SCHOOL OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
School of Public Administration MPA Capstone Presentations December 11, 2015 1:00-3:00 PM
CPACS 213 1:00 - 1:15 PM
CPACS 213 1:25 - 1:40 PM
Brittney Albin
Victoria Kramer
Sustainability Planning for K-12 School Districts: The Case of Lincoln Public Schools Sustainability is a complex issue to understand, and it is even more challenging determining how to address such a complicated initiative. Faced with an abundance of definitions, criteria, strategies, etc., organizations interested in sustainability must take on the process of defining and identifying sustainability principles for themselves. Lincoln Public Schools (LPS), a K-12 school district located in Lincoln, Nebraska, will be the primary focus of this research, as an organization in need of a plan for sustainability efforts. LPS has pursued sustainability in a variety of ways, but there is not currently a coordinated district-level plan for sustainability in any form. A content analysis of available district sustainability plans from across the country explored how school districts are formally articulating their commitment to sustainability in planning documents. The analysis findings were utilized to make several recommendations for Lincoln Public Schools in their future sustainability planning efforts.
National Guard Association of Nebraska: Five-Year Strategic Plan  The Nebraska National Guard Association (NGA-NE) is a nonprofit military and veteran advocacy organization made up of current and retired officers of the Nebraska Air and Army National Guard. The Board of Governors is primarily struggling with understanding the organizations stakeholders and the environment in which the body operates. Understanding these two critical components of the strategic planning process will aid NGA-NE in becoming more aware of how to successfully engage stakeholders and understand how the organization can create public value and fulfill its mission. NGA-NE needs to complete a through stakeholder analysis and environmental scan, or SWOT, prior introducing policy changes that they believe address the issues of membership and fundraising. By actively engaging members in the first two steps of the strategic planning process, NGA-NE members will have an opportunity to identify the organization’s internal strengths and weaknesses, as well as those that exist outside the organization. NGA-NE can then address identified opportunities and challenges to develop and overcome weaknesses and challenges, while also cultivating strategies to advance and grow organizational strengths and opportunities.
CPACS 213 1:50 - 2:05 PM
CPACS 214 1:00 - 1:15 PM
Michael Meyers
Jeff Skalberg
Program Design and Implementation: City of Hickman (NE) Public Art Commission
Corporate Social Responsibility: An Assessment of the Motivating Factors to Engaging in CSR
The City of Hickman is a second-class city located in southern Lancaster County just ten minutes south of Lincoln. Primarily serving as a bedroom community for the City of Lincoln (Population: 270,000), the City of Hickman has seen tremendous growth in the past decade with no signs of slowing down as the community surpasses 2,000 residents. The demographics of the community indicate that the City of Hickman is largely an affluent community with a family focus. With the demographics of the community showing an influx of families, the City of Hickman has focused heavily on providing opportunities for family friendly activities and providing a better quality of life. With this focus, it has recently been proposed that the City of Hickman create a public arts commission as well as design a strategy to provide the community with a greater sense of identity and civic enjoyment through public art. With this need being indicated, my capstone proposal is to design the framework of the commission and implement a strategic plan moving forward to help guide the community in the creation of public art.
Americans donated an estimated $358.38 billion to charity in 2014. Of this number, corporate giving accounted for $17.77 billion, an increase of 13.7 percent (11.9 percent when inflation-adjusted) over 2013. The call for social responsibility among businesses is not a new concept. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has become a standard operating procedure for today’s companies. As the relationship between corporations and the societies with which they interact continues to develop, this qualitative study set out to define and assess the motivating factors to engaging in CSR. This study introduced four hypotheses and motivating factors discovered through a comprehensive literature review and examination of case studies. These motivating factors were then utilized to measure against the findings of an interview study which included six companies currently engaged in CSR. Ultimately, understanding the true motivating factors to engaging in CSR is not only meaningful for the companies engaged, but it is as well vitally important to the nonprofit organizations who depend upon these relationships for funding and other support.
CPACS 214 1:25 - 1:40 PM
CPACS 214 1:50 - 2:05 PM
Eric Sherman
Daniel Walsh
Government to Government: The Hidden Cost for Tribal Governments in Making Emergency/Major Declarations
Catholic Charities Food Pantries: Program Evaluation for Improved Service Delivery Catholic Charities of Omaha (CCO) has served its local community for over 85 years. It currently has two programs serving the food insecurity needs of North and South Omaha: Christ Child North and Juan Diego Center. Although recent client satisfaction surveys consistently report supportive views of services provided by these pantry programs, increasing numbers of families utilize their services and food insecurity persists in Omaha. 15 percent of Nebraskans reported at least one time in the past year when they did not have enough money to buy food that they or their family needed, while approximately 20 percent of children in Nebraska are at-risk for hunger (Feeding America, 2014). Although poverty and food insecurity are related, other factors also relate to food insecurity. The research question to be studied in this case is what other activities can CCO be undertaking to better serve individuals and families experiencing food insecurity? In other words, is a pantry-only service effective in addressing food insecurity? Through a program evaluation model, specific variables to be examined in this study may include: amount of food distributed, rates of food distribution, client demographic information, repeat service recipients, density of food pantries and food banks in the City of Omaha, local policies related food insecurity, and alternative responses to food insecurity at local and national levels.
United States Federal Indian law and policy has been predicated on the notion that the U.S is in a position of guardianship with native nations as their wards. This relationship has produced what has become known as the trust doctrine, in which the federal government has assumed the responsibility to uphold the legal duties, moral obligations, and the fulfillment of understandings and expectations that have arisen over the entire course of the relationship between the United States and the federally recognized tribes. The trust relationship is widely misunderstood and results in mis-understandings between federal bureaucrats and tribal nations. One misunderstanding surrounding the trust relationship is the condition under which tribal nations “possess” land. The research question will ask if the Stafford act and its cost share structure is in alignment with the policies that direct the government to government relationship between tribal governments and the federal government.
CPACS 214 2:15 - 2:30 PM Sarah Korth Relationship Fundraising: What Matters Most for Community Crops Community Crops in Lincoln, Nebraska has a mission to empower people to grow food through education, experiences, and resources. Their vision is to live in a community where all people grow and enjoy healthy, local food. They started as one community garden in 2003 and have since grown to include twelve community garden sites, vegetables subscriptions, a growing farmers education program, youth education, and workshops. With their growth comes the responsibility to sustainably fund their program. Relationship fundraising is an important piece to a successful development program for individual donations. This research will answer the question, how can relationship fundraising be used to increase individual donations for Community Crops?
CPACS 111E 1:00 - 1:15 PM Online Presentation
CPACS 111E 1:25 - 1:40 PM Online Presentation
Jeremy Floyd
Jack McAfee
Standardizing Equitas Group’s Financial Due Diligence Process Program Officers at Equitas Group, a private family grantmaking foundation, do not currently utilize a standard approach for conducting financial health analyses of grant-seeking nonprofit partners. Equitas staff evaluate all potential grants on the basis of three or four general aspects of a nonprofit organization: project design/ outcomes, leadership, and finances. However, each of Equitas’ Program Officers operate with a significant degree of autonomy in determining the specifics of his or her own evaluation approach. No current Program Officer has a background in accounting or financial management, and each has leaned on existing financial assessment tools to guide his or her financial analysis. Unfortunately, Equitas staff regularly comment that they have yet to find a financial assessment tool that is relevant to the organization’s values and approach to grantmaking, and to the size and complexity of current grantees. This project considers whether current practices in financial assessment of nonprofits can be adapted into a standardized financial assessment tool that is relevant both to the values and approach of Equitas and to the type and size of nonprofits they regularly support.
An Analysis of Staffing at the Chattanooga Airport The issue at hand was the efficiency of staffing at the Chattanooga Metropolitan Airport Authority (CMAA) in the years leading up the recession. I seek to analyze the staffing levels and their efficiency in the years leading up to the recession, the changes which were made as a result of cost cutting, and the outcomes seen today. As part of this analysis, many workers were cross utilized and assigned with additional tasks. I seek to determine the effects, if any, that organizational culture had on the the result of these changes.
CPACS 111E 1:50 - 2:05 PM Online Presentation
CPACS 111E 2:15 - 2:30 PM Online Presentation
Samuel Reason
Megan Shada
Program Service Delivery and Organizational Mission and Values: An Evaluation of My Brother’s Keeper in Houston, TX The goal is to evaluate how well the programs and services offered by My Brother’s Keeper aligns with their organizational mission and values. My Brother’s Keeper is a nonprofit organization located in Houston, Texas that provides assistance to families in crisis. Their programs and services include operating a food pantry, providing financial assistance for rent, conducting an annual school supply drive, and a Thanksgiving meal program among other activities. Questions to be addressed include: What is the mission of My Brother’s Keeper and is it clearly defined? What are the values of the organization? Are they clearly defined? To what extent do the programs and services offered by My Brother’s Keeper reflect the mission and values of the organization?
Creating a Stronger Community: Moving a New Generation into Philanthropy through Crowdfunding Giving Days in Central Nebraska One of the problems that the Kearney Area Community Foundation faces in hosting a Giving Day is how to extend its outreach to the entire community of potential donors. Hypothesis: The role of crowdsourcing, along with increased marketing will have a positive impact on increasing the Kearney Area Community Foundations visibility and engagement of a broader set of donors online. Questions: To what extent does giving days marketing inspire the local community to support philanthropic causes? To what extent does a giving day foster and engage a broader set of donors online? Expected Causal Relationships: This project will analyze the causal relationship between the engagement of Community Foundations and its hypothesized positive impact on attracting new donors.
CPACS 111E 2:40 - 2:55 PM Online Presentation LaTonya Walker Addressing Guilford County’s Food Insecurity Through Community-Based Sustainable Food Systems The USDA defines food insecurity as those whose “access to adequate food is limited by a lack of money and other resources” (Coleman-Jensen, Gregory & Singh, 2014). According to the Food Research and Action Center’s (FRAC) 2014 National, State and Local Index of Food Hardship report, Greensboro-High Point, North Carolina ranked as the number one Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) for food hardship with a food hardship rate of 27.9% (FRAC, 2015). As a state, North Carolina ranked number 8 overall with a food hardship rate of 20.8% (FRAC, 2015). The purpose of this mixed methods study is to examine the factors that are contributing to food insecurity within the Greensboro-High Point region and propose community-based alternatives to address issues of food accessibility and availability.
SCHOOL OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
Leading the way to your future. UNO SCHOOL OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION Ranked Among the Best The School of Public Administration at the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) is home to nationally known faculty whose dedication prepares tomorrow’s leaders to manage organizations, plan cities, protect natural resources, hold office & ensure access to human services. The School of Public Administration is a national leader in public service education, with five of its programs ranked in the nation’s top 25 by U.S. News & World Report: • • • • •
UNO’s MPA Program is ranked #33 in the nation Public Budgeting & Finance is ranked #6 Information Technology is ranked #6 Nonprofit Management is ranked #11 Public Management is ranked #21
School of Public Administration Graduate Degree Offerings • Master of Public Administration (on campus or online) • Master of Public Administration-Master of Science in Management Information Systems (dual degree) • Master of Public Administration-Master of Social Work (dual degree) • Master of Science in Urban Studies • PhD in Public Administration • Certificate in Public Management
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