Membership Categories and Eligibility Criteria

There are three categories of NACC membership, all of which are institutional memberships:

For each membership category, the institutional entity must have a primary focus on the nonprofit, non-governmental sector or philanthropy (and related terms such as civil society, social economy, and social innovation).

There are three areas of programmatic offerings that form the foundation for the work of NACC members - education, research, and community engagement. The degree to which members address all or some of these programmatic areas will vary according to membership category. A clarification and elaboration of the attributes of these three programmatic areas follows.

  1. Education. A coherent program of academic credit studies is a requirement of the "education" criterion. It need not take the form of a full degree, but it should be of an academic credit-bearing nature, including concentrations or specializations within full degrees, or academic credit (as opposed to noncredit) certificate programs. If a center or program does not offer credit programs itself, its leadership or staff shall participate in teaching these offerings by other academic units affiliated with the center. Other forms of noncredit education, including professional seminars, workshops and continuing education noncredit certificates, can be important dimensions of a center's educational programming and offer diverse learning opportunities, but a core of academic, credit-bearing offerings is essential.
  2. Research. Some ongoing creation of publications by persons directly affiliated with the program is a requirement for the "research" criterion. We recognize that research in the field of nonprofit, nongovernmental, and philanthropic studies might be center-sponsored or center-facilitated and can take a wide variety of forms including: scholarship that yields books, articles, and papers in academic outlets; applied research of immediate application to practitioners in the field whether done under contract and/or disseminated in professional practice publications; knowledge building that yields curriculum and instructional materials and publications; or different products from the "scholarship of engagement." It also consists of disseminating the knowledge created through conferences, symposia, and seminars. All of these research and dissemination activities are valid and encouraged. However, among these activities we consider some on-going activity yielding scholarly and/or professional publications to be essential.
  3. Community Engagement. The community engagement or service criterion continues to be understood as "academically-based" activities that go beyond conventional faculty service assignments and includes an ongoing and intentional program of engagement that attempts to provide direct impact in its nonprofit community to nonprofit organizations and the community at large. These should be substantial and a formal part of the program or center's programming, and may include providing consulting, technical advice or assistance to nonprofit organizations, or participating in nonprofit public policy and advocacy activities, to name just a few examples.


Full Membership

For Full Membership, a center must have a primary focus on the nonprofit, non-governmental sector or philanthropy and demonstrate that it operates in all three programmatic areas of education, research and academically-based community engagement as described above. In addition, to be eligible for Full Membership in NACC, centers must meet the following organizational/administrative criteria:

  1. The center must be an officially designated, recognized unit within an accredited college or university. That accreditation must be from an entity appropriate to the institution's mission. *

    The college or university can be anywhere in the world. The accreditation for higher education institutions internationally would be whatever is appropriate to the applicant's home institution. It is possible that more than one center may be admitted from the same institution.

  2. The center must employ a person who performs "director" functions for the unit, exercising organizational leadership for it. The title and exact scope and type of responsibilities may vary. But those responsibilities must include functions commonly associated with "directing" a unit. Illustrative functions would be planning, organizing, supervising, and evaluation of the unit's overall activities, with the authority to commit resources and exercise authority on behalf of the center/unit.
  3. The center must be accountable to a dean, provost, or other senior officer for its institution.
  4. The center must employ a minimum of one full-time equivalent staff in addition to the director. The director position can be full- or part-time.

Full Membership is conferred on those applicants who meet all of the eligibility requirements and membership criteria. Full Membership entails full voting privileges and is renewable on an ongoing basis if in good standing. Other Full Member benefits are outlined in NACC Member Benefits.

* Thus, if the institution is an independent college of business, the accrediting body in the United States would be AACSB, whereas if the center is within a college of business which is part of a university, the accrediting body would be the one designated to accredit universities within its region.


Associate Membership

Associate Membership is for units within academic institutions that have a primary focus on the nonprofit, non-governmental sector or philanthropy, and primary programming in two of the three sets of activity - education, research, and/or community engagement - as defined above. "Primary" programming means that the unit has a core commitment to it, expressed in terms of allocation of resources and scope of activity. It is also ongoing rather than sporadic or episodic. Nevertheless, the unit may or may not aspire to developing the full range of programming and/or administrative characteristics that would meet NACC's Full Membership criteria. Examples might be units that do ongoing research in nonprofit or philanthropic studies, but provide no educational programming; or units that provide extensive educational programming but very little, if any, research.

To be eligible for Associate Membership, the applicant unit within an accredited college or university (see description of accreditation in Full Membership) must have evidence of a core commitment to an ongoing scope of activity in at least two of the three programmatic areas required for Full Membership. This commitment should be demonstrated by a substantial allocation of resources and programming. That unit must:

  1. Designate a position, whatever its title, which has primary responsibility to direct that set of activities, while various other responsibilities can be shared among different faculty, staff or students.
  2. Be accountable to and associated with the academic division of the college or university (which can include continuing or professional education), rather than some other area, such as student affairs.
  3. Include some staff support for its activities. (No minimum level of staffing is required.)

Associate members can apply for Full Membership, should that transfer become appropriate due to changes in their aspirations, intentions, program or organizational characteristics. Associate Member benefits are outlined in NACC Member Benefits.


Partner Membership

Institutions outside of universities and colleges have emerged whose mission and impact are very significant with respect to research, education, training, or community engagement related to the nonprofit, nongovernmental, and philanthropic sectors. Examples of such institutions abound.

To be eligible for Partner Membership, the applicant institution must exhibit a mission and programmatic activity that includes a core commitment to at least one of the three sets of activity - education, research, and/or community engagement or other capacity building for the nonprofit, nongovernmental, and/or philanthropic sectors. A core commitment is evidenced by the substantial allocation of resources and programming for these efforts that is ongoing rather than sporadic or episodic. That institution must:

  1. Include a designated organizational structure with responsibility to carry out this mission and programmatic activity, with some managerial or professional staffing which directs it.
  2. Include staff support for these activities. (No minimum level of staffing is required.)

Partner Member benefits are outlined in NACC Member Benefits.