PUBPOL 5410

Nonprofit Management and Finance

Course Description

Course information provided by the Courses of Study 2024-2025.

Provides students with a practitioner'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 and 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 Spring.

• 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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