The California Public Budget Challenge
A Semester-Long Applied Budget Practicum
The California Public Budget Challenge is an experiential educational guide that places participants in the role of a budget and strategic finance team assigned to a California public agency.
Through a connected series of professional milestones, participants examine agency priorities, analyze financial conditions, respond to emerging fiscal developments, evaluate competing demands, develop strategic resource-allocation recommendations, and present their conclusions through an executive-level budget briefing.
Designed primarily for instructor-led courses and facilitated professional-development programs, the guide includes agency profiles, fiscal-analysis assignments, professional report requirements, evaluation criteria, peer-contribution tools, presentation guidance, and essential public-budgeting terminology.
Although grounded in California public agencies, the analytical principles and professional competencies developed through the practicum are broadly applicable across governmental and nonprofit settings.
Ideal for:
Faculty members, graduate and advanced undergraduate students, emerging budget and management analysts, public managers, trainers, and professional-development programs in public administration, public policy, government, public finance, and nonprofit management.
Promoted into Incompetence
Why Good Workers Become Poor Leaders—and How Organizations Can Change That
Promoted into Incompetence examines a leadership crisis hiding in plain sight: the routine promotion of technically skilled professionals into management roles without the preparation required to lead.
Drawing on more than three decades of experience across public service, healthcare administration, and higher education, David E. Fraser shows why leadership failure is often systemic rather than personal—and how organizations can redesign promotion and development practices to close the readiness gap before failure occurs.
Structured as a field manual for leadership readiness, the book combines diagnosis with practical tools, including frameworks for evaluating leadership misalignment, building intentional pipelines, and developing the core “muscle groups” of effective leadership.
Ideal for:
Executives, managers, boards, HR leaders, leadership development programs, and graduate-level leadership and management courses.
Grantcraft
The Practitioner’s Guide to Strategic Funding for Public Service, Healthcare, and the Nonprofit Sector
Grantcraft is a strategic, practitioner-focused guide to program development and grant funding across mission-driven organizations. Written for professionals who must translate ideas into funded, measurable initiatives, the book bridges theory and practice with clarity and rigor.
Rather than treating grant writing as a technical exercise, Grantcraft situates funding within broader organizational strategy—emphasizing alignment, evaluation, ethics, and long-term sustainability. Its modular structure allows readers to engage specific chapters as needed, making it both a teaching text and a working reference.
Ideal for:
Public administrators, nonprofit leaders, healthcare professionals, grant writers, faculty, and students in public administration, healthcare administration, and nonprofit management programs.