Nonprofit Development
Nonprofit Development seeks to build the capacity of local nonprofits by offering professional development opportunities. We also connect nonprofits to a variety of resources, especially those available at UW-Parkside and other area higher educational institutions. We will meet with you to assess your challenge, and then decide how best to fulfill your request.
Professional Development
See our calendar of events for upcoming opportunities. Our Conferences and Workshops cover a variety of topics relating to nonprofits. Topics regularly cover different aspects of board development. Other topics in the past include working with the media, and changes in nonprofit law. Fees are nominal.
Trained student employees
Does your nonprofit organization have a management or technical assistance need that can’t sit on the back burner for another minute? Under guidance of our staff, our trained student team will work on short term projects or projects that do not connect well with a course. These students are trained in areas ranging from event planning to program evaluation to marketing. When necessary, team members will work with university faculty or community partners to address the problem at hand. Working on this team allows for valuable learning experiences for the students involved. These students gain practical experience that will make them more knowledgeable and marketable once they graduate.
Faculty Resources
We have established a network of regional higher educational faculty that have a willingness and capacity to address nonprofit issues ranging from financial management to strategic planning to board development. Faculty may work directly with nonprofit staff to assess problems and design solutions. In most cases faculty will involve students with projects when appropriate. If you are an instructor and you're interested in connecting with a nonprofit for a class project or independent study, you can fill out a faculty interest form.
Class Projects
Sometimes an organization will have a project that can benefit from a group approach. University students could be studying an area that would be enhanced with a real life example. Nonprofits can get the power they need and classes can get their hands-on experience when a good class project match is made. Class projects range in subject matter and are usually only limited by the parameters of the academic calendar. Our staff and the class professors work with the nonprofit leader to determine the scope and duration of the project, and the faculty and nonprofit leader are responsible for supervising the ongoing work.
Student Internship
Does your nonprofit have a longer-term project that could benefit from some individual attention? UW-Parkside students are highly motivated and seek to gain experience and knowledge in just the sort of opportunities you have to offer. Our definition of an internship is “any carefully monitored work or service experience in which a student has intentional learning goals and reflects actively on what he or she is learning throughout the experience.” Interns may be paid or unpaid, and may work for varied lengths of time. For a nonprofit organization there are both benefits and responsibilities in taking on an intern.
Benefits:
- Enthusiastic and motivated workers
- Assistance with special projects
- Fresh perspective for ongoing projects
- Supervisory skills development for staff
- Access to students with special skills and knowledge
- The opportunity to train new professionals in your field
- A pool of potential full-time employees
- Minimal financial investment required
Responsibilities:
- Provide well-supervised, career-related opportunities for students
- Establish a wage (if appropriate) and level of responsibility according to the student’s qualifications
- Provide orientation and training that fully explains the student’s responsibilities, organization expectations and job objectives
- Evaluate the student’s job performance at regular intervals (e.g. at the middle and end of the semester)
If a nonprofit comes to us with a problem that is too sophisticated or simply outside the bounds of our other resources, we can refer you to a professional consultant with experience in the area. We will not typically stay involved once such a match has been made; however, we will check with the consultant and the nonprofit to find out if the match was a good fit. If you are a consultant who is interested in being placed on our NP Developement list, please fill out this form Assistance Request Form
