MBA Candidates Practice Philanthropy

(7-19-10) July 18, Rebecca Knight for The Financial Times:

A growing number of business programmes are introducing courses focused on 'practising philanthropy,' with the aim of teaching MBA students how to have a strategic edge in their giving by conducting site visits to non-profit organisations, tracking social and operational metrics and measuring the impact of their charitable contributions.

The courses are most popular with students specialising in non-profit administration, but the classes are gaining momentum with general management students too, according to Kristen McCormack, who teaches a course on practising philanthropy at Boston University School of Management.

'At some point in their lives, most of these students will either be a corporate donor or an individual donor and my class teaches them how to do philanthropy effectively,' she says. 'Most general MBAs that I’ve taught marvel that there is this world out there that they never thought existed, and they are surprised by how hard it is to give away money.'

The curricula vary from school to school, but most courses involve lectures and readings on the history of philanthropy, issues in the grant-making process and issues in philanthropy and public policy. In addition, many courses include an element of experiential philanthropy, whereby students donate an amount of money to non-profit organisations they have deemed worthy, based on a variety of metrics.