Leadership Through Philanthropy

A Master of Business Administration degree usually focuses on how to earn money, but students in Weber State’s leadership course learned how to give money away — effectively and for impact.

Michael Vaughan, an economics professor in the John B. Goddard School of Business & Economics, personally donated funds for three teams of MBA students to identify, select and contribute $1,000 each to nonprofit organizations.

Groups gave money to The Inn Between, which provides end-of-life hospice care to Salt Lake’s homeless men and women. They also selected Seager Memorial Clinic in the Ogden Rescue Mission and Ogden’s YCC Family Crisis Center.

As former WSU provost and now director of Weber State’s Center for the Study of Poverty & Inequality, Vaughan wants students to learn about the responsibility of philanthropic leadership.

“One of the things people engaged in philanthropy say is, ‘It’s hard to give away money,’” Vaughan explained. “What they mean is it’s hard to make decisions about where your money is going to have the greatest impact. That’s what leaders must learn to do.”