Nonprofit Analysis paper

Throughout the project, I recommend that you keep in mind that your overall task, is to take the principles we have covered during this course and use them as a lens to view your nonprofit . By using that lens, determine if your nonprofit is following/applying best practices for the nonprofit sector. If they ARE applying best practices, identify the best practices they are applying and give specific examples. If they ARE NOT applying best practices, identify specific examples of where the nonprofit is NOT using best practices and identify the best practices that you would recommend that the nonprofit use or implement.

You need to select at least three examples to identify and discuss. You can choose to discuss all instances of your nonprofit not following best practices; or you could choose to discuss all instances of your nonprofit following best practices or a combination using best practices and not using best practices, if you discuss at least three examples. Below are several areas which you might consider analyzing and discussing:

1. Mission, Vision & Strategy:
a. Does your organization have both a mission and vision statement? Are programs and

services in alignment with mission? Does the organization have a current strategic plan? Does the organization have procedures in place for evaluating programs? Does the organization report the impact of its programs to donors, on its website and/or in annual reports? Does the organization regularly get input from program participants?

2. Leadership: Board, Staff & Volunteers:
a. Does the organization have current by-laws and policies? How does the organization

recruit and retain board members? Does the organization have board term limits? How does the organization recruit and retain volunteers? Does the organization have written job descriptions for board members, staff and volunteers? Does the organization have orientation for board members, staff and volunteers? How many board members does the board have? Is the executive director a member of the board of directors? How often does the board meet? Does the board represent the diversity of the community and/or the demographic which the organization serves? Do the staff and/or volunteers represent the diversity of the community and/or the demographic which the organization serves?

ORGANIZATION OF YOUR PAPER:

Refer to the Writing Rubric in Important Documents on D2L for further guidance. Your paper should have an introductory paragraph; it should give some background about your nonprofit (its name, where it is located; its mission and the programs and services it provides). You may also want to include some brief history about the organization (when it was founded; its budget size, how many paid employees and how many board members). The next paragraph or transition paragraph should clearly identify each of the three examples you will be discussing. The next several paragraphs/pages should then go into analysis, content & recommendations. This is the main content of your paper. In this section you should identify an example from the nonprofit, analyze and provide your opinion as to why this example does or does not follow best practices (citing the best practice) and then making recommendations if applicable (again you may cite lectures, reading materials or your own research) to substantiate your recommendations. I would expect you to devote at least 350-400 words to discussing each example, (probably 1-2 paragraphs).

The last of your paper should have a conclusion paragraph summarizing your points and content of your paper and I would expect to be approximately 100-125 words.

Length: 1800 words, excluding cover page, endnotes page and bibliography.

Font size: 11 fonts; Times Roman, Arial, or Calibri


Line spacing: 1.5


Margins: 1-inch margins

Number pages: all pages beyond the cover page should be numbered (bottom of page).
Student name: Student’s full name or first initial and last name should appear on top right of paper on

every page beyond the cover page. (Use the paper header feature to do this).
Cover page: include student name, instructor name, course name and number, title of paper.

DO NOT: insert clip art; photos; or use colored fonts in the text of your paper. This is a professional research document. You can however, utilize bold, italics, all caps, underline to emphasize headings or subheadings, but do not change the font size of your headings from the 11pt required font size. You may use sparingly, bold and italics within the body of a paragraph to emphasize a point, but do not use excessively or it loses its emphasis. Do not use all caps in the body of a paragraph as it means you are yelling at me. Do not change font style or formatting mid-way through your paper. Be consistent with the style of your headings and subheadings (do not use all caps in one instance, then lowercase in another instance).

MECHANICS AND STYLE:

I expect you to use proper spelling and grammar in your writing. Please take the extra time to spell and grammar check your document. Almost all word processing software have built in spelling and grammar checks and there are other subscription websites which also check spelling and grammar. Poor grammar and spelling are not acceptable at this level of writing. Don’t try to impress me with complex sentence structure or obscure vocabulary, please write clearly and concisely. Have someone else read your paper and check for understanding.

I will run your paper through grammar and spelling check software once you turn it in to check for errors and to make suggestions for better grammar and sentence structure.

CREDIBILITY/QUALITY OF RESEARCH:
Documentation, citation and formatting guidelines: You must use the Chicago Style notes and

bibliography system Chicago Style Link or the Turabian notes and bibliography system Turabian Style Link. Use either style to cite your references in the body of the paper, in corresponding endnotes (do not use footnotes) and in the bibliography. Chicago and Turabian Styles include both an endnote (or footnotes) page and a bibliography. I want you to include BOTH!

References:

Cite and reference at least 6 credible sources when referencing best practices, or providing examples of policies, procedures or examples. So, what counts as credible? High quality, nonprofit industry/business websites or publications, such as Board Source, The Independent Sector, Standards for Excellence Institute, Nonprofit Academic Centers Council, National Council of Nonprofits, would all be considered credible. Universities, colleges and government publications or websites would also be considered credible, especially for statistics or research supporting your best practices.

If you use any statistics in your paper, you must document (cite) where the statistics were found. Additionally, if you quote materials directly from publications, brochures, websites, etc., which are produced by your nonprofit and you reference it in your paper, it must be cited. These sources would not count towards your credible source for referencing best practices, because these nonprofits are not “experts” in the field of researching best practices...so you will need 6 in addition to any citations directly from your nonprofit’s materials.