...fiscal year. cuts and their impact are still uncertain, since the budgets haven't been finalized. But one thing is clear to Burton Weisbrod, a professor at Northwestern University's Institute for Policy Research. "If those budget proposals are enacted, either the nonprofit organizations have to cut back their mission-related activities or they've got to get money from some other sources," he says. "It leads to a growing pressure to find some business-type commercial activities or find something they can sell profitably."

In an environment with fewer government resources and an increasing number of competitors for funding, more and more organizations have been turning to market activities to keep their programs strong. Social Enterprise Alliance, an organization that helps nonprofits start for-profit businesses, saw its membership jump to 500 last year, more than three times its level in 2002.

Making money isn't the only skill nonprofits are looking to pick up from the business world. The IRS and other federal agencies are increasing their demands for financial accountability. Major philanthropists, meanwhile, expect their donations to be spent efficiently and effectively. It all adds up to intense need among nonprofits for organizational and financial planning and management.

These are exactly the skills that graduates of business schools provide. MBAs are already fixtures on nonprofit boards; eight in 10 Harvard MBAs, for example, are involved in some way. But increasingly, MBAs are also...

NOTE: All illustrations and photos have been removed from this article.



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