Founding Your own Nonprofit Organization As a Teaching Tool

The paradigm shift from instructional to experiential learning (Bobbitt et al. 2000) has led marketing instructors to include “real-life” projects in their courses. While some prefer working with local businesses, others favor nonprofit organizations and argue that, due to the needs and audiences of such nonprofits, marketing for these organizations is much harder and thus the learning experience is enhanced (Petkus 2000). Accordingly, one purpose of this article is to discuss the pros and cons of working with for-profit versus nonprofit organizations to add value to the learning experience. A second purpose is to describe the benefits students and instructors can derive from starting their own nonprofit organization as a teaching tool.