Jermaine Smith

Jermain Smith has more than a decade of nonprofit experience working in development for American Red Cross, Tulane University (his alma mater), and several other organizations. Today, he’s vice president for major gifts at Boston-based City Year. So why is this seasoned nonprofit professional seeking an MBA and not a master’s in public administration?

“I actually looked at both,” Jermaine says. “And then I realized that every time I’ve applied business techniques to my nonprofit work, I’ve been more successful.”

As a member of City Year’s national development leadership team, Jermaine serves as a key partner of the chief development and engagement officer, chief operations officer, and CEO. “Because I’m in fundraising, I’ve always approached my nonprofit work differently,” he says. “I’ve always seen it as a business. I’m always asking ‘How can we run things more efficiently?’”

Once he settled on an MBA, Jermaine considered his options. Since he had no intention of leaving his job or moving away from his wife and two kids in New Orleans, he looked at a variety of part-time, hybrid, and online options. Some programs were too costly, others weren’t flexible enough. The format and content of Questrom’s Online MBA stood out.

“It seemed like other online programs just took their in-person classes and slapped them online,” Jermaine says. “They didn’t seem to take into account that online is a completely different delivery platform and environment. I liked that Questrom’s Online MBA was designed from the studs up as an online program, with fully integrated interdisciplinary modules.”

The modular curriculum made sense to Jermaine because it mirrors how organizations work in real life. “In my experience, problems cut across functional areas,” he says. “You have to know how to deal with departments like marketing, development, and operations all at once. The way the module courses work together, I like that I don’t have to connect all the dots on my own.”

Around the time he was accepted into the Online MBA program, Jermaine earned a promotion at City Year. His new position tasked him with building out all the organization’s data. At the same time, he was helping City Year’s development team update its CRM software. The timing couldn’t have been better.

“I ended up applying everything I was learning in class to my work in real time all throughout the first semester,” Jermaine says. “I guess you could say I’ve gotten a really good return on investment already.”

“I ENDED UP APPLYING EVERYTHING I WAS LEARNING IN CLASS TO MY WORK IN REAL TIME ALL THROUGHOUT THE FIRST SEMESTER,” JERMAINE SAYS. “I GUESS YOU COULD SAY I’VE GOTTEN A REALLY GOOD RETURN ON INVESTMENT ALREADY.”

– Jermaine Smith