Summary:

This directed case study employs a real-world event to enhance a students’ understanding of relevant literature, fundamental concepts, and key principles related to collaborate governance. This case study utilizes the event AIDS/Life Cycle, a 7-day, 545-mile bicycle ride down the California coastline, to illustrate successful nonprofit management and successful collaborative governance. Key concepts covered within the case include: (1) effective nonprofit fundraising, (2) successful collaborative governance, (3) methods for utilizing social networking toward effective fundraising and information dissemination, (4) illustrating two examples of service co-production—via fundraising and volunteer service delivery, and (5) social capital building. The case also provides the greater context of the ride, specifically how two nonprofit corporations—the San Francisco AIDS Foundation and the Los Angeles LGBT Center—collaborate toward the execution of the event and how these nonprofits leverage a small paid staff with a substantial number of volunteers to maximize the successful delivery of the event, maximize delivery of their HIV education and prevention message, and maximize their fundraising efforts.