By Todd Cohen

Patrick Atkinson will receive a master's degree in nonprofit management Saturday from Regis University in Denver.

He also will deliver the commencement address for Regis' School of Professional Studies, which houses graduate and adult undergraduate programs.

What's more, commencement will mark the first time that Atkinson -- who lives in Guatemala -- sets foot on the Regis campus. He will be the first graduate to have completed the entire nonprofit degree program online.

Offering the program online reflects the school's effort to integrate computers and the Web throughout the nonprofit curriculum.

"We think it's important that technology be part of what they're doing," Paul Alexander, the program's degree chair, says of the 150 people – mainly working adults -- enrolled in the nine-year-old nonprofit degree program.

Starting this fall, for example, rather receiving a newsletter by mail, students will have to check the Internet for news about the program.

"We're insisting that they become computer-literate," Alexander says. "It's one of the competencies and outcomes for the program. We weave it throughout the curriculum."

While the school offers a single course, "Information Systems for Nonprofit Organizations," that is devoted to technology, many courses touch on topics involving technology.

The fundraising course, for example, examines database systems and fundraising software, while the fiscal management course looks at a variety of financial software packages and students studying advocacy study Web sites nominated for advocacy awards.

Technology planning and training – critical functions for any nonprofit – are integrated into the entire approach the program takes to helping students learn about organizational planning.

Alexander says understanding how to use technology is critical to nonprofit managers.

"You need to be on the Web and using technology because to stay competitive," he says.

That's particularly important, he says, in cultivating and keeping in touch with donors.

Faculty members, most of whom work in the nonprofit world, also must know how to use technology, Alexander says.

"They need to model the leadership skills and technology skills we're asking of students," he says. "It's absolutely critical they implement it using the classroom. It really is an essential requirement we're asking them to gravitate to."

A logical extension of the school's emphasis on technology is its distance-learning program. Two-and-a-half years ago, the school began a pilot program offering nonprofit courses online. Last fall, the online curriculum became a full-fledged program. Thirty students currently take classes on online.

Consider Atkinson, who is executive director of The God's Child Project, a nonprofit organization he founded in 1991 in Guatemala to provide educational assistance to children.

By 1994, he says, the program was caring for and educating hundreds of youngsters throughout the Central American country "and there seemed to be no end to growth in sight.

"As a result, I was drowning in paperwork, fundraising and problems, and found myself dealing with these issues as if I were dealing with the victims of a massacre. In other words, my focus was crisis management, and not long-term planning."

He decided to attend graduate school to learn more about nonprofit management, but he was reluctant to "leave the poor that were dependent on me."

Not only did Regis offer precisely the kind of curriculum he was looking for, but its online program meant he could continue to do his work in Guatemala.

Online learning also provided unadvertised benefits, he says, including the fact that "virtually everything is written down" and he could learn from peers through confidential class chatrooms and e-mail.

Atkinson was looking forward to visiting the Regis campus for the first time, but says he already felt like a resident.

"I feel as though through the graduate program I've picked up a feel for the campus, met friends and peers, and sweated through long nights in the Regis online library. I've passed notes with other learners during class, and shared stories, laughs and tears.

"There's no way that someone can say that I've never been on the Regis campus before," he says. "For the past 24 months, I've been there daily in thought, action and prayer. It's just my body that will be seeing my academic home for the first time on commencement day."

Todd Cohen can be reached at
tcohen@mindspring.com