Going back to school doesn't require a classroom anymore.(PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT)

When Alyssa Bellew moved to the nonprofit world four years ago, she put her for-profit management skills to work. But last year BEllew decided she needed to increase her nonprofit know-how if she was going to stay in the sector.

"I didn't want to do something that was too easy. I didn't want to have something on my resume. I was building my knowledge base. For me it was how can I balance my life and really be relevant;' said Bellow, who works as the administration director of Neighborhood Unitarian Universalist Church in Pasadena, Calif. Bellow said she wanted a vigorous program, but worried that a master's program wouldn't work into her already busy schedule. So she signed up for a nonprofit management certificate program offered at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

"The time investment is what I really liked about this program with the courses being short and intensive--within the first week I already had takeaways that I could share with our board and boss," said Bellow.

Nonprofits employ an estimated 10 percent of the American workforce, according to The Nonprofit Almanac 2008 published by The Urban Institute Press. And the demand for knowledgeable talent is growing with the sector But busy nonprofit professionals trying to juggle life--work, family, friends and new episodes of House--might not be able to squeeze a masters degree in the mix. Nonprofit certificates offer students with targeted professional development in a fraction of the time.

A master's degree could take years to complete, especially while working fulltime, and graduate programs require anywhere between 30 and 72 college credits compared to 12 to 20 for certificate programs. And now more programs, certificate and masters alike, are being offered online for convenience.

"People don't have to log on at a certain time--they can fit in the their schedule. They don't have to leave work for the day," said John Mudd, associate director for professional education at the Great Cities Institute at the University of Illinois of Chicago (UIC). UIC requires six courses to complete its online certificate for nonprofit management, including marketing, nonprofit governance and fundraising.

Education levels vary for interested students--from those who only finished high school to master's degrees. Mudd said the target group wits executive directors who had "gaps in their knowledge base," but the courses have attracted people just entering the field or climbing the management ladder.

But some people still harbor misgivings about online learning. Will the class be worth it? How will I learn without sitting in a classroom? What kind of relationship could I possibly have with my professor and fellow classmates? While you won't be taking notes from a blackboard, or sit across from your professor during office hours, technology is closing the gap and elevating online learning from a static medium to an interactive engagement.

"I was really looking for a classroom setting. I envisioned that online would feel remote and isolated and I would not get that engagement with my other classmates," said Bellew. "I was very happily surprised--half of what I've learned came from my classmates." Online courses are implementing forum chats where professors and students can discuss ideas at length, and where peers can offer solutions to organizational or fundraising problems. Web videos offer face-to-face interaction with other students that may be a country away--students from California can talk about the same topics with their peers in Tennessee via video conferencing.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

The Mandel Center for Nonprofit Organizations at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio constructed a new building for its nonprofit learning--but will use the new building to reach students around the country. The faculty is actively creating a non-credit distance learning program set to launch sometime during the 2008-2009 school year, and sent an online quiz to nonprofit professionals to help assess topics potential students are talking about.

"Even individuals in our area are in increasingly more demanding circumstances and time is at a premium," said Susan Eagan, executive director for the Mandel Center. "Our philosophy and approach is to always reach out to the professionals in the field and get their input about what they would find to be most valuable."

Eagan said that nonprofit graduate and professional development courses are in demand, and cultivating a nonprofit's work through education can be important for "both revisiting issues and staying abreast of emerging trends and new developments."

Professional development isn't just for nonprofit newbies. It helps the organization when everyone knows about the nonprofit nuances involved with their jobs whether they work as the secretary or CEO. "I've had incumbent executive directors take my class and say 'I never knew why we did things this way, but now that makes sense,'" said Joan Pynes, director of public administration at the University of South Florida (USF). "I just think it makes you more aware, not just as a manager administrator, but as an employee and as a citizen."

USF offers an 18-credit-hour nonprofit management graduate certificate on its Tampa campus--and 12 hours in that study can count toward a Master's in Public Administration if students apply for the masters program. Since the nonprofit management courses can count toward other programs, the classes have a dynamic culture of public sector and nonprofit students, according to Pynes.

She said students taking the courses are surprised how the public and non-profit sectors are intertwined in funding. "It's really important for most nonprofits to understand the environment that they work in--and they don't," said Pynes, who explained peer groups for nonprofit employees include "public sector people who are writing regulations providing resources and holding you accountable for your performance."

But classes might not be enough to make a person right for a nonprofit job. "Quitting your for-profit job today and getting your nonprofit degree tomorrow and expecting the role to come to your feet--that's unreasonable. It's not just getting the degree, it's getting involved in the sector," said Laura Gassner Otting, author of Change your career: Transitioning to the nonprofit sector and president of the Nonprofit Professionals Advisory Group. Gassner Otting said that gaining experience in the nonprofit world, like serving on a board or volunteering on a program committee, can give a candidate real world experiences. "Those things are not only going to make you more attractive as a job-seeker--they are going to make you better once you're hired."

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Gassner Otting urges job-seekers to analyze where they want to go in their nonprofit career--that objective analysis can help shape what professional development will work in that specific career path. Job-seekers coming from the for-profit world need to make sure they are conscious of changes in the nonprofit sector, from financial objectives to the language. "Nothing makes me crazier than when somebody tells me 'I've decided that it's time for me to give back. I'd like to join a company that's doing good things in the world.' You know what, if you want to give back write a check," said Gassner Otting. "And you are not joining a company--you are joining an organization. You are joining a cause. You are joining a mission. Nothing tells me more that a candidate hasn't internalized that transition than them not being able to speak in the right language."

Print Get the Mag Weekly Updates