What is Non-Profit Program Management?
Bringing clarity to a murky career
“Nearly all nonprofit organizations provide a service of one sort or another. The organization provides services by way of programs.”
- Nonprofit Kit for Dummies (1 p.137)
This quote is no inspirational rockstar, but speaks to the truth that non-profits are programs. Sometimes just one, sometimes many. Yet, even with this tight marriage between non-profits and programs, the discipline of non-profit program management is poorly defined as a career. What is the core nature of the work? What training is needed to become a non-profit program management professional (PgMP)? What are the top jobs like? The discipline of non-profit program management needs further clarification. Here is a start at naming some of the professions’ common attributes.
Technical Definitions
The Project Management Institute (PMI) defines a program as “related projects, subsidiary programs, and program activities that are managed in a coordinated manner to obtain benefits not available from managing them individually” (2 p.4). The management of said programs is “the application of knowledge, skills, and principles to a program to achieve the program objectives and to obtain benefits and control not available by managing program components individually” (2 p.4).
A non-profit organization “is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or social benefit, as opposed to an entity that operates as a business aiming to generate a profit for its owners.” It is typically mission-driven and consists of political organizations, schools, hospitals, business associations, churches, foundations, social clubs, and consumer cooperatives. Non-profits are also defined by their exemption from certain taxes, making them more sustainable and lower-cost to operate (3).
Put together, you get this word salad of a definition:
Non-profit program management is “the application of knowledge, skills, and principles to a program to achieve the program objectives and to obtain benefits and control not available by managing program components individually” at “a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or social benefit, as opposed to an entity that operates as a business aiming to generate a profit for its owners.”
It's certainly accurate, but it fails to give any sense of what non-profit program management is like as a job.
Finding a Better Definition
To create a more easily internalized definition, my “cocktail party” explanation of non-profit program management is “the work to weave together ideas, products, and services—often in new ways—to help people solve really difficult challenges.”
If a blacksmith hammers and a baker bakes, a non-profit PgMP constantly combines ideas, products, and services to help people.
It’s not a perfect definition (I’m working on that), but it gets closer to the heart of what people pursuing careers in non-profit program management are trying to achieve.
Do you agree?
Frontline vs. Backline Program Management
Non-profit program management can be divided into two buckets: those managing a direct service offering and those working to improve the underlying operations.
Frontline Program Management: This role involves overseeing a direct service offered by the non-profit organization. For example, many YMCAs – a non-profit fitness center focused on building healthy communities - have an aquatics director who manages anything related to the pools and swimming. These responsibilities include managing the swim lessons, a key source of revenue generation for the YMCA. As a frontline PgMP, they aren’t necessarily in the water teaching kids the backstroke. However, the role is essential to daily operations, requires managing a large staff, and draws a direct line to revenue generation.
Backline Program Management: This role involves improving the underlying operations of the non-profit organization. This bucket represents my former role at Boston Children’s Hospital, where I managed the Integrated Care Program, developing novel measures, tools, and processes to improve care coordination for patients and their families. Backline program management often includes managing a team of project management professionals and supporting the implementation of strategic change initiatives. A key differentiator for this role is that it is not tied to daily operations, nor is it directly revenue-generating.
Both these roles rely on program management principles to succeed at work, but they prioritize different skill sets and lead to divergent career opportunities. It’s worth clarifying what camp you are working in when strategizing your distinct non-profit PgMP career roadmap.
Common Attributes
The people pursuing program management careers at non-profits have much in common, regardless of whether they oversee ticket sales for a theatre or develop a new approach to healthcare service delivery. Based on my career experience, here are six attributes commonly found across non-profit program management careers.
I. Mission-based: Not surprisingly, the people who pursue program management careers at non-profits are typically mission-driven individuals who hold an underlying passion for the work. Back to that YMCA Aquatics Director example, it’s hard to imagine hiring anyone who’s not an avid swimmer, regardless of their management expertise. As salaries in the non-profit space generally are lower than those offered at for-profits, it’s not a financially incentivized path unless your priority and interests lie in a particular area such as healthcare, education, public service, the arts, etc.
II. Elevation of Subject Matter Expertise: Passion for a subject area often leads to the pursuit of advanced education or significant years of experience in an adjoining role. Many early-career PgMPs in healthcare have a Master's education in public health. Alternatively, many nurses transition into program management roles at mid-career. The career field is still open for those without a pre-existing background, but subject matter expertise gained through education or work experience is highly coveted in the hiring process for most roles.
III. Diversity of Program Management Training: Oddly, while subject matter expertise is highly prioritized, required training in project and program management is much looser. There are rarely specific educational requirements for most non-profit PgMP positions. In most situations, the underlying skill set for project and program management is gained through on-the-job experience or shown through peripheral activities (sports, hobbies, volunteering, etc.). The exception would be hiring at Project or Program Management Offices (PMOs) within non-profits. These offices generally require a certificate from the Project Management Institute or a specific Six Sigma Belt certification level.
IV. Multiple Points of Career Entry: Program management is a career field that welcomes newcomers at nearly any stage. Many join the workforce as project coordinators to gain sufficient experience to become program management professionals over the long term. Others shift from a frontline service role (teacher or nurse) into program management as they seek further advancement or new challenges in their careers. While few start with the ambition to pursue a lifelong program management career, there are, conversely, many open doors to becoming a program management professional over a lifetime.
V. Gender Imbalance: The non-profit industry workforce is broadly recognized as predominantly female, and there is no reason to assume that the population of non-profit PgMPs differs from this trend. Non-profit PgMP roles are great jobs with no inherent quality that makes them more suited to women than men. Importantly, they offer high flexibility, remote work options, stable pay, and solid benefits: qualities sought out by anyone who needs to manage families and careers. While the balance of family management responsibilities still leans toward women - but is improving with each generation - for now, it’s worth recognizing a connection between non-profit program management and needed progress in the gender equity dilemmas.
VI: Career Peaks: The typical top end of a career in non-profit program management is murky. A positive aspect of the job is that you constantly develop leadership skills, setting yourself up well for executive-level positions. A con in non-profits is that while the number of opportunities naturally narrows as you reach more senior positions, a new pool of job competition comes from the other highly prestigious professionals in your non-profit sector. For example, at Boston Children’s Hospital, many doctors assumed administrative roles running departments consisting mainly of non-clinical project and program management professionals. Further, many non-profits are the oldest businesses in the country that prioritize the in-house elevation of long-term staff. These staffers often have embedded champions among current executives. Job fluidity, or the ability to shift between organizations to grow one’s career, is increasingly complex at the higher levels across non-profits. A unique mixture of barriers for the top spots makes elevation at the advanced levels of program management tricky. It’s easy to stall out, even for the ambitious.
What do you think? As with describing any population of significant size, there’s tremendous variation and exceptions. If your experience doesn’t match these attributes, I’d love to hear from you via the comments section in Substack. Please speak up.
Improving the Career
The field of non-profit program management is paradoxical: both ancient and immature. People have been managing operations of mission-driven organizations for centuries. Despite its age, the discipline is relatively immature regarding common standards for education and experience compared to other professions (teacher, doctor, engineer). I’m suspicious that the for-profit program management career field is also far ahead of its non-profit peer group, and I look forward to exploring that topic in a future article.
My goal with “The Innovative Program” is to contribute to the ongoing maturation of non-profit program management as a career. I hope to better define the discipline in terms of needed expertise, career pathways, and opportunities. I also look to create training on program management that matches the specific demands of working at non-profit institutions. By improving the underlying workforce of PgMPs, we can create better programs that help more people. Please join me in this journey.
“The Middle”
This article’s song pairing is “The Middle” by Jimmy Eat World. I played this one a lot in college, so it takes me back—a good song about figuring out one’s place in this world.
References
Browning B, Hutton S, Phillips F. Nonprofit Kit For Dummies, 6th Edition. 2021.
Project Management Institute. Guide to the project management body of knowledge. 7th ed. Pennsylvania: Project Management Institute; 2021.
Wikipedia Contributors. Nonprofit organization [Internet]. Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation; 2019. Available from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonprofit_organization