issue of the Bi-Annual Nonprofit Academic Center Council Conference, 1-23. ISSN: 2157-0604.

Available full text at the Journal of Nonprofit Education and Leadership (JNEL) https://js.sagamorepub.com/jnel 

University of San Francisco MNA students meeting with the UNHCR EU representative during the Refugee Service Management AGI-Rome Global Immersion Program – January 2017. Many operators at this international organization have started their career with volunteers experiences and management entry works in nonprofits and NGOs serving forced migrants.
Dr. Tavanti with MNA and MIMS students during the AGI-Rome international Immersion Program 2018 after the visit to Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in their Italian office in Rome to understand their strategies to advocate for human rights and migration rights.

Learn more about these methods and the impact on the students and our communities here http://agirome.blogspot.com/ 

Learn more how the MNA Program integrate experiential learning for nonprofit management and leadership education here https://www.usfca.edu/management/graduate-programs/nonprofit-administration

Learn more about how our MNA program students learn through collaborative projects with nonprofit organizations and social enterprises in the Capstone Projects and Practicums for social impact analysis here https://usfblogs.usfca.edu/nonprofit/research/  

Nonprofit Career at your Doorsteps

The University of San Francisco (USF) School of Management, in cooperation with student volunteers, administrative and faculty members, have compiled a career resource guide for current students, alumni, and prospective students of the Master of Nonprofit Administration (MNA) program.  Resources have been provided through various sources including field research of philanthropic career opportunities, community outreach, faculty and student advisement, the 2017 GuideStar Nonprofit Compensation Report, and the 2017 University of San Francisco School of Management Graduate Career Services Career Resource Guide, which has been edited to fit the needs of students in the nonprofit program.  These resources are designed to provide students with internship, fellowship, and volunteer opportunities, networking events, compensation reports, interview tips, resume templates, and tools for job searching for those pursuing a career in the nonprofit sector.

This project is also meant to bridge any gaps that may exist between USF and alumni of the MNA program.  We would like to assist alumni in their own career paths or to engage alumni with current students to share their specialized advice from working in the field.  This guide (including the handbook and the compensation report) will be accessible to all currently enrolled students in the full time and part time program using the USF Canvas system within the MNA Depot, and it  will include all of the resources described above.  The handbook will also be posted to the USF MNA website and will be accessible to the public including alumni.  The compensation report has been purchased by the University of San Francisco School of Management from GuideStar.org and is for internal usage only due to restrictions placed upon the distribution of the report by GuideStar.  Thus, this piece of the guide can only be accessed by currently enrolled students or those alumni who wish to physically visit USF to view the resource in person.  This resource cannot be shared electronically by email.

Events will be announced to current students through the MNA Depot and to alumni and current students who are members of the MNA LinkedIn group page which can be found here: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/6752583.  These events will include those hosted by USF and events hosted by outside organizations (typically occurring within the San Francisco Bay Area) for networking and volunteer opportunities.

The School of Management and the MNA Program at USF are excited to assist the growing needs of current students and alumni in their career development and professional endeavors in the philanthropic job market.

Download here the 2018 MNA Career Resource Guide and see resourceful links for successful nonprofit careers.

 

 

2016 Symposium on Refugees

Global Refugee Mural, Silver Spring, MD

USF for Freedom 2016

Symposium on Refugees, Forced Migrants, and Human Security

There are many names for people who flee war and violence across borders: refugees, forced migrants, unaccompanied minors, displaced people. This symposium looks at the quest for freedom through the lens of human security and asks: Why do people leave their homes? What happens through the migration journey? How do youth and adult migrants navigate the process of relocation?

Symposium on Refugees, Forced Migrants, and Human Security

This symposium examines global issues and local perspectives on refugees and forced migration, bringing together scholars, migrants, service providers, and activists. The two panels and networking reception will offer a rich opportunity for building awareness and solidarity through dialogue and exchange.

Panel 1: Displacement and Human Security

Moderator: Annick Wibben, Associate Professor, University of San Francisco Department of Politics

Confirmed Panelists:
Olivier Bercault, Adjunct Professor, University of San Francisco Department of International Studies
Lariza Dugan-Cuadra, Executive Director, CARECEN – Central American Resource Center
Bill Ong Hing, Professor & Dean’s Circle Scholar, University of San Francisco School of Law
Ali Khoie, Management Consultant, ORAM – Organization for Refuge, Asylum & Migration
Marco Tavanti, Professor & Director of the Nonprofit Administration Program, University of San Francisco School of Management

Panel 2: Relocation, Resettlement, and Human Security

Moderator: Monisha Bajaj, Associate Professor, University of San Francisco Department of International & Multicultural Education

Confirmed Panelists:
Lindsay Gifford, Assistant Professor, University of San Francisco Department of International Studies
Lauren Markham, Community School Program Manager, Oakland International High School
Vivian Faustino-Pulliam, International Faculty of Jesuit Commons: Higher Education at the Margins & Adjunct Professor, University of San Francisco School of Management
Meron Semedar, Huffington Post Blogger, Youth Ambassador for One Young World, & Master’s Student, University of San Francisco

Dr. Marco Tavanti on the MNA Program and Refugees

What role can nonprofits play in the global refugee crisis?

Learn more about USF For Freedom 2016

This symposium is sponsored by CRASE Interdisciplinary Action Group and organized by Monisha Bajaj, Associate Professor, International & Multicultural Education, School of Education; Shabnam Koirala-Azad, Associate Dean, School of Education; Tika Lamsal, Assistant Professor, Rhetoric, College of Arts & Sciences; Marco Tavanti, Professor and Director, Nonprofit Administration, School of Management; Kathleen Coll, Assistant Professor, Politics Department, College of Arts & Sciences; Vivian Faustino-Pulliam, Adjunct Professor, Economics, Law and International Business, School of Management; Lindsay Gifford, Assistant Professor, International Studies, College of Arts and Sciences; Annick T.R. Wibben, Associate Professor, Politics & International Studies, College of Arts & Sciences.

Read more at: http://www.usf4freedom.org

Missed the 2016 USF4Freedom symposium? Check these feeds at https://storify.com/ATRWibben/symposium-on-refugees-forced-migrants-and-human-se