Past courses

2009 Courses

Kevin Clarke - Financial management of social enterprises

Kevin Clarke is a senior lecturer at UNSW in the Australian School of Business prestigious AGSM MBA program. The annual and financial reports of social enterprises are perhaps becoming the major channel through which the entity can communicate with its stakeholders and therefore justify its claim on their support. The transparency and clarity of these reports has increasingly been seen as a key element in maintaining stakeholder trust. This two day course identified the elements of these reports that are currently considered ‘best practice' for social enterprises. It provided a number of suggested approaches as to how the annual and financial reports of many firms could be further enhanced, both in terms of content and presentation. The understanding of these practices was reinforced through the use of illustrative examples that included both large and small not-for-profit organisations.

Planned giving & bequests workshop

This workshop was held in conjunction with ADAPE (Association of Development and Alumni Professionals in Education) and the University of Sydney. If, as some predict, the global financial crisis leads to fewer and  smaller philanthropic gifts from individuals and foundations, we may need to give even greater attention given to planned giving and bequests. This workshop explored legal, ethical and organisational topics, including identifying, cultivating and stewarding potential bequestors, what is planned giving, and where does it fit in your fundraising program.

David Marshall - Managing the media and maximising opportunities

This fast-paced workshop was filled with tips and techniques on how to deal with the media. There were many video examples shown of great media interviews and as well as those that didn't go so well. The day was designed to focus on your organisation at every stage. Each participant also had a chance to test their interview skills and gained greater confidence in managing their relationships with journalists and the media in general.

This course enabled participants to reflect on how to overcome barriers and learn how to exercise public leadership to forge more creative and more productive forms of collaborative engagement.

This course was for social enterprise practitioners as well as leaders in organisations that directly support them or have a broader interest in the global social enterprise movement. It was taught by Tim Zak who is the Executive Director of Carnegie Mellon University's Heinz College of Public Policy and Management campus in Adelaide and Co-Director of the School's Institute for Social Innovation. The course was designed to enable leaders in Australian third sector organisations to conceive, design, launch, grow, and manage their social enterprise ventures. It challenged, inspired, and equiped leaders in the third sector to become more entrepreneurial in positioning their organisations as forces of innovation and change.

Debbie Haski-Leventhal - Management of volunteers

This course focused on how to manage and motivate volunteers. Participants were exposed to the major theories on volunteerism, different aspects of volunteer management, dilemmas and practical solutions. Participants were acquainted with theories and studies on the management of volunteers and learnt the different aspects of having volunteers as an essential part of the organisation. This course was run during and in support of National Volunteer Week.

Kevin Robbie - Impact mapping - social return on investment (SROI)

This course was for leaders and managers from the not-for-profit and social investment sector who wanted to understand the scope of SROI and impact mapping, and how to apply the principles within their own organisation and to communicate with funders and government agencies. Course presenter Kevin Robbie has over 15 years senior management experience in the third sector in the UK, leading their development work on SROI, including seven years as Chief Executive of Forth Sector, one of Scotland's leading social enterprises.

Geoff Waring - Third sector / not-for-profit management

This course was taught by Geoff Waring, Senior Fellow at the Australian School of Business. The course offered participants the opportunity to understand and experience the complexity of decisions they face as a general manager at a not-for-profit. The following CEOs also discussed their experience:

- Elaine Henry, CEO, The Smith Family
- Julie Edwards, CEO, Jesuit Social Services
- David Thompson, CEO, Jobs Australia.

Denis Tracey - Major Gifts

This workshop was held in conjunction with the University of Sydney. While no-one can predict with certainty the effect the financial crisis will have on university fundraising, we can reasonably assume that the challenges faced in 2009 will be different from those that applied in the previous few years. It is also clear that major gifts will remain a main preoccupation of development offices in Australian universities. Over two days participants explored these issues and met inspirational and experienced professionals: donors, fundraisers and other experts.

Göran Roos - Measuring the Return on Social Investment

This course explored the challenging area of measuring social value and public good. Professor Göran Roos is Honorary Professor at Warwick Business School in the UK, Visiting Professor of Innovation Management and Business Model Innovation at VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, Visiting Professor of Intangible Asset Management and Performance Measurement at the Centre for Business Performance at Cranfield University and Visiting Faculty at Helsinki School of Economics Executive Education at both Helsinki and Singapore. Assisted by Stuart Carr, Göran took participants through an exploration of value - what it is, how it can be measured, how the value measurement approach (CVH) can be applied, and how the return on investment works in non-financial outcomes.

In times when talk of adding ‘social capital' of individuals, organisations and regions is coupled with the need for financial accountability, transparency and efficacy measurements, this course proved both topical and popular.

Half-day courses in both Sydney and Melbourne were filled with participants hailing from senior management of not-for-profits, government and corporate sectors. They learnt tools and techniques for measuring return and effectiveness of investment in social value activities, which are also very useful for preparing proposals for private or government funding of social enterprises and for those who assess such requests.

Paul 't Hart - Exercising leadership in a shared power world

This pertinent course helped to promote inter-sector understanding and collaborative decision-making amongst participants from a variety of backgrounds, including not-for-profits and government. Through the use of case studies and intense debate, participants discussed the difference between leading within a sector and collaborative leading across sectors, developing empathy for the unique challenges and difference between their sectors.

The course helped distil leadership principles that engineer collaboration and trust-building. Participants examined what makes collaborative, whole-of-society ventures succeed such that citizens receive better, more tailor-made solutions.

Professor Paul ‘t Hart from the ANU and Utrecht School of Governance has trained top public servants, not only from Australia but also from the UK, New Zealand and Canada.

Andrew and Nada Kakabadse - Making corporate social responsibility strategic

Participants in well-attended seminars run by Andrew and Nada Kakabadse in Sydney and Melbourne in August were asked to put themselves in the shoes of Corporate Social Responsibility managers of large corporations. The leadership demands on a CSR manager rival those on a board chairman in scope and complexity, the participants were told, so CSR managers need guts and capability to succeed in an environment which can be suspicious of and even hostile to their work.

Andrew Kakabadse's survey of 1400 corporate boards around the world has revealed startling levels of inhibition, defensiveness and lack of trust between board members and with company management which places companies at risk of corporate disasters.

Referring to the current crisis in US mortgage finance companies, Professor Kakabadse predicted that "Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are just one symptom of something emerging in the United States that is going to be a massive problem".

Though Australian boards on the whole were the most effective and powerful among those surveyed, they were the least attentive to CSR. A notable proportion of Australian company directors are on not-for-profit boards, but this doesn't translate into their corporate practice: only three per cent of Australian board members surveyed said they knew what CSR was. "CSR is a reputational concern: they see it as a protection (against bad publicity) rather than a direct benefit". Between 85 and 90 per cent of board members were suspicious of NGOs, seeing them as "a political lever that is going to cause them harm", Professor Kakabadse said.

The day was peppered by lively discussions about how NGOs can best approach a CSR manager under siege, and the characteristics of a truly effective change agent. Participants discussed how they might change the terms of the CSR debate and adapt their approaches to achieve a better match between NGO and corporate priorities.

Andrew Kakabadse is Professor of International Management Development at Cranfield School of Management. Nada K.Kakabadse BSc Grad.Dip MSc MPA PhD, is currently Professor in Management and Business Research at The University of Northampton Business School and the co-editor (with Andrew Kakabadse) of the Journal of Management Development and Corporate Governance: The International Journal of Business in Society.

John Casey - Preparing a compact: experience from around the world

The topical issue of compacts between government and not-for-profit organisations was the focus of John Casey's executive course, Preparing a compact: experience from around the world. This one-day course on 6 August explored existing arrangements around Australia and in Canada and the UK. The group discussed in some depth what elements might be important in the upcoming consultation by the Australian Government. Organisations will now have received the invitation from Senator the Hon Ursula Stephens to participate in this consultation. You can download a list of publicly available resource materials to help with preparation for this consultation.

John Casey was appointed Associate Professor in the School of Public Affairs at Baruch College in 2008. From 1999 to 2007, he was a Senior Lecturer in management, leadership and governance at the Australian Graduate School of Policing, Charles Sturt University.