Strategic management and planning took on a new wrinkle this semester, allowing students to conduct work for local organizations. “I believe strongly in the value of practical application,” said Kevin Connelly, adjunct faculty and executive director of the Center for Non-Profit Excellence.“Once a student has the grasp of the conceptual elements of a topic … the best way to truly internalize it is through application.”

Connelly’s class split into four groups, each one tasked with a research project for a different local non-profit. One group looked at how to help people navigate the healthcare system for the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky.

The Sons of the American Revolution (SAR) tasked their group with how to digitize their genealogical and other historical documents for ease of access. “Working with graduate level students is a useful endeavor as they usually can collectively discover information relative to most projects,” Joe Harris, executive director of the SAR, said. “I thought the recommendation presented was a good starting point for a library digitization project.”

Kentucky Youth Advocates (KYA) asked their group to compile data about oral healthcare for children throughout the state. Makeda Harris, policy analyst for KYA and one of the classes’ students, said that while the group met with some hurdles, the end product was valuable to her organization as it provided information to decision makers.

The fourth group worked to identify housing needs for grandparents caring for children and potential donors for the New Zion Community Development Foundation, Inc.

Prior to this semester, the class had focused solely on a “mock” strategic plan, but this component was added to give the class more of a practical framework, Connelly said. Two of the groups, New Zion and the SAR both responded to requests that Connelly had put out through the Center for Nonprofit Excellence, while the other two groups were chosen by students.

“I commend the student teams for the insightful and comprehensive research they conducted and how professionally they engaged the process,” Connelly said. “[Judging] by the positive impact the research assistance has made for the various nonprofit groups …this process has been very useful.” - story by Patrick Lewis