Students in Pam Perry’s MGMT 381: Management of Effective Nonprofit Organizations class ended their semester by making a real impact in the community.
One of the class’s guest speakers, Jane McCullum of the Marshall Foundation, addressed the class about how funders make decisions about what nonprofits to support.
“The final project for the class included six teams of students, with each team representing a nonprofit,” Perry said. “I planned for the teams to pitch each other and choose to fund a winner using play money.” When McCullum heard about the project, she committed $2,000 from the Marshall Foundation so that the student teams could make a real difference.
“The students took it very seriously and it took three rounds of voting to finally select the nonprofit finalist that would receive the money,” Perry said.
“There was a great variety of organizations represented, and I would’ve been proud if any of them won,” Michael Nageotte (Business Management ’17) said. He pitched on behalf of Arizona’s Children Association, but in the end, the class chose to fund Youth on Their Own.
“They help the neediest teens in the city who are homeless by no fault of their own,” Thomas Hope (Business Management and MIS ’16), who pitched on the organization’s behalf, said. “They are strict about the teenagers they take in, and have stringent grade requirements for eligibility of additional benefits and help. They focus on getting the teenagers to graduate, not just support them.”
