MBA Nonprofit - King's College

Introduction

MBA Nonprofit brings forward an entrepreneurial and managerial approach to create, manage and grow sustainable high impact nonprofit in a broader socio-economic context of Nepal. We aim to promote a discourse of “financially sustainable, impact-driven, accountable and transparent nonprofit organizations that foster local innovations through participatory collaborations.” The program combines academic rigor and professional practice to empower leaders for high-impact nonprofit startups, social enterprises, profit-not-distributing companies, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), international NGOs, foundations, corporate social responsibility projects, public-private partnerships, and social businesses of Nepal and beyond.

Our Approach

Why?

To empower nonprofit leaders in creating, managing, and growing high-impact nonprofit organizations in the broader socio-economic context of Nepal, and to promote a discourse of “financially sustainable, impact-driven, accountable and transparent nonprofits that nurture local innovations through participatory collaboration.”

How?

We foster student-led initiatives by engaging them in academic, professional, and community immersion activities developed around the “4C+C” skills framework (inspired by 21st-century skills): Critical Thinking, Creativity, Communication, Collaboration, and Community Engagement.

Program Outline

The MBA Nonprofit program is a two-year professional graduate study program, where the students are engaged in a 60-credit academic discourse about nonprofit management. Our portfolio-generating professional workshops ensure the relevancy of these courses. Students are also required to serve on the board of a local nonprofit organization (Board Governance Program), engage in community immersion projects (Community Service Learning Program), and connect with the nonprofit sector through internships, research, and/or consulting assignments. The applied capstone course, which is the logical culmination of the program, engages the students in an 8-week long module where they develop their own nonprofit startup (a social enterprise).

student at MBA Nonprofit Working together

Program Component

Academic Discourse

Students participate in a 60-credit academic discourse led by practitioners and scholars from the business, nonprofit and development sectors of Nepal. They can combine core courses, nonprofit management majors, and electives to tailor their learning journey. All nonprofit management majors were designed locally, in close collaboration with industry experts and nonprofit leaders of Nepal and beyond.

MBA Core Courses

MBA Core Courses (33 credits)

Organizational Leadership

Organizational Behaviour

Marketing Management

Managerial Economics

Management Information Systems (MIS)

Research Methods

Managerial Accounting

Financial Management

Strategic Management

Managerial Communications

Applied Capstone

Nonprofit Majors

Nonprofit Management Majors (24 credits)

Managing Nonprofit Organizations

Governance and Leadership

Fundraising and Grants Management

Project Management

Monitoring and Evaluation

Public Policy Analysis

Social Entrepreneurship and Innovation

Logistics Management for Humanitarian and Development Projects

Electives

Electives (3 credits)

Leading Strategic Change in Organizations

Financial Statement Analysis

International Human Resource Mgmt.

Rural Marketing and Sustainability

Data Analytics and Business Intelligence

Entrepreneurship and New Ventures Creation

Operations Management

Others

Note: The choice of electives might change depending on the industry demands, student groups, and other relevant logics.

Industry Discourse

Workshops

Beyond academics, students participate in at least five professional portfolio-generating workshops/modules. This ensures project-based contextualization of our courses as students apply their learning to develop their portfolios. Workshops cover various aspects of nonprofit management like fundraising, monitoring and evaluation, and advocacy. In the past, we have organized the following workshops: Grant writing for Nonprofit Organizations, Storytelling for Change, Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) Evaluation, Report Writing, and Designing Metrics, and Indicators (among others).

Research, Internship and/or Consulting

Depending on their choice and career pathways, our students are engaged in either research, internship, or consulting assignments during the course of their study. The objective of the program is to contribute to local knowledge and apply learnings to benefit the nonprofit sector of Nepal. The Center for Research and Development (CERAD) at King’s College supports student and faculty-led research initiatives, while the Placement Cell at King’s College supports internship projects.

Board Governance

From evaluating an organization’s impact to managing executives who lead programs, an efficient board is important for a nonprofit organization. The MBA Nonprofit Program, with its 45-hour voluntary board service requirement, allows students to share their experience with a local nonprofit/public-serving organization, practicing real-time governance and while supporting their board by sharing industry-relevant governance practices. Students have an option to join the board, shadow a board member, or providing consulting services to existing boards.

Community Immersion

The Community Service Learning Program (CSLP) draws inspiration from King’s College’s philosophy of connecting education with the community thereby co-creating and disseminating knowledge. It is an initiative to promote community-relevant learning through empathy, responsibility, and action. Students must complete a minimum of 60-hours of community service during the program, either on a weekly, block or in-service basis. The students have a choice of defining the ‘community’ they want to serve.

Industry Connections, Collaborations and Projects

We are committed to reducing the gap between academia and the nonprofit ecosystem of Nepal by co-creating and disseminating knowledge with industry partners. Some of our initiatives include:

The Industry Conversation Series, which is a fortnightly series, whereby we connect our students with industry experts, scholars, practitioners, and professionals as they share their experience and expertise with our students.

- The Impact Talk Series, whereby we deliver public lectures and design relevant forums to advocate for financial sustainability, accountability, transparency, collaborations, and impact-centered mindset within the nonprofit ecosystem of Nepal.
- The Nonprofit Ecosystem Mapping Project, whereby we are mapping different stakeholders within the nonprofit and social impact ecosystem of Nepal. This will eventually support our collaboration and research initiatives.

Pro-bono Consulting Projects, whereby our students support nonprofit organizations as consultants. In the past, our students have created monitoring and evaluation frameworks, GESI indicators, and governance frameworks for our nonprofit partners.
Other relevant collaborations, including co-designing courses, curriculums, boot camps, workshops, case studies, and research projects.

In the past, we have collaborated with organizations like Rotaract District 3292 (Nepal and Bhutan), Shangri-La International School, Triyog Higher Secondary School, Nepal Center for Philanthropy and Development (NCPD), Little Big Fund, and Bean Voyage, among others.

Contact / Collaborate / Join the Community

Center for Philanthropy and Social Impact (CPSI) is an autonomous center at King’s College established with a vision to advocate a narrative of accountable, transparent, sustainable, and impact-driven private and philanthropic sectors in Nepal for holistic development of our communities. CPSI aims to foster academia-industry-state-community collaboration in co-creating and disseminating knowledge to advance the corporate governance, philanthropy, and social impact ecosystem of Nepal.

Milan KS Tharu
Coordinator, MBA Nonprofit Program
E: milan@kingscollege.edu
P: +977 9849 175 482

Kaushal Sapkota
Designer/Director, MBA Nonprofit Program
Faculty, King’s College
E: sapkota.kaushal@gmail.com
P: +977 9869 108 483

Manusmriti Baral
Assistant, MBA Nonprofit Program
E: manusmriti@kingscollege.edu
P: +977 9860 453 113

Gokul Chettri
Admission Coordinator, King’s College
E: gokul.chhetri@kingscollege.edu.np

The operational definition of “nonprofit” for the MBA Nonprofit Program covers the entire third sector, i.e. between the public and the private sector, encompassing anything and everything from a corporate foundation and a CSR project to social businesses and social enterprises (profit-not-distributing companies), Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), International NGOs (INGOs) and public private partnerships.