Attend Class/Presentation

If you are interested in learning more about the campusCATALYST program, why not attend one of the weekly seminars or in-class presentations?

Please contact Neal Sales-Griffin if you have interest in any of the opportunities below.

These opportunities are available on selected dates during the academic quarter and take place at the University of Chicago or Northwestern University campus (Hyde Park and Evanston respectively) on a weekday evening.

Speak in class

In the weekly seminar on nonprofit management, students learn about the nonprofit world from a professor and professional partners, utilizing case studies that reflect the issue area of the nonprofit in which they are consulting.

campusCATALYST supplements this in-class experience by providing in-class panel discussions with nonprofit and corporate leaders.

In-class panels are usually about a 1 hour commitment and take place at the University of Chicago or Northwestern University campus (Hyde Park and Evanston respectively) on a weekday evening. Panelists would be speaking in front of the Community Analysts, which are undergraduate students. Below are the topics of our in-class panels. If you are interested in serving as a speaker please contact Ken Jones and briefly talk about how your background and experience can lend itself well to this topic.

1. No Money, No Mission: Nonprofit Finance and Business Strategy – How does a nonprofit organization balance mission and strategy? How is managing money and finance different for nonprofit organizations?
2. Measuring Performance, Effectiveness and Impact - What is evaluation and what are the different ways it can be accomplished? Is there a downside to focusing heavily on metrics and impact measurement? What is the difference between high impact and high performance organizations?
3. Leadership and Governance in the Social Sector – What are the duties and responsibilities of a board of directors? Are they different for nonprofits than for for-profit corporations? What qualities and capabilities are most important for the leader of a nonprofit organization? What are the common pitfalls of nonprofit board performance?
4. Philanthropy, Old and New - What are the major sources of philanthropic support for US nonprofits? What is “venture philanthropy” and how does it differ from traditional forms of giving? Are certain kinds of contributions more or less valuable to their recipients? How much revenue diversification is enough? Should nonprofits engage in commercial ventures to diversify revenue?
5. New Models for Social Change – What is “social entrepreneurship?” Social enterprise? What are “hybrid organizations?” How do these models differ from ordinary nonprofits? Are there ways in which public policy, private investment practice, and/or philanthropy should change in order to help new types of social enterprises and “for-benefit” businesses succeed?

Guest Judge

As part of the campusCATALYST curriculum, Community Analyst engagement teams are required to give in-class Powerpoint presentations. We like to bring in guest judges to give the students feedback on these presentations.

Our students really benefit from having an outside perspective and value the feedback. Guest judging opportunities are available twice a quarter and usually require a 3 hour commit and take place at the University of Chicago or Northwestern University campus (Hyde Park and Evanston respectively) on a weekday evening.

Industry Advisor

campusCATALYST teams work with a variety of nonprofit clients on a variety of issues and sometimes run into obstacles. campusCATALYST likes to keep a “rolodex” of sorts with nonprofit leaders that specialize in our industry and practice areas.

How does the rolodex work? If our students need assistance or perspective with a specific issue they will reach out to campusCATALYST. campusCATALYST will then identify an industry advisor that has the background to offer assistance or perspective.

If you were the advisor identified we would contact you, tell you a little about the problem and issue the Community Analyst Team is having. If you were interested we would link you with the Community Analyst Team. The time commitment could be as simple as a conference call or email exchange or could involve more. Our students value the assistance.