This book is unique because: 1) it focuses on typical public and nonprofit organization activities and the common ground shared by these organizations; 2) it takes an integrative approach that emphasizes design, data collection and analysis; 3) it uses common cases across the chapters to illustrate the everyday nature of research and; 4) it incorporates practical exercises to reinforce concepts across all sections of the text.  The approach and accompanying cases and exercises have been vetted through original classwork taught by the authors in a variety of courses at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.  Original research examples are in the context of functional areas commonly found in the management and leadership of public agencies and nonprofit organizations including resource acquisition (grantmaking and grant writing), evaluative processes (assessment, grant compliance, program evaluation), and future planning (collaborative relationships, organizational capacity, program management, relationships with collaborators and other stakeholders, strategic planning) through the lense of common social policy issues facing leaders today: the aging population, the conduct of elections, drug use, gender, homelessness, poverty, race, reproductive health, technological change, and violence.  Examples will highlight intergovernmental institutions in which public service occurs (federal, state, and local governments) and provide expanded reach to nonprofit organizations (service, advocacy, and faith-based groups) and the networked arrangements and collaborations that comprise a significant portion of todays public service. Part I, Research Basics: What Do We Want to Know and Why, is comprised of three chapters - research process, applied research questions the applied examples in the book contain the authors forms and formats for documenting data collection and for reporting the results of data analysis. The authors will also include excerpts of each of the types of writing referenced in Chapters Seven and Eight, and in some cases will include full documents.