Managing the NGO for Advocacy, Policy & Social Change Business & European Studies Program Spring 2018 Semester - Barcelona

New actors have entered the national and international arena - playing a key role in advocacy, policy-making, and social and economic change. In a world of tension and endemic crisis, NGO's and non-profit organizations - today's new social activists - claim and acquire evermore prominence upon the domestic and global stage. Civil society organizations, as advocates for social and environmental reform, are already a growing commercial force - currently accounting for some 4.6% of World GDP and constituting a major economic force in developed countries. In the United States alone, 1.5 million non-profit organizations control over $1 trillion in annual revenues of the nation's economy and constitute the third largest industrial sector. In many European countries, roughly 28% of the population volunteers time and energy to non-governmental organizations and the reforms for which they advocate. A new vision of non-profits has arisen, not only as essential goods and service providers (often under-provided by the State and the market) but progressively as active agents in key political and public policy arenas.

This course addresses the main concepts and practices related to the management of NGO's and related non-profit institutions. You will explore the critical tasks associated with managing NGO's in their manifold roles of policy advocate and social reformer. You will compare and contrast features of NGO management with management cultures in public and private sectors, and will investigate and analyze managerial issues such as funding, accountability, comparative advantage, and effectiveness. Your primary goal is to become knowledgeable and skilled in the practical methods of managing this type of institution, while differentiating its culture and processes from traditional market-based and profit-driven structures.

Course activities combine theoretical analysis with practical examples and case studies. In addition, several senior managers involved in the practical management of third sector organizations will be invited to share their knowledge and experience. Research excursions to non-profit organizations based in the host city will give you the opportunity to acquire, first-hand, some of the nonprofit-oriented skills and attitudes that our society increasingly requires.