The explosive growth of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) worldwide has fostered demand for deeply committed staff with solid development policy and organizational management skills. This concentration focuses on how NGOs drive social change and enable participation and empowerment, especially among vulnerable and excluded groups. It gives students the skills they need for careers in NGOs and social-change organizations including foundations, social movement coalitions, community organizations, non-profit associations, and social enterprises.
Key topics of study include NGO management, program design and evaluation, advocacy, community participation and social movements, project and financial management, fundraising and grant writing, geographic and information systems (GIS), and policy analysis, in addition to wide-ranging policy issues at the heart of NGO work, such as food security, health policy, human rights, migration and refugees, poverty and inequality, and environmental sustainability.
NGO students learn to apply essential organizational and management skills to address these and other important policy issues in diverse contexts around the world. NGO students also develop valuable direct experience through NGO internships, benefiting from the GSPIA-to-DC pathway for internships with national and international organizations in the nation’s capital and the option to study at GSPIA’s DC Center, GSPIA’s dedicated support for a wide range of international NGO internships and study abroad experiences, and local opportunities within our own vibrant nonprofit community.
This concentration is offered within the Master of International Development (MID). To learn more about the MID program and to access the Plan of Study for this concentration as well as five other concentration options, click here.
With the nongovernmental organizations and civil society concentration, you will choose from a range of core courses tailored to you interests as well as taking a set of required degree courses. A set of required degree courses are outlined in the MID plan of study for this concentration.
Work with faculty whose academic backgrounds, fieldwork, and research make them experts in nongovernmental organizations and civil society.
Nuno Themudo
Associate Professor
A fluent speaker of Portuguese and Spanish, Themudo’s research focuses on the impact of the nonprofit sector on development, especially on the fight against corruption and environmental protection.
Huafang Li
Assistant Professor
Li's current research focuses on using various methods to study public and nonprofit management, particularly how public and nonprofit organizations' information communication influences individual coproduction and giving decisions.
Jennifer Brick Murtazashvili
Professor, Director of the Center for Governance and Markets
Murtazashvili's cutting edge research is based on more than two decades of extensive field management experience in challenging environments.
