MPA Public & Nonprofit Management Academy

Session 1: Setting Goals and Achieving Outcomes

Module 1: Strategic Planning: Mission, Vision, SWOT, Goals: Dr. Tom Barth

Overview of the key elements and tools of the classic strategic planning process: identifying purpose and vision of success, assessing internal strengths/weaknesses and external opportunities/threats, and establishing goals based on strategic priorities.

Module 2: Measuring Success -- Performance Management: Drs. Jourdan Davis and Jim Douglas

Understanding the relationship between inputs, outputs and outcomes and difference between measures of efficiency, effectiveness, equity and productivity.

Module 3: Project Management: Dr. Jourdan Davis

Explores the discipline of initiating, planning, executing, controlling, and closing the work of a team to achieve specific goals and meet specific success criteria.

Module 4: Community Practitioner Roundtable

Session 2: The Power of Data for Managers

Module 1: Budget/Resource Strategies: Dr. Jim Douglas

Best practices on how to advocate for and secure resources in a competitive environment, whether that be in a government bureaucracy or the nonprofit arena of fundraising and grantsmanship.

Module 2: Program Evaluation: Dr. Joanne Carman

Presents an overview of the different types of program evaluation, describes the potential challenges and issues associated with conducting program evaluation, and identifies strategies for building evaluation capacity within your organization.

Module 3: Visualizing and Presenting Data: Dr. Jackie Chattopadhyay

Basics of effective data presentation, using a variety of concepts and tools to demonstrate how to make data meaningful to different audiences.

Module 4: Community Practitioner Roundtable

Session 3: Leading and Managing in a Government/Nonprofit Context

Module 1: Supervising in a Public Service Environment: Ethical and Leadership Challenges. Dr. Tom Barth

Understanding unique context of leading people in an environment of shared power, multiple sources of responsibility/accountability, limited resources and regulations that exist in the government and nonprofit sectors.

Module 2: Working with Elected Officials and Boards: Dr. Suzanne Leland

Unique challenges and strategies for building effective professional working relationships with elected city council or county commissioners in the case of government or boards of directors in the nonprofit world.

Module 3: Collaborating Across Sectors and Engaging Stakeholders: Dr. Jaclyn Piatak

Collaboration and networks, including why networks form, the benefits of collaboration, challenges of working with diverse organizations and individuals, and how to manage in network settings. Second this module will discuss stakeholders, including why stakeholders matter, how good stakeholder relations can be fostered, and how to conduct a stakeholder analysis.

Module 4: Community Practitioner Roundtable

Typical Session Format

Time Subject
8:00-9:45 Module 1
9:45-10:00 Break
10:00-11:30 Module 2
11:30-1:00 Lunch and Networking
1:00-2:30 Module 3
2:30-2:45 Break
2:45-4:00 Module 4: Practitioner Roundtable
4:00-4:30 Debriefing
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