Ethnographic Methods in Nonprofit Management

As undergraduate programs in nonprofit management education proliferate, they increasingly incorporate service learning, experiential learning, and an emphasis on inclusiveness and diversity. To effectively face these challenges, such programs would do well to look to cultural anthropology, especially the methods of ethnographic research. Cultural anthropology has far more to offer than a list of behavioral traits about obscure peoples in the world: It offers a methodology for how to learn through experiences, a number of strategies to promote inclusiveness, and a framework that promotes an openness to having one's assumptions challenged. This article provides an analysis of the use and value of ethnographic methods while working for Big Brothers Big Sisters in rural Alaska, followed by recommendations for incorporating anthropological methods and concepts into nonprofit management education. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]