Certificate in Nonprofit Management Series
The Best in Nonprofit Professional Development is now in Bucks County.
Bucks is partnering with The Nonprofit Center at La Salle University's School of Business.
Bucks County residents interested in serving nonprofit organizations as staff or board members now have access to The Certificate in Nonprofit Management Series, an unequaled opportunity to expand your nonprofit expertise in all key management areas. This program offers convenient access to 10 of the most essential classes for current and future nonprofit leaders. The Nonprofit Center at La Salle University’s School of Business has the largest offering of programs for nonprofit organizations seeking to become stronger and more sustainable.
Working with nonprofits of virtually every size and mission, it provides professional development, leadership advancement for board and staff, consulting services, on-site group education, jobs website, executive transition services, interim executives, peer support, and an information and referral network. Founded in 1981, The Nonprofit Center at La Salle University's School of Business has educated more than 30,000 staff and board and completed more than 2,000 capacity-building consulting projects.
- To earn a Certificate in Nonprofit Management, you must take all 10 classes.
- You also have the option of taking any number of the classes in the series individually to build specific skills.
- Completion of all 10 of these non-credit classes that comprise the Certificate in Nonprofit Management Series is a resume-building achievement of value to any current or future nonprofit leader.
- You have 3 years to complete the certificate.
- Individual class fees are $185 or to $1,850 for the entire series. Classes are held at the Newtown Campus or online through Zoom.
- All classes are eligible for CEUs, CFRE, CSWs, and CPEs
- To register, contact the Continuing Education Registration Office at 215-968-8409.
**For additional information about the Certificate in Nonprofit Management Series, please contact donna.kirn@bucks.edu
Fundamentals of Successful Fundraising WSMCE-9008-C01, C02
4/29/25 - 5/13/25 7:00 - 9:00pm
To be successful at fundraising you need to know all the building blocks that comprise nonprofit resource development and then be able to craft a diversified strategy for your organization that includes all the areas where you have the greatest potential for success. This program gives you the starting point by introducing the fundamental fundraising concepts, providing a snapshot of tools available to you and what it takes to implement them. Topics covered include funding trends, donor motivation, creating your case, planning, and an analysis of the pros, cons, and requirements of different fundraising strategies. You will leave with a realistic understanding of what the skills, techniques and resources involved in fundraising entail so that you can decide where to spend your time and energy to achieve the best results.
Who Should Attend: All staff and board members who participate in, or are interested in learning more about fundraising.
The Joy of the Sector WSMCE-9001-CO1, C02, C03
9/17 - 10/1, 7:00 - 9:00pm
C02: Thursday, 1/23/25
9:00am - 3:30pm Newtown Campus C03: Wednesday, 11/6/24
9:00am - 4:00pm
This class immerses you in the individual areas/roles that every senior leader in a nonprofit must work in – including fundraising, finance, human resources, marketing, programming, and so on, while illustrating the importance of their connectedness and interplay. As an executive director (and often as a senior or mid-level manager), you will have to juggle various roles and responsibilities, always in the context of how the pieces must fit together with the organization-at-large. Performing well as a nonprofit manager in these circumstances requires both specific skills as well as the ability to solve problems and generate ideas as you manage mission, people, programs and resources.
Running an organization or a program within a nonprofit isn’t about just assigning tasks and telling people what to do, but is rooted in planning, organizing, leading and controlling. This course explains the key responsibilities of senior managers and executive directors as well as the critical relationship between staff and board in any nonprofit. Pathways to becoming an effective leader, manager and facilitator will be clarified, as will the ability to identify potential critical management issues and address them proactively. It serves as the ideal foundation for honing all your future management skills and individual capacity building.
Who Should Attend: Newer executive directors, mid-level to senior managers, board members, those new to the sector and interested in working in management positions.
Fundamentals of Human Resources WSMCE-9005-C01, C02
1/8/25 - 1/22/25 7:00 - 9:00pm
This course provides an essential framework for understanding the major human resources responsibilities in nonprofits. Because workplace laws guide and control much of what we do with employees, participants will become familiar with the major workplace laws and the legal principles that govern the employment relationship. You will learn about the importance of good policies and procedures in creating an effective working environment. The class also provides an introduction to two of the most common and challenging HR responsibilities: you’ll get a step-by-step process for addressing performance problems and learn guidelines for hiring the right people.
Who Should Attend: Executive directors, chief operating officers, chief financial officers, senior managers who oversee or handle HR, board members involved in HR or personnel committee, human resources professionals new to their roles.
Discovering the Power of Program Evaluation WSMCE-9010-C01, C02, C03
C02: Tuesday, 2/8/25, 9:00am - 3:30pm Newtown Campus C03: Friday, 5/16/25
9:00am - 4:00pm
Program evaluation has become part of the nonprofit lexicon, particularly when dealing with funders. Although we may have reluctantly entered into the world of evaluation, it provides information valuable to understanding our programs and making smart choices and decisions. You will leave this class with greater ability to understand, verify or increase the impact of your services, and demonstrate outcomes. You will see that program evaluation need not consume vast amounts of time and money to be of value. By demonstrating how program evaluation is a systematic method for collecting, analyzing, and using information to answer basic questions about a program, you will become more comfortable.
At this same time, you’ll learn how the process forces us to move beyond just instincts, or anecdotal information, or educated guesses, to know what clients really need, whether you are providing that and whether your resources are being directed effectively. With evaluation and the accurate data it provides, you can improve your delivery systems and become more efficient, as you identify strengths and weaknesses. With this overview of key program evaluation tools, including a step-by-step model, the class will engage in focused dialogue about concrete ways to assess your programs. You will leave with proven tools, approaches, techniques, and ideas that are customizable to the evaluation of a wide range of programs within your organization.
Who Should Attend: Executive directors, board members, development staff, program administrators, data managers and consultants.
Understanding Finance for Nonprofits WSMCE-9002-C01, C02
3/5 - 3/19/25 7:00 - 9:00pm Live Online C02: Wednesday, 4/23/25 9:00am - 3:30pm
Even if your financial management skills and comfort level are limited, you can learn how to effectively manage your organization’s finances and use them to understand and communicate your organization’s story. While few nonprofit managers come into their roles with expertise in financial management, they need to be able to understand, organize and effectively communicate financial information to their greatest organizational advantage. Whether a non-finance professional, or new to financial responsibilities in your organization, this class is designed to help you acquire the requisite skills to effectively manage organizational resources: from protecting your organization’s assets, to understanding what the numbers mean and enabling informed decision-making throughout your organization. This course focuses on enabling you to understand and interpret your financial story for both internal and external audiences. Not only will you know how to find the information you need, but you’ll be able to use that information judiciously in financial decision-making. Through a deeper understanding of the role of financial reports and the story they tell, your organization will be empowered to make strategic decisions and motivate financial investment. You will leave this class knowing how to read and interpret financial statements to inform strategic decision-making, to appropriately separate financial duties and responsibilities to protect against fraud and misuse, and to allocate expenses more accurately in order to truly reflect your programmatic narrative.
This class is highly recommended for organizations that lack a full-time finance professional, but are committed to best practices and transparency.
Who Should Attend: Executive directors, newer finance staff, non-finance program directors and managers, board members, and others involved in financial interpreting and decision-making
Understanding and Growing Leadership Capacity WSMCE-9003-C01, C02
6/4/25 - 6/18/2025 7:00 - 9:00pm
Your skills and experience have prepared you to serve as an executive director or board leader. But education and experience don’t necessarily prepare us for the specific demands of nonprofit leadership. How well do you know your own leadership style? Are you democratic, paternalistic, a delegator, an autocrat, a collaborator, a coach or a steward?
Effective leadership is not something that happens by accident, nor does it have to be inherent. Even if you believe that leadership is not something that can be taught, it most certainly can be developed. It is the successful leader who recognizes the skills, expertise and characteristics he or she needs to focus on and consciously hones them in support of the specific role as organization leader. You start by developing a consciousness of your own style, the example you set for others and how your style impacts your organization. This class is for current and future executives who aspire to be the leader their organization deserves: one who motivates, inspires, earns trust and get results. We will explore the essence of nonprofit leadership while looking at the leadership styles of others, to develop an understanding of the traits that make for successful leaders and distinguish them from managers.
Who Should Attend: Executive directors, board members, senior staff, those who aspire to leadership
Effective Strategic Planning for Today's Nonprofits WSMCE-9004-C01, C02
3/27/25 - 4/10/25 7:00 - 9:00pm Live Online C02: Thursday, 5/8/25 9:00am - 3:30pm
Every nonprofit needs a good strategic plan to serve as a roadmap for change. This class will teach you how to create a living, constituent-driven strategic plan that is a critical management tool for your board and executive leadership. It will demonstrate how, when done correctly, strategic planning becomes an ongoing, integrated function designed to drive your organization to do better. You will understand what’s involved in a successful strategic planning process that makes forward-looking fundamental decisions that shape and guide what your organization is, who it serves, what it does, and why, with a focus on the future. You will understand how an effective strategic planning process can clearly articulate where your organization is going and what is needed to get there, as well as how to know if you’re successful.
The class combines lecture, peer exchange and activities in this essential and often daunting subject, to get you started on the path to a good planning process. How-to topics include: gathering stakeholder data, developing a shared vision, prioritizing strategic goals and objectives, integrating your plan into daily operations and evaluation. Bring a copy and we’ll even review your current strategic plan.
Who Should Attend: Executive directors, board leaders, program staff
Building the Board Your Organization Needs WSMCE-9007-C01, C02, C03
11/7 - 11/21, 7:00 - 9:00pm
C02: Friday, 4/11/25
9:00am - 3:30pm Newtown Campus Friday, 2/14/2025
9:00am - 4:00pm
Effective board membership requires more than good intentions and meeting attendance. This impactful board training is the first step in appreciating the objective and true roles and responsibilities that the job of board member requires. Attendees will come to comprehend the full responsibilities of board membership, in both the context of being part of a larger whole, as well as an individual. In addition, this course will show how to maximize the all-important partnership of board and executive director. Participants will develop a deeper understanding of key elements of board responsibility, such as the law’s performance expectations of nonprofit board members, strategic planning, fundraising, financial management, and the care and feeding of the board. Participants will leave knowing that they can now cement their good intentions in best practices, including being able to apply standard tools for board assessment and governance and sample essential policies to their organizations.
Who Should Attend: Board members, executive directors
Communication to Build Relationships, Engagement & Understanding WSMCE-9009-C01, C02
2/6/25 - 2/20/25 7:00 - 9:00pm
Whether it’s interacting with a donor, a regulator, a co-worker, a supervisor or a supervisee, the most successful people are the best communicators. That includes not only the messages you deliver, but also how you listen and react to others.
Most of us recognize the need to continue to hone our specific job skills, but often neglect the skill set that can truly make a difference in our success, and the success of our organization – our ability to say what we mean, understand what others are conveying to us and ensure that others receive our messages as intended.
Forbes magazine recently cited “strong communication skills” as the #2 attribute people need to succeed at work, indicating that solid communication isn’t a so-called soft skill, but an essential for successful interactions with both internal and external audiences.
This class, will challenge you to recognize your communication style and how you give and receive messages, as you focus on specific ways to improve your communications skills.
Who Should Attend: Everyone connected with your organization can benefit from better understanding of their communications skills and styles and those of others with whom they communicate.
Mission Critical Marketing WSMCE-9006-C01, C02
12/3 - 12/17 7:00 - 9:00pm Live Online C02: Wednesdays
3/26/25 9:00am - 3:30pm
This course provides an essential framework for understanding the major human resources responsibilities in nonprofits. Because workplace laws guide and control much of what we do with employees, participants will become familiar with the major workplace laws and the legal principles that govern the employment relationship. You will learn about the importance of good policies and procedures in creating an effective working environment. The class also provides an introduction to two of the most common and challenging HR responsibilities: you’ll get a step-by-step process for addressing performance problems and learn guidelines for hiring the right people.
Who Should Attend: Executive directors, chief operating officers, chief financial officers, senior managers who oversee or handle HR, board members involved in HR or personnel committee, human resources professionals new to their roles.