ILRHR 4605

Non-Profit Finance, Management, and Leadership

Course Description

Course information provided by the Courses of Study 2019-2020.

Provides students with a practioner's focus on financial, managerial, and leadership issues in the non-profit sector, both domestic and international, including universities, hospitals, environmental groups, arts organizations, government agencies, and foundations.  The course will include an overview of non-profit financial statements, financial ratios, debt issuance, bond ratings, endowment management, budgeting, venture philanthropy, auditing and ethics, tax issues, organizational governance, leadership, strategy, mergers & alliances, and executive compensation.  The course includes such guest speakers as the founder of a major Indian non-profit organization, the head of credit ratings at Moody's, the leader of a social services agency, and others.  The course has a mid-term and final exam along with three 5-page papers on completing a bond rating for a university, balancing a budget for a hospital, and recommending merger partners for a struggling non-profit.   

When Offered Fall.

Permission Note Enrollment limited to: professional studies students, graduate students, juniors and seniors.  Others by permission of instructor.

• Students will apply tools for evaluating financial statements in the nonprofit sector.
• Students will evaluate debt financing as a financial management strategy, including how debt financing impacts financial flexibility, financing techniques, bond ratings, and coverage ratios.
• Students will apply tools for evaluating alternative investments (particularly in the context of endowments).
• Students will evaluate frameworks for nonprofit management, including frameworks for risk management, auditing, conflict of interest, organizational governance, and partnership/alliance-building.
• Students will analyze Form 990s, and evaluate how these documents inform nonprofit tax and compliance issues.
• Students will draft three short, analytical papers on interpreting financial ratios for a college, analyzing a budget for a hospital, and recommending a merger of several nonprofits.

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