Becoming involved in a nonprofit group or organization involves making a commitment to a cause or movement that aims to ultimately improve a community, a group, families, or individuals. For those with a deep passion for making a difference, managing a nonprofit organization may represent an appealing career choice. Individuals who are wondering “What is nonprofit management?” can consider pursuing Nonprofit Management online courses to begin their journey in the field.
List of The Best Nonprofit Management Online Courses
If you’re interested in starting a career in non-profit, then this article will provide you with a list of Nonprofit Management online courses that you can choose from.
1. Nonprofit Management Foundations
Thinking about leading a nonprofit organization? Internationally renowned author Leslie Crutchfield provides a primer on nonprofit management and leadership. The course explains how nonprofits are different from for-profits and the challenges and opportunities that come with leading them. In addition, it provides a comprehensive overview of how fundraising, talent recruiting and retention, governance, finance, and accounting work at a nonprofit level.
Course Duration: 2.5 hours
2. Introduction to The Nonprofit Sector, Nonprofit Organizations, Nonprofit Leadership And Governance
This course introduces you to the nonprofit sector, nonprofit organizations, and the concepts of leadership and governance. While this course has been developed with North American culture in mind, we do appreciate that in other parts of the world the nature of the nonprofit sector, nonprofit organizations, nonprofit leadership and governance may not be the same. Nevertheless, it is our hope that much of the course content will still be of value to those in other parts of the world.
Course Highlights:
- Learn about the nonprofit sector and why does it exist?
- Learn about leadership at the governance level and how is it different from management.
- Explains the roles board members play in nonprofit organizations
Course Duration: 11 hours
3. Strategy Execution for Public Leadership
By studying the decisions of key public leaders, like Former United States Secretary of Defense Ash Carter, you will better understand how to develop strategies that not only align with your organizational goals but also gain insight into the challenges and scrutiny that come along with making public decisions. By the end of this course, you will not only have the tools to create a sound public strategy, but also know how to test and optimize your strategy, increase competitive advantage, and sustain long-term impact and success.
Course Highlights:
- Enhance your strategic thinking by understanding the core elements of public leadership, management, strategy, and execution
- Prepare to lead your organization to long-term success through a shared understanding of the strategic direction
- Know how to approach strategy both effectively and efficiently, incorporating feedback cycles and creating public value
- Identify weaknesses and risks, developing the skills and planning to respond in a crisis
- Develop strategic communications to effectively roll out new initiatives and anticipate shareholder and media feedback
Course Duration: 4 weeks (4-5 hours/week)
4. Social Impact Strategy: Tools for Entrepreneurs And Innovators
This course is fourth on the list of Nonprofit Management online courses and offers an introduction to social impact strategy and social entrepreneurship, including key concepts, an overview of the field, and tools to get started as a changemaker. Students will learn how to innovate and design new ideas and new organizational forms to implement those ideas. Students who take this course will be better prepared to launch social impact organizations of their own invention.
Course Highlights:
- Allow students to systematically think through problems
- Explain to develop and test an innovative solution
- Assess risk, competition, and performance
- Spread impact in a way that is financially sustainable
Course Duration: 7 hours
5. Social Media Strategies for Nonprofits
Social media can be a powerful tool for nonprofits of any size to further expand their traditional marketing management methods for branding, fundraising, volunteer recruitment, advocacy, communications and more. This course will focus on how nonprofits are using social media as a method to successfully build, manage and expand their networks and goals in new ways. We will explore and examine the use of social media as an advanced marketing strategy for multiple purposes. We will also learn how to build a strong digital foundation across various platforms, utilize best practices to sustain social media activities and support various nonprofit audiences and stakeholders.
Course Highlights:
- Distinguish the concept of “networked nonprofits” and its significance for building successful collaborations and partnership
- Understand the importance of social media for nonprofit organizations to help support an organization’s mission and programs in the era of technological advancement and innovation
- Explore various methods and tools to build, engage and sustain an online community to meet specific goals and objectives
- Recognize nonprofit best practices for using Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, and/or Blogs to create an impact
Course Duration: Self Paced
6. Essentials of Nonprofit Strategy
This free, online nonprofit strategy course will help you develop successful strategies to achieve your organization’s goals and make strides towards meaningful impact. Using the social problem of homelessness as a real-world example, you will learn how to undertake the basic elements of nonprofit strategy: defining the problem, identifying the needs and interests of beneficiaries, designing a theory of change and implementation plan, and establishing assessment criteria. With this foundation, you will be able to develop strategies that will ensure long-term impact for your own organizations — rather than just the illusion of results.
Course Highlights:
- This course is an introduction to nonprofit strategy
- Develop the core capabilities, operational alignment, and external alliances to fulfil your mission and execute your strategy
- Explains how to determine whether your strategy caused its intended outcomes
- Assess different approaches to solving the problem after you have identified its causes
- Lead effective organizational transformation to drive impact
- Build a governance system that enables mission performance
Course Duration: Self Paced
7. Becoming a Charity Board Member: What You Should Know
This two-week course is presented by the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) and will help you understand your duties as a board member and evaluate whether a registered charity is a good fit for you. This course is seventh on the list of Nonprofit Management online courses and, you’ll get an introduction to the roles and responsibilities of an Australian charity including what a board must do. You’ll also get clear insights into the significance of an organisation’s reputation and the importance of managing conflicts of interest.
Course Highlights:
- Explain what a governing body is and the roles, duties and responsibilities of a charity board
- Identify your own conflicts of interest, reflect on the suitability of your potential appointment as a board member and contribute to managing your conflicts of interests
- Investigate a charity you are thinking of joining as a board member and evaluate key indicators to help you assess how the charity is functioning
- Reflect on the significance of reputation in the charity sector, explain the board’s role in reputation management and describe concrete steps the board can take in managing their charity’s reputation
Course Duration: 2 weeks
8. Strategic Planning And Execution
Avoid the pitfalls of strategy planning and execution with the tools and skills from this course. In this course, developed at the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia and taught by top-ranked faculty, you’ll learn the pillars of strategy execution–analysis, formulation, and implementation–and how to use the 4A model to effectively approach strategy execution. Finally, a panel of leaders from entrepreneurs, nonprofits, and industry, share their expertise gleaned from years of successful strategy planning and execution.
Course Highlights:
- How to connect strategic analysis to strategy execution using hypothesis testing to unearth key assumptions and assess their validity
- Four different approaches to strategy formulation and how governance ties into effective strategy formulation
- Use the 4A Model for effective strategy execution to ensure appropriate human and organizational resources are in place
- Tips from industry experts for successful strategy development and execution
Course Duration: 10 hours
9. The Data Science of Nonprofit Service Organizations, with Barton Poulson
Learn how to use data science to do good. Data science can be a huge help to nonprofits that are struggling to identify donors, understand their communities, evaluate their impact, and be more productive. In this course, instructor, data scientist, and entrepreneur Barton Poulson discuss how some of the common concerns of nonprofit service organizations can be addressed using new sources of data—including social media and web analytics—and how methods like predictive analytics, machine learning, and data visualization can make organizations more productive and efficient.
Course Duration: 1.1 hours
10. Learn How to Guard Your Charity from Fraud
In this course, you will look at fraud risks that are common to charities. You’ll examine who should be managing these risks and why. You will also cover numerous ways your charity can protect itself from fraud, with the help of fraud prevention resources and details to help you apply them to your charity.
Course Highlights:
- Define fraud in the charity sector and identify the different types of fraud their charity may face.
- Describe the features common to charities that are fraud risks.
- Explain why Responsible Persons should manage fraud risks in a charity.
- Summarise various ways to protect charities from fraud.
- Apply resources relevant to fraud prevention to their charity.
Course Duration: 2 weeks
11. Manage Nonprofit Fundraising And Engagement with Microsoft Cloud for Nonprofit
On the list of Nonprofit Management online courses, this course is on the eleventh rank. Microsoft Cloud for Nonprofit empowers scalable and transformative mission impact by helping nonprofit organizations engage with donors and supporters, deliver effective programming, and accelerate mission outcomes.
Course Highlights:
- Learn the core capabilities of Fundraising and Engagement used to support donor management and fundraising.
- Understand how key fundraising terminology is used in Fundraising and Engagement.
- Get started with Fundraising and Engagement.
Course Duration: 3.7 hours
12. How to Create a Program Evaluation for Your Non-Profit
In this 1.5-hour-long project-based course, you will learn how to create a program evaluation plan for your non-profit. By the end of the course, you will understand the importance of program evaluation, how to use Logic Models, how to write SMART goals for your program, and how to formulate good questions to gather the data you need.
Course Highlights:
- Learn the basics about program evaluation for non-profits.
- Learn how to complete a Logic Model, how to create SMART goals, and how to write good evaluation questions.
- Showcase this hands-on experience in an interview
Course Duration: 1.5 hours
13. Digital Advertising for Nonprofits
To create change, your organization needs to find supporters. That’s where digital advertising can help. Whether you’re looking for donors, partners, customers, or volunteers, digital advertising lets you reach eyes and hearts around the world. This short lesson course is thirteenth on the list of Nonprofit Management online courses and, you’ll learn how to use tools like Google AdWords or Facebook Ads to reach a larger yet more targeted audience.
Course Highlights:
- Explains how digital advertising work
- Describes what digital advertising can do for nonprofit
- Managing an Ad Campaign
- The course explains how to create effective ads and manage their progress
Course Duration: 20 mins
