10 Best Free Philanthropy University Courses

Our top free Philanthropy University courses are tailored to help improve your skills in project management, social entrepreneurship, fundraising, and more. Each course is designed to equip you with all the skills you need to drive change and achieve meaningful impact in your organization.

Key Takeaways

• A curation of exceptional Philanthropy University courses.
• All these courses covering topics like project management, social entrepreneurship, impactful leadership, and donor engagement.
• Suited best for those interested in making a difference in social impact and Philanthropy.

What are the best free courses offered by Philanthropy University?

In this article, you will find a list of the 10 best free courses offered by Philanthropy University. The list covers a diverse range of topics including project management for mission-driven organizations, leadership, fundraising strategies, and global social entrepreneurship. The list is aimed at all those looking to create social impact and also excel in the field of Philanthropy.

Criteria for Philanthropy University Evaluation and Selection

In the rigorous selection process for Philanthropy University courses, what we do is assess each course’s relevance, learner feedback, instructor expertise, and the practical applicability of course content. To make sure that each course offers valuable insights and skills for those interested, we carefully evaluate it so that our recommendations stand on the bedrock of quality, relevance, and impact.

List of best Philanthropy University Classes

Design Thinking for Innovation

• • • University of Virginia via Coursera
    • 6 hours of effort required
    • 247,561+ already enrolled!
    • ★★★★★ (4,270 Ratings)

Fundamentals of Project Management

• • • Mission Critial Development via PhilanthropyU
    • 2 hours of weekly effort required
    • 4 Modules
    • Course Type: Self-paced

Fortunately, the field of project management is something that has quite a scope. And that is why we present you with this free online project management course that all interested people can take. This Philanthropy University course will introduce you to the art of project management for mission-driven organizations. Similarly, you will learn practical and field-tested skills for project management that will help you in actual life. Moreover, you will be introduced to different valuable project management tools as well. Furthermore, you’ll get to hear from different project managers working on social impact issues and more. You might also be interested in online Project Management courses.

Global Social Entrepreneurship

• • • Jessica Jackley via PhilanthropyU
    • 2 hours of weekly effort required
    • 5 Modules
    • Course Type: Self-paced

A free and self-paced that aims to teach you all the principles of entrepreneurship. With this Philanthropy University course, you can understand all the techniques to create solutions for the world’s most pressing problems. Similarly, you will be taught to design a solution to different problems and create a mission-driven organization. With that, you will get the proper training to become capable of selecting the best structure for your venture. Whether you want to start a non-profit, profit, or hybrid organization, this course has the best guidelines for you.

Fundraising: Connecting with Donors

• • • Tom Wolf via PhilanthropyU
    • 1-2 hours of weekly effort required
    • 3 Modules
    • Course Type: Self-paced

When it comes to fundraising, it can sometimes become a tough job to connect to such sponsors or organizations that can donate. Engaging donors and keeping a long-term relationship with them is also an important part that needs attention. So this Philanthropy University course is your solution to help you understand the ins and outs of connecting with donors. You will understand different practice communication skills that can help you connect with potential donors. Similarly, you will be taught to overcome your anxiety while you are in the asking process with them. Moreover, you will learn to overcome your disappointments and rejections constructively.

Leadership: Ten Rules for Impact and Meaning

• • • Amr Al Dabbagh via PhilanthropyU
    • 6 Modules
    • Course Type: Self-paced

This Philanthropy University course will help you understand the basic ingredients for living a life that is full of meaning and impact. When you start the course, you will learn to define your whole life plan in front of you. Then you are going to design organic solutions to different problems of yours. Moreover, you will also be taught to develop a powerful collaboration with different people. Next, you will learn different ways to choose risks intelligently and many other things. You can also checkout best ways to develop leadership skills.

Introduction to Fundraising

• • • Tom Wolf via PhilanthropyU
    • 1-2 hours of weekly effort required
    • 2 Modules
    • Course Type: Self-paced

The fundraising world can be a little challenging and overwhelming at the same time. But that doesn’t always have to be the case. With this course, you can learn how to make this task a little less overwhelming and challenging. You will learn to leverage the people and resources in your community quite effectively for your organization. Similarly, you will understand all the basics of the fundraising world. How it works, how to approach the right people, what to say to them to make them donate a big cheque and many other things will be learned. 

Digital Product Management: Modern Fundamentals

• • • University of Virginia via Coursera
    • 44,326 students enrolled!
    • ★★★★★ (1,201 ratings)

Planning for Monitoring and Evaluation

• • • FHI 360 via PhilanthropyU
    • 1-2 hours of weekly effort required
    • 5 Modules
    • Course Type: Self-paced

In this online course, you will get to know the secret to monitor and evaluate your project’s success. You will learn to collect data, manage, analyze, and then use it for a successful project. Similarly, the course has different assignments in it that you have to solve on your own. After that, you will create an M&E plan for your own project as well. In this way, you can measure your project’s success using the M&S method. You can also find out Product Management certification courses.

Human Capital Strategy

• • • The Hitachi Foundation +Acumen via PhilanthropyU
    • 3-4 hours of weekly effort required
    • 5 Modules
    • Course Type: Self-paced

This human capital management course has everything you need to go through the basics of developing a human capital strategy. What is the right strategy to intentionally design your organization’s values and culture is what you will learn here. Moreover, how to recruit and hire the right people and build effective teams is also a part of the Philanthropy University course. Similarly, you will also learn to structure compensation, manage your employee’s performance, and more. 

Essentials of Nonprofit Strategy

• • • Paul Brest via PhilanthropyU
    • 2-3 hours of weekly effort required
    • 7 Modules
    • Course Type: Self-paced

A non-profit strategy course to help you learn and develop strategies to achieve your organization’s goals. You will learn to develop such strategies to strive towards meaningful impact. The course has used the social problem of homelessness as a real-world example. This will help you undertake the basic elements of non-profit strategy. Similarly, the instructor will teach you to define a problem, then identify the needs and interests of beneficiaries. Then you will design a theory of change and develop an implementation plan and more. Thus with this foundation, you will be able to develop strategies that will put a long-term impact on your organization. 

Social Impact: Planning for Success

• • • Shashi Buluswar via PhilanthropyU
    • 1-2 hours of weekly effort required
    • 4 Modules
    • Course Type: Self-paced

Shashi Buluswar, the CEO of the Institute for Transformative Technologies has explained his nine-part framework for creating social impact in this course. By using his frameworks, you will learn to assess your organization’s current level of success. With that, you will also become capable of identifying risks, then making plans to achieve maximum impact. Later, you will also hear stories from innovative leaders as to how they achieved such stellar success. 

Advocacy

• • • Ruth Levine via PhilanthropyU
    • 2-3 hours of weekly effort required
    • 6 Modules
    • Course Type: Self-paced

Advocacy is known to be one of the most powerful ways to create large-scale social change. In this Philanthropy University course, you will learn successful advocacy tactics and strategies to fulfill your purpose. These tactics will be shared by two of the most leading experts related to this field. The course has real-world examples, interviews with advocates to help you understand advocacy more clearly. With that, there is also a section that has lessons learned from decades of advocacy experience. This will further give you insights to successfully create a large-scale social change. You can find out best online courses with certifications here.

e-Learning Ecologies: Innovative Approaches to Teaching and Learning for the Digital Age

• • • University of Illinois via Coursera
    • 27 hours of effort required
    • 17,747+ already enrolled!
    • ★★★★★ (178 Ratings)

Philanthropy University has done its part by offering such valuable and free online courses for anyone to take. At the same time, takethiscourse.net has also contributed by making these courses accessible to our learners. Now all that is required of you is to take a good look at this list and then find the right course for yourself.

So take a course  from Philanthropy University now and stay home, stay safe, and never stop learning.