Chair: Trina Prior, Minerva BC

Reflection on the idea formation and execution stages of a University-third sector knowledge exchange project
Paula S. Karlsson, University of Glasgow, Sarah Weakley, University of Glasgow

This paper presents the early stages of a social innovation project, a University-third sector knowledge exchange collaborative. We explore how one university can engage in activities resulting in social impact via third sector organisations. We are working on a knowledge exchange and learning project to develop a successful and sustainable cross-discipline hub for pro-bono advice and expertise for local third sector organisations that utilise university expertise on a variety of pressing issues facing charities. We take an autoethnographic approach to exploring the idea formation and the execution stages of the social innovation.

Comparison across borders: an emergent picture of academic and community connections in the nonprofit sector in Canada and the US
Peter C. Weber, Auburn University; Carol Brunt, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater

The paper investigates the institutionalization of nonprofit and philanthropic studies through an analysis of the characteristics of nonprofit management education. The purpose of the study is two-fold: (1) to compare the state of nonprofit education in Canada and the US, its establishment and evolution; and (2) the role of these centers in connecting academia and communities of practice. In so doing, the analysis seeks to provide academic managers a better understanding of how academic programs and centers can support the development of programs in nonprofit and philanthropic studies across the continent.

Noncredit Matters: Canadian Nonprofit management education beyond mapping and towards instructor reflexivity
Michele Fugiel Gartner, Mount Royal University / University of St. Andrews

Nonprofit management education (NME) has received increasing attention from scholars and practitioners over the past thirty years, and literature has mapped global NME offerings, highlighting growth across a range of jurisdictions. The paper has two aims. First, it moves research on NME beyond U.S.-based knowledge by summarizing the Canadian landscape. In doing so, this paper also draws research attention to noncredit NME courses, a format broadly neglected within NME research, but found in a substantial number of Canadian NME offerings. Second, this paper exemplifies how instructor-led pedagogical reflexivity, through the adoption of critical qualitative inquiry, can deepen understanding and analysis of noncredit NME courses.