A Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree is not just for business professionals. The skills and knowledge gained from this advanced degree can benefit nonprofit professionals by providing them with important strategy, data processing, budgeting and marketing skills. An MBA also creates networking opportunities and helps graduates build critical soft skills vital to nonprofit work, such as collaboration, communication, active listening and more.
An online Master of Business Administration from Bowling Green State University (BGSU) can help students develop essential business and leadership skills to effectively guide organizational growth in a developing marketplace. This flexible online degree program accommodates the schedules of working professionals. Students will study marketing management and strategy, strategy design and implementation, managerial accounting, business ethics and law, financial management in global environments and more.
Why an MBA Is Helpful for Nonprofit Professionals
With regards to accounting and financial analysis rigor, nonprofit organizations are often lacking. Instead of running it like a business, many nonprofit professionals do not focus on the basic principles of accounting, economics and finance and endure financial hardships. This can be incredibly difficult for employees and beneficiaries — not to mention the nonprofit organization that struggles to meet its overall goals and mission. Nonprofit professionals with an MBA can provide much-needed business knowledge and awareness to the nonprofit world. Many nonprofits have a mission — such as addressing climate change, poverty and community health disparities — but often have limited budgets and funding. Having a leader at the helm with an MBA can offer creative solutions, optimize operations and provide ingenious results.
To maximize the impact for donors, nonprofit organizations need to manage resources, creatively budget, market their services and strategically plan their goals. Hiring and retaining the right people for the organization while motivating them are also skills gained from an MBA. Those with an MBA can help a nonprofit streamline the budget, organize new initiatives and pitch to a new donor or volunteer successfully. For nonprofit professionals passionate about supporting a mission, earning an online MBA from BGSU can help them gain invaluable skills to drive social change and boost their community reach.
In addition to gaining necessary accounting and financial knowledge, MBA graduates will also gain skills for the community element of the nonprofit sector such as those in listening, networking, collaborating and being resilient.
Both for-profit and nonprofit organizations need the same attention to market analysis, financial, marketing, strategic and operational management, and both must remain financially solvent to achieve their goals. BGSU’s online MBA program prepares students to thrive in the business world and in organizations they support.
About Bowling Green State University’s Online MBA Degree Program
Along with core degree courses — such as Managerial Accounting, Marketing Management and Strategy, Financial Management in a Global Environment, Supply Chain Management, and Business Ethics, Law and Communication — students can choose elective courses that fit their interests and goals.
Graduates of this online program will develop transferrable skills to effectively lead an organization; make solid business decisions through information analysis; work in a wide variety of business fields (including for-profit and nonprofit organizations); demonstrate a commitment to professional ethics, standards and codes of conduct; and apply learned course material in various decision-making and problem-solving contexts. Students of this degree program are qualified to pursue careers as a director of sales, general manager, senior marketing analyst or director of operations.
Learn more about Bowling Green State University’s online Master of Business Administration program.
