School of Management students are known for their high-paying jobs and cut-throat interviewing skills, but on Wednesday night, 20 of these students gathered to discuss their work for quite the opposite: nonprofit organizations.
The Institute for Nonprofit Management and Leadership is designed as a part-time school that offers extensive courses for executives and senior managers already working in the nonprofit field. INML began classes for the first time this semester as part of SMG. Upon completion, participants receive a certificate in Nonprofit Management and Leadership from SMG.
‘I have a sincere desire to be able to impact on this world with my calling,’ Boston University student Kevin Wayne Thomas, a STRIVE/Boston Employment Service, Inc. trainer, said. ‘Adding to my educational skill level increases my ability and provides me access to doors that would otherwise be closed.’
Tuition costs $7,800 for two to four hours of class a week for nine months, though most participants receive $5,000 in scholarships. INML is more affordable than other institutions like Columbia University’s Institute for Not-for-Profit Management, which costs $4,000 a week, which SMG administrators hope will attract more practicing professionals, INML Executive Director Barry Dym said.
‘These are people who cannot afford MBAs,’ Dym said. ‘They are actually working as senior executives with small salaries. This is an effort to give them a serious education at a very low cost.’
INML at BU is more intensive than similar programs throughout the country at schools such as Columbia and Stanford University, instructor Kristen McCormack, the INML faculty director, said.
‘It’s different in that it’s twice as many hours in the classroom, and it’s spread over a nine month period of time,’ McCormack said. ‘This allows participants to absorb the information and knowledge, and to practice skills in the workplace and reflect. The learning lasts for a longer time than intensive short-period programs.’
INML has approximately 35 participants and seven faculty members. By next year, the program is expected to expand to educate approximately 50 participants, McCormack said.
INML gets most of its funding from the Boston Foundation, a company that partners with and sponsors nonprofit organizations. The foundation contributed a $75,000 grant to INML in June.
Nonprofit organizations currently employ 14 percent of all Massachusetts employees, Boston Foundation spokesman David Trueblood said.
‘Nonprofits contribute a lot to the vitality of the region and, in many ways, they help define what the greater Boston and Massachusetts communities are,’ Trueblood said.
In this economy especially, nonprofit organizations ‘are even more important,’ INML student Ben Sheldon said.
‘They provide the safety net for people who are in need,’ he said.
After taking INML courses, Sheldon, who is the CTC Vista Project assistant director, said it is easier to be aware of what is happening in the workplace.
‘I’ll be able to eventually turn that understanding into action, which is what I am really looking forward to,’ he said.
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