ERIC FRAINT NAMED TO FELS INSTITUTE TEACHING POSITION

Your Part-Time Controller Founder and President Eric Fraint, CPA has been appointed to a teaching position at the prestigious Fels Institute of Government at the University of Pennsylvania.
 
Fraint will be teaching classes in Public Financial Management. It is a core course in the Institute’s Masters in Governmental Administration curriculum as well as its Certificate in Nonprofit Administration program.

“We’re seeing a very strong and growing interest in the nonprofit sector among our students due to the growth of the sector and a trend in government to what is called ‘network governance,’” said David B. Thornburgh, Executive Director. “Services which formerly were considered only government work are now being contracted out, often to nonprofits. The nonprofit sector is now a bigger part of the problem-solving mix.














David B. Thornburgh is Executive Director of the Fels Institute of Government at the University of Pennsylvania.

“There’s also a huge interest in the social entrepreneurship approach to community problem-solving that’s found in nonprofits. And the sector may pay a little better and offer our graduates a better range of opportunities than are found in the traditional public sector,” he said.

Economic opportunities in nonprofit work are particularly robust in the Philadelphia area, where the health care and higher education fields drive an extremely large sector. A 2005 study by Johns Hopkins University found that nonprofits account for a striking 27% of all private employment in Philadelphia and 15% in the region. Between 1995 and 2003, nonprofit employment throughout Pennsylvania grew 25%, or three times the growth rate of the state’s for-profit sector.

The course introduces government and nonprofit managers to the fundamentals of budgeting and accounting. The curriculum includes budgeting concepts and skills, accounting principles and financial statement literacy. The course enables students to evaluate the fiscal health of public sector organizations.

Topics include financial functions and budgeting processes, including common expenses and budget drivers at various levels of government; expense projections and controls; sources of revenues; money flows between governmental levels; crisis management; nonprofit accounting principles; and analysis of financial reports.

Eric Fraint (left) meets with Fels Institute Executive Director David B. Thornburgh at a Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance annual meeting.


“Eric’s expertise and reputation fit well with the focus of our certificate in nonprofit management. We focus on the hard skills necessary to run nonprofits, including budgeting, finances, governance, marketing, and fundraising. The nonprofit field has come a long way and we need these management skills and insights as much in nonprofits as in the public sector,” said Thornburgh.

Fraint will co-teach the course with Stephen P. Mullin, Senior Vice President and Principal of Econsult Corporation. Mullin is the former Finance Director and Commerce Director of the City of Philadelphia and an expert on state and local public finance, urban and regional economics, e-commerce, real estate, and economic impact analysis. Econsult Corporation provides high quality economic research, statistical & econometric analysis, and economic consulting services to assist business and public policy decision-makers.

Seeing a need in an era of public corruption and mismanagement during the Great Depression, Philadelphia entrepreneur and philanthropist Samuel S. Fels founded the Institute to improve the quality of government by developing and disseminating best practices in public management and by training professional managers for public leadership roles. The Institute has since expanded its offerings and today prepares graduates for a much broader range of positions in city, state and federal agencies, elective politics, and nonprofit organizations.

The Institute’s practice-focused undergraduate, graduate and certificate curricula are taught by practitioners and distinguished faculty to students who are committed to making a difference. The Institute’s research and consulting services improve the performance of organizations that serve the public.

“I am extremely pleased about this appointment and see it as a tremendous opportunity to educate future nonprofit leaders. At Your Part-Time Controller we believe that we can help build a better and more effective nonprofit community one accounting department at a time, and this course is a way to inculcate that concept in tomorrow’s sector leaders,” said Fraint.