Can Student Philanthropy Help to Address the Current Nonprofit Identity Crisis? A Case Study of a Multiyear, Multidisciplinary Project at Northern Kentucky University

Since the systematic study of public administration began, many different approaches have been taken to make future public administrators aware of the contexts of public agencies and to prepare them with the knowledge, skills, and abilities needed to succeed in such organizations. One of the most recent innovations is student philanthropy, an experiential learning process through which students learn about nonprofit organizations and select one or more to which they award funding. Using survey data from 2000 to 2005, this paper assesses the short-term and long-term effects of Northern Kentucky University’s student philanthropy project and compares the experiences of students enrolled in the public administration discipline versus other disciplines such as art, sociology, education, nursing, and business.