Social Entrepreneurship (Voucher Included)

Part 1: Nonprofit Manager

Lesson 1: The Nonprofit Sector

• An Overview of the Nonprofit Sector
• The Impact of Nonprofits on the Economy
• Your Vision for a Better World

Lesson 2: Defining Your Mission/Imagining Your Vision

• Your Mission
• Your Mission Statement
• Looking to the Future

Lesson 3: Governance and Leadership

• The Roles and Responsibilities of a Nonprofit Board
• Board Recruitment
• Governance by Committee

Lesson 4: Volunteer Management

• Developing a Volunteer Program
• Recruitment and Training
• The Legal Landscape
• Managing Your Volunteers

Lesson 5: Nonprofit Finance

• Financial Policies
• Financial Statements
• Budgets
• The Nonprofit Tax Return (Form 990)

Lesson 6: Fund Development

• Funds
• Charitable Dollars
• Fundraising
• Creating a Successful Development Program
• The Fundraising Plan

Lesson 7: Other Revenue Sources

• Earned Income
• Government Contracts and Grants
• Corporate Partnerships

Lesson 8: Marketing and Communications

• Getting Attention
• Creating Your Marketing Plan
• Public Relations and Crisis Communications

Lesson 9: Meeting Your Mission: Programs, Accountability, and Measurement

• The Well-Developed Program
• Mapping Activities and Strategies
• Measuring Success

Lesson 10: Human Resources

• Building Teams
• Evaluating the Employees
• The Legal Angle
• Succession Planning

Lesson 11: Diversity Equity Inclusion

• What Do We Mean by Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion?
• Creating DEI at Your Organization
• Fundraising and Communications in a DEI World

Lesson 12: Change is The Only Constant

• Strategic Planning
• Scenario Planning
• Change Is Coming
• Final Exam

Part 2: Entrepreneurship: Start-Up and Business Owner Management

Lesson 1: The Entrepreneur and the Idea

• Entrepreneurial characteristics and mindset
• Benefits, risks, opportunities, and drawbacks of entrepreneurship
• Entrepreneurial decision-making and venture goals

Lesson 2: Understanding the Market

• Idea generation and opportunity assessment
• Market demand and customer needs
• Value proposition and opportunity viability

Lesson 3: Testing Your Business Assumptions

• Identifying assumptions behind the idea
• Understanding how business creates value
• Distinguishing assumptions from evidence
• Recognizing risks

Lesson 4: Learning from Potential Customers

• Customer discovery
• Writing effective interview questions
• Conducting customer interviews
• Learning instead of selling
• AI Highlight: Refining customer interviews with AI

Lesson 5: Making Sense of Customer Feedback

• Identifying patterns in customer responses
• The difference between feedback and evidence
• Revising assumptions based on insights
• Identifying emerging risks and concerns

Lesson 6: Exploring Business Idea Viability

• Evaluating business idea viability
• Supporting vs. contradictory evidence
• Making a Go, Pivot, or Stop decision
• Midterm Exam

Lesson 7: Understanding What the Business Requires

• Operational needs and responses
• Defining outsourcing and support services
• Comparing funding options
• Recognizing operational constraints

Lesson 8: Explaining Your Business and Its Value

• Defining target customer
• Explaining the customer problem
• Communicating the value proposition
• Getting and keeping customers

Lesson 9: Choosing Your Business Structure and Understanding Costs

• Comparing legal structures, intellectual property, and regulations
• Understanding fixed and variable costs
• Estimating startup and operating costs
• Understanding pricing decisions
• Recognizing financial risks and constraints

Lesson 10: Projecting Revenue Costs and Potential Risks

• Understanding financial projections
• Building your revenue and cost estimates
• Building and reading the pro forma

Lesson 11: Building the Business Plan

• Organizing the business plan structure
• Common pitfalls in a finished plan
• Reviewing your business plan
• Evaluating the overall business plan
• AI Highlight: Improving business plan writing with AI support

Lesson 12: Presenting the Business Idea Clearly

• Understanding the pitch
• Building the pitch deck
• Turning your plan into a pitch
• The problem and the solution
• Presenting risks and key decisions
• AI Highlight: Recognizing where AI can and cannot support pitch development
• Final Exam

Lesson 13: Preparing for a Certification Exam

• Understanding the exam
• Picking your study tools
• Improving your memory
• Creating your plan
• AI Highlight: Leveraging AI chatbots as a study resource

Project: Business Plan

• Develop and refine a business plan, then submit the completed plan as a PDF for evaluation.
• Apply concepts from opportunity assessment, operations, marketing, funding, and financial planning.

A nonprofit manager is a professional who oversees the operations, programs, staff, and resources of a mission-driven organization. Depending on the organization and role, responsibilities may include managing programs, supervising staff and volunteers, developing budgets, coordinating fundraising efforts, building community partnerships, and ensuring the organization works toward its mission.

Salaries for nonprofit managers vary depending on the role, organization, location, and experience. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the median annual salary for social and community service managers was $80,390, while fundraising managers earned a median annual salary of $125,470 as of May 2025.

Yes. This course prepares you to sit for the Entrepreneurship and Small Business (ESB) Certification Exam from Certiport.