Nonprofit Studies In Non-Profit Careers

There are three different sectors in our economy, (1) the government, (2) the for-profit sector, and (3) the nonprofit sector. Each one plays a vital role in helping our economy grow, however, nonprofits are being perceived by the public as organizations who are off in their own little corner and who are out to serve only one purpose; bettering the world while zeroing out their books. To many, it doesn’t occur how integral these organizations can be to the overall function of the economy, mainly due to the stereotypes that come with them. There are a lot of questions out there pondering what’s true and false regarding the nonprofit sector, questions about the relationships nonprofits have with the government, how nonprofits should be studied,

Fortunately, there happens to be specialized educational programs for training nonprofit managers, similar to the degree programs in public policy and public management. This idea of having these specialized programs was able to help shed light on how nonprofit studies need to be looked at in a different way than public management degrees. “The first Nonprofit Master’s program was created in the 1980s at the Mandel Center at Case Western Reserve University and the number has now grown to 260 universities with nonprofit management curricula and 49 Ph.D. programs that include nonprofit management education courses” (Seton Hall University, 2016). The idea to implement these programs has encouraged the formation of nonprofit academic centers to professionalize managers of service. Since this growth of academic programs in the nonprofit industry, it has allowed this sort of statement to be made to the public, that nonprofit studies does express a difference between public administration and they do deserver their own field, their own degrees and programs. “The field is heterogeneous in its research topics, its disciplinary perspectives, and research methods” (Bushouse & Sowa, 2012). Nonprofit studies should be explored and taught in their own programs and in their own field. Public administration is only able to scratch the surface of nonprofit management, so there needs to be programs that help go beyond the surface to ensure it’s being taught efficiently and