Nonprofit Management Studies in the United States: Current Developments and Future Prospects

The development of nonprofit management education programs in U.S. universities parallels wider societal concerns about the efficacy of management in contemporary nonprofit organizations. The first academic programs emerged in the United States in the early 1980s and their number has grown exponentially since then. These programs have been established both as concentrations in existing schools, particularly public administration and business management, and as new, freestanding interdisciplinary programs that draw on a wide cross-section of disciplines. No one dominant model of nonprofit management education has yet emerged, nor is it clear that a single model will ultimately dominate. In this paper, four different scenarios for future development of this field are considered: integration with business management or public administration, development of a separate freestanding field of study, and continued fragmentation. Although no definitive conclusions can be reached at this stage, the paper offers reasons why the study of nonprofit management may ultimately cohere under a separate, unified model, appropriately bridged to business management and public administration.