UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNNIA, BERKELEY Office hours: Tues, 2-4pm or by appointment Room 216, (642-7066), mjaustin@berkeley.edu
School of Social Welfare SW 298, Spring 2008 Mike Austin
Working in Nonprofits
Overview:
This new elective is designed for students interested in understanding the nature of nonprofit human service organizations, especially those students with clinical or program development interests. Special features of the course include: Assessing organizations by identifying the multiple roles assumed by staff and board members in nonprofits Exploring the ways that social policies and the social environment impact on the behavior of nonprofit organizations Evaluating the lifecycle of human service nonprofits through the use of newly developed organizational histories of pioneering nonprofit human service organizations in the Bay Area
This Social Policy and HB&SE elective provides a multi-disciplinary perspective on the nonprofit sector with respect to human service organizations. It draws upon the social policy perspective (political and economic) as well as the organizational behavior perspective (psychology, sociology, and anthropology) to increase our understanding of how social policies impact the behavior of nonprofit human service agencies. It begins with a focus on the psychosocial dynamics of human service organizations (power, roles, climate, culture, and change capacities). This beginning module is followed by the social policy focus that features the social environment (community, contracting, and privatization). The third and final module focuses on the lifecycle of human service organizations as reflected in organizational histories. The course includes an emphasis on case-based learning that features different fields of practice (child welfare, welfare to work, and ethnic/minority nonprofits). The course also includes guest speakers (researchers and administrators).
Learning objectives:
1. Provide students with an internal and external view of nonprofit human service organizations in order to demonstrate the analytic capacities to assess nonprofits. 2. Create an opportunity for each student to explore a topic of interest (in the form of a term paper) in order to demonstrate a capacity to understand an important facet of nonprofit organizations. 3. Create an experiential learning environment through the use of case studies and guest lecturers in order to provide an opportunity to apply learning. 1
Course Readings:
Required 1. Gibelman & Furman (2008). Navigating Human Service Organizations, Second Edition. Lyceum (new paperback available in ASUC Bookstore or online) 2. Smith & Lipsky (1995). Nonprofits for Hire: The Welfare State in the Age of Contracting, Harvard Univ. Press (paperback) --- available used online 3. Stevens (2001). Nonprofit Lifestyles: Stage-based Wisdom for Nonprofit Capacity, Stagewise Enterprises (paperback) – available on loan from instructor Optional Lewis (2007). The Management of Non-Governmental Development Organizations, 2nd Edition. Routledge (on Reserve) Austin (Ed) (2004). Changing Welfare Services: Case Studies of Local Welfare Reform Programs. Haworth Press (on Reserve) Edwards et all (1997). Building a Strong Foundation: Fundraising for Nonprofits. NASW Press (on Reserve)
Course Outline:
I. Overview of Course (Jan 22)
MODULE I: ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR OF NONPROFITS II. The Social Environment of Nonprofits (Jan 29) Implementing public policies (Child Welfare and Welfare to Work) Responding to community needs with community-centered practice The dynamics of organization-environment relations The dynamics of organization-client relations Readings: Gibelman & Furman, Chapters 1, 2, 4, & 9 III. The Human Behavior of Nonprofits – Worker & Management Perspectives (Feb 5) Worker discretion and client empowerment Organizational culture (the supervisor perspective) Evidence-informed decision-making Building a learning organization with a focus on outcomes
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Readings: Gibelman & Furman, Chapters 5, 6, 8 Case # 1: Casa Myrna Vasquez (handout) IV. Staff Role Relationships and Transitions (Feb 12) Line staff to supervisor Managerial entry and exit Managing Up/Down/Out Readings: Gibelman & Furman, Chapters 10, 11, 12 Case #2: Greenvale Residential Treatment Center V. Board Relations (Feb 19) Leadership roles Fiduciary responsibilities Executive-board relations Readings – Monographs from BoardSource
MODULE II: IMPACT OF SOCIAL POLICIES ON NONPROFITS VI. The Political Economy of Nonprofits (Feb 26) History of nonprofits (Prof. Ralph Kramer) Understanding the financial management of nonprofits Readings: Gibelman & Furman, Chapter 3 Smith & Lipsky, Chapters 1-3 Term paper topic due Feb 26 VII. Components of public-private partnerships (March 4) Governance Professionalism Clients Dilemmas Readings: Smith & Lipsky, Chapters 4-7 VIII. Welfare to Work – Nonprofits as partners in innovation (March 11) Removing barriers to workforce participation Providing self-sufficiency services Enhancing community partnerships
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Readings: Prince & Austin (2001). Innovative programs and practices emerging from the implementation of welfare reform, Journal of Community Practice. 9(3) (handout) Austin (2003). The changing relationship between nonprofit organizations and public social service agencies in the era of welfare reform, Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly. 32(1) (handout) IX. Child Welfare Redesign -- Nonprofits as partners in innovation (March 18) Promoting promising practices Differential response and wrap-around services
Term paper outline/bibliography due on March 18 -- Sharing Term Paper Outlines
Spring Break (March 25)
MODULE III: LIFECYCLES OF NONPROFITS X. Lifecycles of Nonprofits (April 1) Nonprofit capacity Lifecycle management Capacity building Readings: Stevens, Chapters 1-9 XI. History of Pioneering Nonprofits – Part I (April 8) Unity Council (Gilda Gonzalez & Gabriel Orozco) Bananas (Cathy Vu) Readings: Handouts XII. History of Pioneering Nonprofits – Part II (April 15) Ethnic/minority service providers (Cathy Vu) Asian Mental Health (Cathy Vu) Readings: Handouts XIII. History of Pioneering Nonprofits – Part III (April 22) Shelter Network (Sara Kimberlin) Larkin Street Youth Services (Loren Farrar) 4
Readings: Handouts XIV. Nonprofit Capacity Building (April 29) Jewish Family Service (Sara Schwartz) Nonprofits mergers (Amy Benton) Readings: Stevens, Chapters 10-11 Merger paper (Amy Benton) XV. Course Review (May 6) Careers in nonprofits Research on nonprofits Term Paper due May 6
Course Assignments:
I. Each student is expected, once during the semester, to work in teams to facilitate discussions of the readings. A sign-up sheet will be distributed during the first and second class session. The goal of this session (up to 45 minutes) is to: a) Identify 4-6 major issues, concepts, ideas that emerged for the team members in the readings of a particular week b) Identify the rationale for selecting these issues c) Define each of the issues as reflected in the readings d) Pose three discussion questions for the class to select and guide the discussion of one or more of the questions II. The major written assignment for this course is a term paper of 25 pages (hardcopy, doublespaced, 1 inch margins) plus references and figures. While the topic is open for each student to select, a list of possible topics is noted below. It is an illustrative list. While everyone is free to select their own topic, it should be discussed with the instructor no later than Feb 12. If students want to work together on a topic, papers of up to three authors are welcome. In support of the idea that practitioners should contribute to the literature of the profession, the best papers will be published as part of a series of Working Papers to appear on the Mack Center website (www.mackcenter.org) with the permission of the author(s). The paper drafting process includes the following steps: Topic selection: due February 26 Topic outline/bibliography: Due March 18 Term paper: Due May 6 5
Possible topic areas 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. Recruiting/retaining a diverse board of directors Diversifying funding streams Marketing nonprofit human services Fundraising and building endowments Nonprofit collaborations (co-location, coordination, etc) Defining performance management in nonprofits Managing a diverse nonprofit workforce Managing NGOs in developing countries (local, national, or international) Nonprofit organizational capacity building Managing Leadership Succession Faith-based nonprofits (comparing social work values with Judeo-Christian values) Nonprofits as social enterprises (blending for-profit with nonprofit programs) Challenges facing nonprofit human service advocacy organizations Challenges facing nonprofits in one of the following human service fields of practice: mental health, aging, children/families, health, substance abuse, youth development, etc.
A preliminary search of these topics can be done by using the Mack Center nonprofit organization database (contact Dr. Sara Schwartz at slschwartz@berkeley.edu). Other sources are noted in the attached reference to social science databases as well as the substantial holdings on nonprofit organizations available in the Haas Business School library.
STUDENT PARTICIPATION
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Course Requirements 1. 2. 3. 4. Regular attendance. Completion of weekly required readings Completion of assignments. Participation in class discussions.
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Assignments Term paper outline Term paper final Class Presentation & Participation 20% 60% 20%
Any paper may be submitted early for preliminary feedback for rewriting. Late papers will have the grade lowered one step for each week they are late. Substantial reasons for requesting an incomplete for the course need to be discussed with the instructor and reflected in writing.
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3)
Evaluation Criteria A or A- Successfully addressed all components of the assignments demonstrating analytic skills, capacity to define and illustrate concepts, and a clear comprehensive writing style. B+/B/B- Successfully addressed most of the assignment demonstrating some analytic skills and a relatively clear/comprehensive writing style. C+/C STRONGLY encouraged to resubmit based on guidance provided in the instructor’s feedback.
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Office Hours Students are encouraged to use the instructor’s office hours to expand their understanding of the readings, discuss paper topics and evaluations, explore agency and/or career issues, etc. In addition, since our shared learning opportunities are extremely valuable and very brief (15 sessions of an hour and forty minutes each), please keep me posted if you must miss class and please do not skip class if an assignment is not completed (simply request an extension).
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Social Science Databases Available through the University of California Library
Links to all databases may be found at (http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/find/types/electronic_resources.html) or by searching the database name in Pathfinder (http://sunsite5.berkeley.edu:8000/). Access World News
Includes a number of databases providing a variety of domestic and international news. Those of most interest include Global Newsbank(1996-current), Newsbank Newsfile (1991-current), Newsbank Full-text Newspapers, Sacramento Bee, and the San Jose Mercury News.
Business Source Premier
Business Source Premier, designed specifically for business schools and libraries, provides full text for more than 7,400 scholarly business journals and other sources, including full text for nearly 1,100 peer-reviewed business publications. This database offers information in nearly every area of business including management, economics, finance, accounting, international business, and more. Business Source Premier provides expanded indexing and abstract backfiles for the top scholarly business journals, dating back to 1965 or the first issue published (whichever is more recent). In some cases, indexing, abstracting, and PDF coverage actually goes back further than 1965. The database also includes other sources of full text information such as country economic reports from the EIU, Global Insight, ICON Group and CountryWatch and detailed company profiles for the world's 10,000 largest companies.
Communication Abstracts
Indexes 160 sources, with over 44,000 records reflecting articles, reports, papers and books covering communication literature in subjects such as mass media, journalism, advertising, marketing, public opinion, interpersonal communication and organizational communication. Dates Covered: 1977- present, some full text.
Counting California (California Digital Library)
Provides a wide-variety of information, facts, and data about the state of California.
Digital Dissertations
Indexes and abstracts dissertations from most U.S. and some foreign universities. Dates covered: 1861-
EconLit (American Economic Association)
Indexes over 400 economics journals and some collected volumes. Dates covered: Indexes since 1969; abstracts since 1987.
eScholarship Repository
The University of California's eScholarship repository provides full-text access to working papers, journals, books, and data sets produced by university faculty.
Expanded Academic ASAP
The Expanded Academic ASAP database contains records for articles from popular magazines, general interest journals, scholarly journals and newspapers in the humanities, social sciences, and general sciences. The complete text of articles, including some full-text images, is available for many of the journals covered in the database. Dates Covered: 1980-Present.
Factiva
Factiva.com provides access to a variety of textual and company information sources. Factiva's major focus is on "current awareness"; most of the databases concentrate on very recent information about companies,
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industries, and financial markets. The full text of over 6,000 publications is available, including exclusive access to the full-text of the Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times and New York Times, and is updated daily. Dates covered: varies by publication.
Family and Society Studies Worldwide
Indexes books, scholarly journals, magazines, reports, proceedings, statistics, dissertations, and websites worldwide related to social science research about the family and society. Relates to the print counterparts, Inventory of Marriage & Family Literature and Australian Family & Society Abstracts.
Gallup Brain
The Gallup Brain is a searchable, living record of more than 60 years of public opinion. Inside, you'll find answers to more than 125,000 questions, and responses from more than 3.5 million people interviewed by The Gallup Poll since 1935. This unparalleled poll database also houses current Gallup Poll News Service articles that feature the latest in depth poll analyses and replicas of news stories and press releases linked to the surveys. Dates covered: 1935 to present.
International Bibliography of the Social Sciences
International Bibliography of the Social Sciences is compiled by the British Library of Political & Economic Science of the London School of Economics & Political Science. This database contains bibliographic information from an international selection of publications (including over 2600 journals) in the fields of economics, political science, sociology, and anthropology. Dates covered: 1981 to the present.
Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR)
Headquartered at the University of Michigan, ICPSR maintains and provides access to a vast archive of social science data for research and instruction. Data available includes survey data, census records, election returns, economic data, and legislative records. Files may be downloaded for use in SAS and SPSS. A good source for consumer and economic behavior surveys.
JSTOR
A digital archive of scholarly journals in the humanities, sciences, and social sciences.
Legal Trac
LegalTrac on InfoTrac Web offers indexing since 1980 for all major law reviews, legal newspapers, specialty law publications, bar association journals and thousands of law-related articles from general interest publications. LegalTrac also includes selective full text. Dates covered: Updated monthly.
Lexis-Nexis Academic
A full-text online source for business information, current affairs, legal information, medical information and news. Provides full-text, online access to over 70 million articles appearing in newspapers, journals, newsletters, broadcast transcripts, reference works and other documents. Use is limited to currently enrolled UC Berkeley students engaged in course-related research. Dates covered: 1979-present; updated daily.
Lexis-Nexis Statistical
Includes all American Statistics Index (ASI), Statistical Reference Index (SRI), and Index to International Statistics (IIS) abstract and index records, links to 800 full-text documents published during 1994-1997 and stored on LEXIS-NEXIS, and links to 2,000 publications on federal agency web sites. Materials abstracted in ASI are available in microfiche in GSSI. Materials abstracted in SRI are available in microfiche in the Business & Economics Library.
PAIS International
The PAIS International database contains records for all types of materials in the area of public affairs. Topics covered include agriculture, banking, demographics, education, environment, finance, government,
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law, legislation, political science, social sciences, and statistics. The database covers materials from the 1972 to the present and is updated monthly. Dates covered: 1972-present.
PolicyFile
PolicyFile includes information addressing virtually all aspects of public policy. It collects data from world renowned public policy think tanks including the American Enterprise Institute, Brookings Institution, Cato Institute, Center for Strategic and International Studies, Economic Strategy Institute, Heritage Foundation, Hoover Institute, Hudson Institute, International Monetary Fund, RAND Corporation, Urban Institute, World Bank; university research programs, and publishers. Dates covered: Updated Weekly
Proquest Research Library
Provides indexing, abstracts, and some full text for a wide variety of academic journals and general interest magazines and newspapers. Over 1800 titles are covered. Dates covered: varies by publication, but back to the 1970's for many titles.
PsycINFO
Use the PsycINFO database to retrieve citations to articles in over 1,300 professional journals, conference proceedings, books, reports, and dissertations in psychology and related disciplines. Most citations include abstracts. Dates covered: 1872-present.
Rand California
RAND, one of the nation's think tanks, sponsors and maintains this comprehensive web site on California public policy issues. The web site includes services and products in six areas: 1)An extensive database on California and its cities and counties, ranging from the economy to crime rates to school test scores; 2)An online index of public policy and research publications; 3)An online calendar of workshops, seminars, and other discussions on California public policy issues; 4)Federal policy bulletins from the California Institute on national issues; 5)A new bi-monthly bulletin on state policy developments; 6)Monthly reports on the California economy.
Roper Center for Public Opinion Research
An archive of U.S. and international public opinion information and data on many topics.
Social Services Abstracts
Indexes scholarly and professional journals worldwide related to the fields of social work, social welfare, human services, community development, and social policy.
Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI) (ISI Web of Knowledge)
Indexes 1,700 journals spanning 50 disciplines. Contains searchable, English language author abstracts for 60% of the articles in the database. Dates covered: 1956-present
Social Work Abstracts
Indexes more than 450 journals related to social work on topics such as homelessness, AIDS, child and family welfare, aging, substance abuse, legislation, and community organization.
Sociological Abstracts
Citations for articles from over 1,900 journals, books, book chapters, and reviews in the social sciences. Dates covered: 1963-present.
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