Nonprofit management and Yale's culture

[LounginMKL]

Hi all,

Yale is known for its nonprofit management, with many faculty and students with NPO background. Besides having somewhat different missions. How are the mindsets of people in NPOs differ from those who are gunning for money? What kind of challenges do they face in the real world? Is it safe to assume that Yale's culture is somewhat defined by that of NPOs?

Thanks

[lewellen]

Sorry for the delayed response.

I don't think the mindset of the nonprofit students is any different than the mindset of the students who are "gunning for money". It definitely takes a certain level of passion for students to commit their lives to a nonprofit cause, but at this level every student is passionate about their pursuits - even the investment bankers and management consultants. There are no clear trends related to academic success, extracurricular activities, social networks or anything else that indicate a different mindset between non-profit students and their for-profit peers.

For the most part, I think the challenges faced by nonprofit students are the same challenges faced by students in the private, for-profit sector - how to be successful at running a business, how to get ahead, work-life balance, how to find meaning in one's work, etc. The broad macroeconomic and geopolitical trends facing nonprofits also roughly mirror the trends facing private companies. I think it's easy to try to classify the world into for-profit and non-profit, but the "real world" looks very similar regardless of which side of the aisle you're sitting on. While we certainly have a larger percentage of non-profit students than some of our peers, the overwhelming majority of SOM students (90%+) end up working in the private, for-profit sector.

The culture here at SOM is based around values such as teamwork, cooperation and a passion for success that apply to for-profit and non-profit students alike. SOM definitely has a unique culture - in fact, the culture is one of the main reasons I chose SOM over some other excellent schools - but even the money-grubbing financiers and consultants play a huge role in defining and maintaining the school's cultural vibrancy.

What IS true is that the students who choose to attend SOM strongly believe in the mission of the school (to educate leaders for business AND society). This doesn't mean that most students are interested in non-profit work, but it does mean that students care about making an impact within their communities as much as they care about becoming the CEO of some huge company. I definitely think that SOM has a community-minded spirit that I did not see when I visited other business schools.

I hope this answers your questions.