The Wisconsin Nonprofits website wants to promote and help other aspiring nonprofit organizations with promotion and generating awareness about nonprofit education.
This website was created by Kevin G, a nonprofit MBA grad and his team. we are actively involved in numerous online educational projects. We welcome all suggestions and comments about future projects.
Please keep in mind that this website is not affiliated with the Wisconsin Nonprofits Association (WNA).
What I Did Before This (Including Pre-MBA and Post-MBA Jobs)
I had 10 years in nonprofit management before returning to school for an MBA.
To start, after two years of university study in Canada, I did a youth exchange with Canada World Youth which led me to work on a dairy farm for three and a half months in Quebec with half Canadian and half Africans, followed by three and a half months in West Africa with the same group. This experience led me to transfer universities and follow a co-op program in international development studies. On the co-op placement, I worked in Botswana for one year, developing small-scale income generation projects for several San (Bushman) communities in the Kalahari.
I had been at Doctors Without Borders since 1999 before attending business school. I helped establish the Canadian office for them, and it had grown from just me as the first Canadian staff member, supporting a team of volunteer doctors and lawyers and accountants from across Canada, to a team of 30 paid staff sending hundreds of medical and non-medical volunteers overseas, raising millions of dollars, and keeping humanitarian concerns front and center in the Canadian consciousness. I was the office manager until 2003 then added recruitment through 2004.
I was transferred over to Holland to run recruitment for specific projects and I had a position in the Ivory Coast for one year, supporting medical and nutritional projects in Liberia, and I was able to bring the whole family; I had about 30 staff there.
In Copenhagen, I ran a small branch office with four staff for three years. There I also did a small project in Uganda, and I started getting into marketing and fund-raising, working with government funding. Then I managed a team of seven in Sri Lanka while I applied to MBA programs.
Educational Background (Undergraduate, MBA, Other)
- MBA, University of Western Ontario’s Richard Ivey School of Business, 2001
- Bachelor of Science, Development Studies Co-op Program, 2001
- two years of arts and science studies University of Toronto, International, Dalhousie University, 1994–96
In MBA Programs, I’d Suggest You Look For…
For nonprofit management, choose a strong generalist MBA or an MBA with a nonprofit track. I definitely enjoyed the case method and found it a superior way to learn as an older student. It is also important to choose a program that requires considerable prior work experience of its students because this enriches your learning enormously.
Now after going to Ivey, I am able to think in more strategic terms and am more comfortable with numbers. Fund-raising is marketing, and increasingly there is a focus on corporate fund-raising, so a solid understanding of what makes the private sector tick will be invaluable for your success.
Diversity of faculty and students in terms of nationality and work experience is the best way to prepare yourself for today’s global realities, especially if you plan to work across borders in a role like mine.