Abstract
Public administration history often notes the seminal role of Harold D. Smith, FDR’s budget director (1939–1945), in the professionalization of the field and his principles for public budgeting. He was a cofounder of the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA) and its second president (1940–1941). Smith came to Washington after a longer career in nonprofit management. This exploratory historical case study fills in a gap in the literature. Specifically, it examines his nonprofit management record at the Michigan Municipal League (1928–1937). He successfully grew the nonprofit in the teeth of the Great Depression. This success, among others, can be seen as providing two possible applications. First, his record suggests some commonalities between nonprofit management and public administration. Second, leading a nonprofit during the Great Depression may suggest applicable lessons for longer-term problems caused by COVID-19 regarding organizational management strategies during another severe economic contraction.
Highlights
Smith’s pre-BOB professional career has been largely unknown in the literature
“Smith chosen on U.S committee,” August 7 (?), 1935
Prior to his academic career, Mordecai was legislative assistant to a member of Congress, elected to three terms in the Wisconsin legislature’s state assembly and two terms in the state senate, and headed a faith-based nonprofit engaging in public policy and social justice advocacy
Summary
Smith’s pre-BOB professional career has been largely unknown in the literature. this examination of his preceding leadership of MML helps fill the gap in the literature. Smith’s success at reviving the Michigan Municipal League in the face of the Great Depression was an impressive accomplishment of nonprofit management He succeeded in increasing revenues, broadening membership, expanding staffing, providing field services, establishing a monthly magazine, creating a joint purchasing coop, and increasing the public voice of the association. Smith’s success in building MML during the Great Depression may well turn out to be valid for current times He revitalized a nearly moribund organization through membership recruitment, tangible proof of the benefits of membership (publications, research, information service, consulting, lobbying, and a purchasing coop), extended the organization’s brand to ancillary professional silos, obtained new sources of revenue, used person-to-person communications to strengthen relationships, and used PR and the media to raise the profile and influence of the association. These historical examples may be relevant to the difficult task facing nonprofits in surviving and rebuilding in the post-COVID recovery era
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