The Nature of Undergraduate Nonprofit Education: Models of Curriculum Delivery

Abstract

This research revisits, updates, and expands the research on undergraduate education from the 1996 Berkeley Conference as reported in O'Neill and Fletcher's edited book titled Nonprofit Management Education: U.S. and World Perspectives. First, the nature and types of undergraduate programs in the United States are examined from a national database developed by Mirabella that answers these questions: How many colleges and universities offer undergraduate nonprofit studies? What colleges and departments offer these? Do they award degrees or certificates? What types of courses are offered? Where do their graduates get jobs? Then, four curricular models used by American Humanics (AH) campuses for nonprofit education are examined: certificate programs, academic minors, academic majors, and programs combining the previous three. The relationships of AH programs to higher education trends are identified and undergraduate nonprofit education programs beyond AH are examined.