Teaching specialist Roy Gaddey has been a vice president of business development for a Fortune 500 company, the owner of a sports marketing firm, and a real estate developer. And he applies all that experience in a business and industry education course that enables students to start up and operate their own 501c3 corporation.

The first cohort of students in the year-long "Practicum in Nonprofit Organizations" began last spring, and while most U students are now easing into a new semester, Gaddey's class--in the Department of Organizational Leadership, Policy, and Development--is gearing up for a flourish of fundraising activities. The biggest is "Movie Night at the Midway" on September 24--an effort to gather the largest crowd ever in the United States to watch a movie outdoors.

Gaddey wants students to "learn the planning, get involved with actually doing the sales and the marketing, and learn all these things hands on, [all] to give them a little bit more than what an internship would give them," Gaddey says. "We want them to experience everything--the good, the failures, everything--and then we also want them to get involved in the outreach ... so everything we raise we give back."

The goal for 2011 is to raise at least $200,000 in funds that will be distributed to charities--chosen by the students--in and beyond the Twin Cities. In addition to the Kevin Love Winter Coat Drive, other beneficiaries include Toys For Tots, area homeless shelters and food drives, and two University-based organizations--Habitat for Humanity and One Million Books for Gambia.

Read more about Gaddey and the students in his class here.