In this empirical study, we examine whether systematic differences exist between government contracts with nonprofit and for-profit service providers. Based on principal–agent theory, we examine the ...potential comparative advantage of nonprofit organizations over for-profits in two areas: contracting process and contract performance. We test hypotheses using data from a national survey of local government contracts with private service providers. The results provide some support for the propositions that public officials trust nonprofits more than for-profits and grant them additional discretion. Even stronger support is found for the propositions that nonprofits are monitored less than for-profits and are awarded contracts of longer duration and for services characterized by higher levels of task uncertainty than those awarded to their for-profit counterparts. We find no significant differences in performance between nonprofit and for-profit contractors in terms of cost, quality of work, responsiveness to government requirements, legal compliance, or customer satisfaction.
Social impact investing (SII) is transforming the availability of private capital for nonprofits and social enterprises, but demand is not yet meeting supply. This paper analyzes the perceived ...barriers faced by nonprofits in engaging with SII, arguing the need to assess differences using a policy field framework. Four parameters of a subsector are conceptualized as shaping participation in SII: the scale of investment required, embeddedness in place, the need for radical innovation, and the configuration of intermediaries (such as loan funds and market brokers). Based on 25 interviews with leaders of nonprofits and intermediaries in affordable housing and community economic development in Canada, the study finds that significant barriers are a lack of knowledge of the market, inadequate financial literacy, and the challenges of measuring and valuing social impacts. In addition, nonprofits report that, in spite of the inherent importance of social impact in this form of investing, they currently make limited use of evaluation and impact metrics, and perceive that intermediaries and investors, particularly in affordable housing, still put a greater emphasis on financial over social returns.
Climate change is increasing the likelihood and magnitude of disaster impacts. The nonprofit sector’s ability to address disaster survivors’ needs will become an increasingly important aspect of ...adapting to a changing climate. Disaster recovery also provides time for nonprofits to affect community resilience to future disasters and climate change. This article analyzes a unique phenomenon of the sector during disaster recovery: Long-term Recovery Groups. These groups are increasingly encouraged by government and national nonprofits, yet little academic research exists on them. We assess the existence and location of groups, their missions and tasks, and their legal structure. We find heterogeneity in structure and location but similarity in stated goals of addressing failures of government and private sector recovery practices. These groups emerge, as expected, in areas with disaster losses and in areas with slightly greater social vulnerability. Most groups, though, miss the opportunity to include climate change as part of their mission.
We propose a conceptual model of the political activities of nonprofits that qualify for exemption under subsections of the Internal Revenue Code other than 501(c)(3), including social welfare ...organizations, civic leagues, social clubs, and so on, which considers three categories of explanatory factors: organizational capacity, financial strategy, and operating environment. Using a Heckman selection model with longitudinal IRS 990 data, we find government regulation to be an obstacle for nonprofits to engage in the policy process. Political activities of non-501(c)(3) organizations are also negatively associated with government support, suggesting these organizations perceive government intervention differently from 501(c)(3) organizations when engaging in political activities.
Nonprofits and Business Harris, Margaret
Nonprofit and voluntary sector quarterly,
10/2012, Letnik:
41, Številka:
5
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Although the field of nonprofit studies now encompasses a substantial body of literature on the relationship between governmental and nonprofit organizations, the relationship between the business ...and nonprofit sectors has been less addressed by specialist nonprofit scholars. This Research Note aims to encourage further studies by nonprofit scholars of the business-nonprofit sector relationship. It looks at descriptive evidence to date, proposes a tentative resource-based framework for understanding how nonprofits and business relate to each other in practice and suggests some initial directions for developing a subfield within nonprofit studies.
This study uses board governance as an analytical lens for exploring the effects of government funding on the representational capacities of nonprofit organizations. A typology of governance patterns ...is first developed that captures the board's strength relative to the chief executive and its representation of community interests. Using this typology and employing multinomial logit analyses of survey data from a sample of urban charitable organizations, the study tests how nonprofit governance is mediated by levels of government funding. Controlling for other relevant environmental and institutional factors, reliance on government funding decreases the likelihood that nonprofit organizations will develop strong, representative boards.
This study examines the causes and consequences of internal control deficiencies in the nonprofit sector using a sample of 27,495 public charities from 1999 to 2007. We first document that the ...likelihood of reporting an internal control problem increases for nonprofit organizations that are in poor financial health, growing, more complex, and/or smaller. We then present evidence that the disclosure of weak internal controls over financial reporting is negatively associated with subsequent donor support received after controlling for the current level of donor support and other factors influencing donations. We likewise report a negative association between internal control problems and subsequent government grants. Our results suggest that donors and government agencies, important sources of capital for nonprofit organizations, react either directly or indirectly to internal control information.
Volunteers play a critical role in government and nonprofit organizations. Yet, volunteer management research has focused on universal prescriptions or a contingency perspective based on the needs of ...the organization rather than the volunteer. As volunteers are a finite resource, how can nonprofits retain their volunteers? We conduct a qualitative analysis of open-ended responses to explore how assessments of volunteer management vary across satisfaction levels as delineated by the Net Promoter Score (NPS) scale. We find evidence that the most satisfied volunteers may be important resources to volunteer programs for the insight and advice they offer as champions of the collective. We also observe patterns across satisfaction levels suggesting that volunteer satisfaction is linked to volunteer development. Our research offers the NPS, a commonly used feedback measure, as a valuable tool for volunteer management to measure volunteer satisfaction, to identify enthusiastic promoters, and to examine volunteer development.
In the absence of a widely accepted and common definition of social enterprise (SE), a large research project, the ""International Comparative Social Enterprise Models"" (ICSEM) Project, was carried ...out over a five-year period; it involved more than 200 researchers from 55 countries and relied on bottom-up approaches to capture the SE phenomenon. This strategy made it possible to take into account and give legitimacy to locally embedded approaches, thus resulting in an analysis encompassing a wide diversity of social enterprises, while simultaneously allowing for the identification of major SE models to delineate the field on common grounds at the international level. These SE models reveal or confirm an overall trend towards new ways of sharing the responsibility for the common good in today’s economies and societies. We tend to consider as good news the fact that social enterprises actually stem from all parts of the economy. Indeed, societies are facing many complex challenges at all levels, from the local to the global level. The diversity and internal variety of SE models are a sign of a broadly shared willingness to develop appropriate—although sometimes embryonic—responses to these challenges, on the basis of innovative economic/business models driven by a social mission. In spite of their weaknesses, social enterprises may be seen as advocates for and vehicles of the general interest across the whole economy. Of course, the debate about privatisation, deregulation and globalised market competition—all factors that may hinder efforts in the search for the common good–has to be addressed as well. The first of a series of four ICSEM books, Social Enterprise in Asia will serve as a key reference and resource for teachers, researchers, students, experts, policy makers, journalists and other categories of people who want to acquire a broad understanding of the phenomena of social enterprise and social entrepreneurship as they emerge and develop across the world.
Business–Nonprofit Partnerships Sanzo, María José; Álvarez, Luis I.; Rey, Marta ...
Nonprofit and voluntary sector quarterly,
04/2015, Letnik:
44, Številka:
2
Journal Article
Recenzirano
The objective of this research is to determine the extent to which the effects of a business–nonprofit partnership (BNPP) go beyond those associated with their traditional roles of donor and ...beneficiary. Specifically, the study focuses on foundations as a distinct, fast-growing type of nonprofit, and evaluates the influence of engaging in partnerships with businesses on the not-for-profit organization’s (NPO) development of innovations, capacity building, visibility, scale of operations, funding, and mission accomplishment. We propose that stable relationships based on greater perceived value, communication, lower conflict, trust, and commitment improve innovation in nonprofits and give rise to a process of capacity building and better performance indicators. Empirical research is based on a survey of a representative sample of 325 Spanish foundations. Structural equation techniques served to analyze the data. The results confirm the positive effects of this type of BNPP.
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