Funds will help train future nonprofit leaders
The UPS Foundation, charitable
arm of UPS, has awarded the Tuck
School of Business a $200,000 grant for the creation of a nonprofit track
in the school's Business Bridge
Program. The 12 students comprising this first nonprofit class began the
program on July 15.
The Business Bridge Program is a four week, in residence "boot
camp" for upperclassmen and recent graduates majoring in the liberal arts
to learn skills that will make them more competitive in pursuing a business
career. With classes taught by members of the Tuck School faculty, students
receive instruction in accounting, marketing and management communications.
More than 1,500 students from the nation's top colleges have participated in
the program since its founding in 1997.
"The Bridge Program is a proven fast track to mastering business
basics," said Corrie Martin '90, Program Development Manager.
"Several top companies, including Ernst & Young, Goldman Sachs and
UBS, come to us each year to find their new hires. What they find in the Bridge
students are people who have the skills to look at things through a general
management lens. Bridge Program graduates know how to lead, motivate and manage
resources. With these skills, they can succeed in practically any
environment."
The primary architect of the project was Matt Dunne, Associate Director of
the Public
Impact Initiative at the Rockefeller Center. The
Rockefeller Center and the Tuck School partnered in the creation of this
nonprofit program. According to Dunne, "The nonprofit world of today
demands a similar caliber of leader as the for-profit sector. This program sets
out to teach a skills set to this group of people who are ready to pursue
social entrepreneurship and help them succeed."
Indeed, Dunne believes that the recruitment and retention of capable,
professional nonprofit leaders is a significant issue today. He said that the
management courses offered by most nonprofit organizations are thinly staffed
and tend to target mid-career professionals, leaving top college-age students
who are interested in pursuing nonprofit careers few options beyond internships
for gaining experience.
Dunne notes that the number of jobs at nonprofits continues to grow, but as
baby-boomers retire there is a question of where the next leaders of these
organizations will come from. "We ultimately won the UPS Foundation over
to this project because they agreed with us that we need to focus on the
capacity of nonprofit leaders," he said.
"Dartmouth is in a unique position to train these nonprofit managers.
We have strong programming to support volunteerism and public awareness, and we
also have this amazing business training program. Our challenge was to identify
all of the pieces that were already in place then add what was missing,"
he continued.
Last summer, eight nonprofit-bound college graduates and young professionals
were asked to participate in the Business Bridge Program and to identify its
most applicable and useful components. Participants were surveyed before
the program to learn what they wanted to gain. Their experiences were also
assessed at the two-week mark, immediately after the program was completed and
again six weeks later. The surveys sought to determine which components of the
Business Bridge Program were the most useful for a nonprofit manager, which
could be deleted and what material needed to be added to make the program a
success.
The program that was developed follows the track of the standard Business
Bridge Program with curricular add-ons specific for nonprofits, which are being
developed in concert with Bridgespan, the nonprofit consultancy spin-off of
Bain & Company. The nonprofit program will also include a "translation
piece," which was roundly recommended by the students who participated in
the pilot program. Nonprofit students arrived on July 15, three days prior to
the rest of the Business Bridge students, and attended a session where they
were shown how to apply the business skills they would learn in the course to
their future nonprofit work. "When instructors are talking about selling a
widget, the nonprofit students will be able to immediately understand how these
are the skills needed to sell an organizational mission," said Martin.
The UPS grant is for two years and provides partial scholarships for those
students participating in the nonprofit track of the Business Bridge Program,
as well as covering the costs of developing and running the three-day nonprofit
focused add-on session. Spots are already filled for this summer's program, but
openings remain for the summer of 2006.
The outdoor wear company Timberland, as well as Chittenden Bank have
provided additional scholarships to nonprofit Bridge students. Timberland is
providing two full scholarships, while Chittenden Bank will provide a
scholarship to one Vermont nonprofit leader.
For more information
about enrollment in the Business Bridge Program, contact Corrie Martin at
603-646-0252.
By JOEL AALBERTS
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