Mayerson Student Philanthropy Project
What is the Mayerson Student Philanthropy Project?
To apply for a Mayerson grant: click here.
The Mayerson Student Philanthropy Project started in 1999 as a way to teach students more about nonprofits and more about philanthropy, with the belief that hands-on learning in these fields would produce NKU graduates who are more likely to remain life-long community stewards. Read more by clicking here
Students click here for a course listing of Mayerson classes
Mayerson faculty click here for documents related to teaching your course
Faculty Research on Student Philanthropy
Professor Julie Olberding, who has taught MSPP for several semesters and who served as the faculty coordinator during 2008-2009 and 2009-2010, is widely published on the topic. This year, she completed a longitudinal study, "Does Student Philanthropy Work? A Study of Long-term Effects of the 'Learning by Giving' Approach," that examined whether the positive benefits of student philanthropy last after graduation. The answer, as we expected, was ???yes.???
Dr. Olberding collected quantitative and qualitative data using an online survey. She was able to determine that the overall impact on alumni was positive. In addition to the overall impact, 86 percent of alumni had recently made charitable contributions, 71 percent reported volunteering and 15 percent served on nonprofit boards. All of those percentages are much higher than the national averages for these behaviors.
The study was recently published in the latest issue of Innovative Higher Education, a peer-reviewed journal that focuses on innovations and new ideas in higher education. See a full copy of the article here.
Student Philanthropy Faculty Handbook
Northern Kentucky University???s Scripps Howard Center for Civic Engagement published the Student Philanthropy Faculty Handbook in early July and has filled orders from universities and colleges in 40 states, the District of Columbia and two foreign countries (the Philippines and Iceland). A second printing is planned and will be completed in early 2011. Click on the photo below to view the handbook. For ordering information click here.
216 organizations have received funding from the Mayerson Project. Total funding has exceeded $500,000!
The documents below are lists of the nonprofit organizations that have been funded by the Mayerson Project. (The first list is all of the organizations. The second is the courses that have participated.)
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Mayerson Courses 2000-2011 (with donation amount and faculty members)
What impact do the Mayerson grants have on nonprofit organizations?
The Childhood Food Solutions used $1,000 from the Mayerson project to support its Winter Break Food Sack program. As a result of this program, about 1,600 elementary students ??? who would have gone hungry during their winter break from school ??? received sacks containing nutritional bars, sandwich spreads, cereals and more. Data has been collected on students who participate in the Childhood Food Solutions program, and findings indicate the percentage of students who meet or exceed standards on the Ohio proficiency test is much higher after a year of their receiving food for non-school days. http://www.childhoodfoodsolutions.org/index.html
Read more examples by clicking here
Annual Reports: