Instructor
Usha Pasi
Description
Nonprofits are a valued engine for community engagement and innovation across the country. They play a highly visible and essential role meeting community needs, and they serve as laboratories for experimental, innovative strategies supporting individual opportunity, expression, and community equity objectives. This increasingly complex sector is built on the desire to do good through scalable, sustainable organizational strategies that deliver impact.
You will learn about what it takes to be a successful nonprofit: vision, resources, leadership, and execution. Through case analysis, press analysis, group discussions, and interactions with nonprofit leaders, you will learn how entrepreneurship and philanthropy are deeply intertwined in healthy, high-performing organizations. You will also develop the skills to assess the connection between nonprofits, social change and justice through direct conversation with grant makers and nonprofit leaders, and will devise a grantmaking strategy awarding $25,000 in grant funding to local nonprofits through support from former Tufts trustee Nathan Gantcher.
What people say
“This course was one of the best that I’ve taken at Tufts. I always knew that I had a passion for social impact, but this course gave me the context, tools, and frameworks to apply my interests in real life. We experienced different sectors of social impact, from grant making to nonprofit development to academic ideology. Leaving the classroom to listen to renowned speakers or visit local community organizations gave me a deep understanding of the challenges facing this industry. This class changed the way I think about applying for–profit/business principles to the nonprofit sector. As an economics major, this was an interesting lens to apply to my previous coursework and volunteer experiences.”
– An ENT142 Student
“This course was unique and a delight. I often feel that the way Tufts courses are taught are too theoretical and not applicable to the real world. This course was the perfect fusion of theoretical conversations and models surrounding the nonprofit space as well as tangible impact.”
– An ENT142 Student