Nonprofit Management, MA

Laila Sorurbakhsh, PhD, Graduate Director
N1072, 713-221-8645
sorurbakhshL@uhd.edu
 

The Master of Arts in Nonprofit Management is a highly multidisciplinary program, designed to prepare recent college graduates as well as mid- and senior-level administrators for the management and leadership of nonprofit organizations of all types. The program will focus on strategic planning, development of entrepreneurial skills, program management, fundraising, revenue generation and grant writing, human resources, technology, social media and marketing, legal issues, program evaluation and assessment, teambuilding and partnerships, budgeting, board development, leadership, and ethics. The program will employ two key pedagogical elements. First, the MA in Nonprofit Management will be highly experiential. Every course will offer students the opportunity to learn through experience and practice. The second key pedagogical element will be a strong focus on team building. This program was designed by the leadership of the city’s most prominent nonprofit organizations and by faculty from multiple departments: Social Sciences; English; Arts and Humanities; Management, Marketing and Business Administration; and Finance, Accounting and Computer Information Systems.

Program Learning Outcomes

Graduates who earn a MA in Nonprofit Management will be able to:

• Evaluate a nonprofit organization’s status on leadership and teambuilding, report their findings, and initiate effective interventions to alleviate shortcomings in those areas.
• Organize and articulate ways to improve productivity from that assessment.
• Articulate expected outcomes for an organization, create a strategic plan to assess those outcomes, implement the assessment, draw conclusions from the analysis, and make effective analysis based adjustments to significantly enhance efficiency in the organization.
• Create, implement and plan data and research driven strategies for recruiting and fund raising.
• Apply and implement employment law, recruiting and hiring practices, diversity in the workplace goals, compensation and benefits, performance appraisal, and discipline.
• Analyze budgeting and accounting documents and make organizational decisions based on said documents.
• Effectively manage within a nonprofit organization.

Admission

Admission to the Master of Arts in Nonprofit Management program is based on the applicant’s experience and interest in the nonprofit sector, academic ability, and the personal qualities necessary to successfully complete the program. Further consideration is given to the applicant’s ability to positively contribute to the nonprofit sector upon completion of the program.

NOTE: Candidates who do not meet these standards but present applications that provide good evidence that they will be successful in the program will be considered for conditional admission.

Applicants to the program should meet the following minimal criteria:

• Completion of a baccalaureate degree from an accredited university.
• A grade point average (GPA) of at least 3.0 for the last 60 semester hours of undergraduate or graduate study.
• Test of English as a Foreign Language minimum score of 550 with section scores of 50 or higher if graduate of a university in which English is not the native language.

Applicants must complete and submit and following documentation to the Office of Admissions prior to the admissions deadline for the semester they desire admission: UHD Office of Admissions - Graduate Admissions, One Main Street, Suite 325, Houston, TX 77002.

• Application for admission to the Master of Arts in Nonprofit Management, found online at http://www.uhd.edu/admissions.
• Personal resume.
• Personal statement: In 1000 words or less, describe your experiences with the nonprofit world and how those experiences have prepared you to work in the nonprofit world. The personal statement is a very important introduction to the Graduate Admissions Committee. The central purpose of the statement is to give you an opportunity to demonstrate why you are a good candidate for admission to the program.
• Official transcript(s) that document a bachelor-degree conferral and the final 60 semester credit hours (or more) of undergraduate coursework. Applicants who have completed graduate-level courses must also provide graduate transcript(s) in addition to the abovementioned undergraduate documentation.
• TOEFL results as outlined above, submitted by the admissions deadline (if baccalaureate degree coursework was in a language other than English).
• Graduate Record Exam (GRE) or Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) scores, unless you have five or more years of experience in the nonprofit section.
• Three letters of recommendation: The letters of recommendation must be from those individuals who have had personal and professional contact with you. Further, the writers should have had some authority over you either currently or in the past. Examples of these types of individuals would be college professors, supervisors, or community leaders. In their letters, the writers should address the following: how the writer is associated with you and the length of time of that association, their opinion regarding your potential for academic success including skills you possess that they feel demonstrate this potential, and how your completion of a master’s degree would benefit both you and the nonprofit sector.

Conditional Admission

Students admitted conditionally will be advised as to the specific limitations of this status and the conditions necessary to remove the conditional admission classification.

Minimum Grade Point Average

Students must maintain a minimum grade point average of 3.0. Grades of C or lower do not count toward graduation, and two course grades of C or lower are cause for dismissal from the program.

Transfer

Students may transfer no more than six semester hours of graduate work and must have the approval of the Graduate Director to do so; transferred coursework must be at B level or above.