Local cross‐sector partnerships

We focus in this article on the challenges local governmental (municipal) and third‐sector (nonprofit) organizations face when they seek to work collaboratively or in partnership. We build on the findings of an action research project to draw out the practical implications of cross‐sector working for the organizations involved. We describe jointly agreed suggestions for tackling the challenges that emerged when third‐sector organizations and local governmental agencies themselves worked collaboratively in a search for mutually acceptable solutions. Finally, we draw out learning points on cross‐sector working for practitioners, policymakers, and researchers.     

Community as a factor in implementing interorganizational partnerships: Issues,constraints, and adaptations

This article reports findings from a community‐based study of collaboration among seven nonprofit human service agencies in a very low‐income urban neighborhood. The project, funded by a federal demonstration grant, was developed to prevent child abuse and neglect as an alternative to the existing public child welfare system. Findings suggest that privatization, funding uncertainties, and community‐level factors posed external stressors that constrained executives' ability to collaborate. The article identifies five key stressors, analyzes how each constrained the partnership, and then discusses specific adaptations made by executive leadership in political, technical, and interpersonal areas that facilitated strategic adjustment and realignment in a very complex interorganizational arrangement and set of relationships. Finally, implications are drawn for nonprofit managers, social policy, and nonprofit research.     

Corporate Volunteering: Benefits and Challenges for Nonprofits

In the frame of corporate social responsibility, corporate volunteering is almost exclusively studied from the point of view of companies, while the perspectives of nonprofit organizations are neglected. Hence, this article focuses on the perspective of managers of nonprofit organizations on volunteer partnership projects with for‐profit companies. In the center of this article lie nonprofit managers' strategy and motivation for participating in corporate volunteering, conception of corporate volunteer activities, and the often‐cited win‐win‐win aspect. Key findings suggest that a majority of the questioned nonprofits lack strategic behavior and management tools for undertaking volunteer partnership projects with companies. Nevertheless, corporate volunteering is widely perceived as an opportunity and a promising method of raising donations for nonprofit organizations. This article suggests that the key to successful future cooperation between nonprofits and profit‐oriented organizations lies in the processes of internal evaluation and subsequent strategy development.     

Understanding how corporate social responsibility partnership factors influence nonprofit supportive intentions

Public relations literature on corporate social responsibility (CSR) has long detailed the impact of CSR outcomes for corporations. This study seeks to understand how CSR influences the nonprofit partners involved in these initiatives and what types of CSR partnerships lead to nonprofit supportive intentions. This study merges perspectives on organization-public relationships (OPR) with nonprofit management literature. An online 2 (NPO reputation: low vs high) x 2 (partnership duration: short vs. long) x 2 (CSR fit: low vs. high) experiment was conducted. A few key factors emerged in the analysis: Positive nonprofit reputation strongly predicted all OPR outcomes and mission accomplishment. Unexpectedly, the short-duration condition led to more positive outcomes and intentions. Fit did not seem to have a direct effect on outcomes, but the high-fit, short-duration partnership led to increased levels of all outcomes. For mediation, satisfaction and commitment had the strongest indirect effects on nonprofit supportive intentions (donation, volunteer, and word-of-mouth). This study expands the understanding of CSR effects on nonprofit partners, specifically by showing how different CSR partnership types play a role in the relationship-building efforts of nonprofits. Additionally, demonstrating how mission accomplishment can strengthen these relationships helps to disentangle the unique position of nonprofits in CSR, whose reputation and mission are at stake.     

Structures,Challenges, and Successes of Volunteer Programs Co‐managed by Nonprofit and Public Organizations

This article presents a mixed‐methods, multicase study and comparison of volunteer programs in US national parks that have evolved, in response to growth and fiscal pressures, to be co‐managed by national park staff and their nonprofit support partners. Findings detail why and how the expanded partnerships were formed; how they operate; challenges they face; ways in which they adhere to, stretch, and depart from theories of nonprofit management, collaboration, and program institutionalization; and the significant—even exponential—volunteer program growth that resulted in each case. These nonprofit?public volunteer program partnerships—at Acadia, Arches and ­Canyonlands, Cuyahoga Valley, Golden Gate, the National Mall, and Yosemite national park sites—employ many standard forms of interorganizational relations, even though in these cases the nonprofits give money to the government organization instead of the reverse. Their volunteer program and management structures also share similar elements because of coercive, normative, and mimetic pressures. At the same time, each volunteer program partnership is a distinct blend of collaboration and management practices because of the unique natural features, climate, needs, adjacent populations, and personalities of leaders at each site. The cases employ innovative strategies to substantially increase the number of staff who lead volunteer programs. Recommendations are offered for nonprofit management research and practice, and findings are instructive for organizations that utilize volunteers either as a single entity or as part of a collaboration.     

Corporatism Revisited—The Legacy of History and the German Nonprofit Sector

Salamon argues strongly in favor of a public–nonprofit partnership model expressing the European flavor of corporatism. Germany provides a textbook example of corporatist arrangements, particularly in the fields of health care and social services. Whereas American nonprofit organizations are suffering from a crisis of legitimacy caused by marketization, German nonprofit organizations have been confronted with a crisis of legitimacy and identity caused by corporatism since the early 1980s. This particular scenario, however, is not covered by Salmon's analysis.     

Is Bigger Really Better?

This study investigates the effect of a capital facilities project on nonprofit financial vulnerability metrics. The author employs a difference‐in‐differences technique to model the relationship between facilities investments and financial vulnerability indicators using data for a matched‐pair sample of nonprofit organizations that invested and did not invest in a facilities project. Overall the findings suggest that investments in facilities are associated with temporary increases in an organization's net assets ratio and decreases in its surplus ratio after a project is completed, and that the costs associated with facilities projects (for example, debt) place strain on nonprofit finances. The study's findings have implications for the financial management of nonprofit organizations, particularly in regard to the associated costs of capital expansion.     

The effectiveness of nonprofit lead‐organization networks for social service delivery

Public agencies increasingly contract with nonprofit organizations to lead community‐based networks for social service delivery. We explore the role that partnership characteristics play in the effectiveness of these networks. Using data on children and family services in Los Angeles County, we consider the impact of both the motivations for forming partnerships and the nature of the resulting partnerships on perceived outcomes for clients, interorganizational relationships, and organizational learning. We find that client outcomes and interorganizational relationships are enhanced when partnerships are formed to meet certain programmatic and organizational goals. Organizational learning, however, is affected only when partnerships are formed to enhance organizational legitimacy. Partners selected because they share common vision increase effectiveness, while those selected because there are few alternative partners decrease effectiveness. Finally, when partnerships use an interorganizational coordination mechanism, client outcomes are improved. The managerial implications of these impacts for the nonprofit sector are developed. The results lend considerable support to the role of partnership motivation and partner selection in the effectiveness of nonprofit lead‐organization networks, and specificity about the nature of that role.     

Proactive or Protective? Dimensions of and Advocacy Activities Associated with Reported Policy Change by Nonprofit Organizations

Nonprofit and voluntary associations have a long history of defending the rights of their members, clients, and the public. Despite a burgeoning literature on advocacy by nonprofit organizations, few studies attempt to answer a central question: what factors influence nonprofit success in achieving the changes they aim to affect? Using original data from nearly 400 US nonprofits, we examine the extent to which they were involved in changing public policy, the nature of this engagement, and advocacy activities, organizational characteristics and relationships with others associated with reported policy change. More than three quarters of respondents reported having enacted, stopped, or modified policy. Nonprofits more often reported proactively changing policy when working in partnership and reactively stopping or modifying policy when facing opposition groups. Providing expertise and attending meetings was associated with reported policy change, whereas placing opinion ads was not.     

Judge a Nonprofit by the Partners it Keeps: How Does Cross-Sector Partnership Disclosure Influence Public Evaluations of the Nonprofit?

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations - This study investigates public reactions to cross-sectoral partnership communication from a nonprofit’s perspective....     

Fundraising in the new philanthropy environment: The benefits and challenges of working with giving circles

This article reports on an exploratory study to understand the impact of the new philanthropy on funding recipients by asking nonprofit professionals about their experiences working with giving circles. Giving circles are growing in number across the United States. They are attractive to new philanthropy donors who pool their resources and then decide together where to give them away. They also frequently include social, educational, and volunteer engagement components. Giving circles seem to be an important source of new and expanded resources for nonprofit organizations, but there are both benefits and challenges to working with giving circles that reveal several problematic tensions for nonprofit funding recipients, the philanthropic relationship, and society more broadly.     

Competing Frameworks in Planning for the Aged in the Growth Corridors of Melbourne

The Ageing in the Growth Corridors Project was initiated as a partnership between the University of Melbourne and the Department of Health in the Northwest Metropolitan Region of Melbourne, Australia. It involved a research team working with six project officers appointed to stimulate development in relation to an aging population in the sprawling outer metropolitan growth corridors. This article identifies the key lessons learned in terms of project implementation relating to attitudinal and structural barriers to the development of an age-friendly environment in areas of rapid urban growth. The findings illustrate some of the dilemmas raised by competing program conceptions, a dynamic and changing federal/state policy context, and local resource and strategic management constraints. The partnership with the university, nevertheless, provided a point of stability and continuity for the project officers in implementing their mandate.     

The Collaborative Research Education Partnership

Abstract

This article discusses the founding and operation of the Emmett J. and Mary Martha Doerr Center for Social Justice Education and Research, an endowed nonprofit organization located within the School of Social Service at Saint Louis University. The nonprofit Center provides a creative mechanism for facilitating university-community agency research. The Research Education Partnership (REP) model creates a partnership among students, community agency personnel, and faculty in funded practice research and program evaluation. Four collaborations, their benefits and challenges, are described. Students are prepared to integrate research into practice. The Center promotes and supports faculty-community partnerships for social justice.     

Research project on advocacy and autism

This article presents the findings of a qualitative research project about the difficulties in accessing advocacy faced by adults labelled as having autism and Asperger's Syndrome in the Northwest of England. It is also an example of partnership working between three organisations. The article examines both the process of team-led (emancipatory) research and the project findings. Seven main themes emerged throughout the research: late diagnosis and lack of service support; bad experiences with systems of care; feelings of 'not belonging' (identity issues); barriers around communication and sensitivity towards individuals; lack of awareness and access to advocacy and rights; difficulties of 'fitting into' what is already available; and interest in developing knowledge around advocacy. Examination of the main themes pointed to a disturbing link between poor service response, episodes of crisis and mental ill health. The Carlisle People First Research Team is made up of 6 researchers who are labelled as having 'learning difficulties' who work in partnership with one other researcher.     

Human capital inflow in nonprofits: Entry‐level employees’ sector shift

Although recruitment and retention of qualified employees are some of the biggest challenges in the nonprofit sector, nonprofit organizations must maintain human capital inflow due to its significant impacts on organizational success. Through person‐organization value fit, this paper explores the factors that influence labor shifts from the public or for‐profit sector into the nonprofit sector in the South Korean context. Specifically, the effects on the likelihood of employees switching to the nonprofit sector from the perspective of eight job satisfaction measures and three education–job match measures are investigated. Two groups of employees (those whose career started in the for‐profit sector and those starting in the public sector) are compared. Results indicate that there is substantial variation between the two groups. In particular, intrinsic job satisfaction has completely different effects on those working in the for‐profit sector than on those working in the public sector regarding their likelihood of having experienced an intersectoral shift into nonprofits. The more public employees are satisfied with intrinsic job rewards, especially job reputation, the more likely they are to move to nonprofits. These results suggest that when employees in the public sector are satisfied with intrinsic rewards they tend to pursue greater intrinsic satisfaction in the nonprofit sector. This paper also reports that education–job match is only significant for those whose first job was in the for‐profit sector.     

New Institutionalism and Sexuality at Work in Local Government

Recent statutory and policy changes have raised the profile of lesbian, gay and bisexual equalities initiatives in the local government arena. These initiatives are increasingly developed and delivered via inter‐agency partnerships. This article applies concepts from the sociological branch of new institutionalism to the field of sexualities equalities partnership work in local government, drawing on findings from a large empirical project. Notions of norms, ritual, templates and isomorphism all have purchase in this sensitive, value‐laden field, providing insight into the organizational dynamics associated with inter‐agency and partnership working. The article introduces the notion of institutional hybridization as a means of understanding the collaborative, and sometimes conflicting, processes associated with governance in the field of sexualities equalities work.     

Leveraging Academic Partnerships to Improve Logistics at Nonprofit Organizations

This article presents the results of a partnership between a nonprofit organization and a team of academic researchers that developed a low‐cost spreadsheet‐based tool that allows organizations to effectively schedule vehicle operations. Specifically, the tool (1) handles the real‐world constraints present in moderately complex logistics environments; and (2) uses general computing hardware and software that is already deployed in most organizations, thereby rendering the solution radically low cost (effectively free). We deployed this tool to a humanitarian organization, the Idaho Foodbank, which realized a substantial improvement in its fleet efficiency and a corresponding reduction in route‐planning time. The methodology used to manage this collaboration with academia can be leveraged by other nonprofit organizations attempting to overcome the financial barriers that commonly prevent budget‐constrained organizations from accessing advanced technologies.     

Assessing Value Differences Between Leaders of Two Social Venture Types: Benefit Corporations and Nonprofit Organizations

This study considers key value differences between leaders of two types of social ventures: for-profit social benefit corporations and nonprofit organizations. The research question asks to what degree the value sets of leaders of benefit corporations are congruent with those of similarly situated individuals in nonprofit organizations. The results show the values of leaders working in benefit corporations and nonprofit organizations are in many ways aligned, but there are notable statistical differences. A sectoral association of values is also present with employees in both types of organization, especially when the previous work experience of employees is considered.     

Voluntary contributions and wages in nonprofit organizations

Voluntary work provides a major source of labor for many nonprofit organizations. Consequences of volunteers and paid staff working alongside each other in nonprofits are well documented. This article contributes to this strand of literature and investigates whether the presence of volunteer work influences paid employees' wages in nonprofit organizations. We estimated a multilevel wage equation accounting for personal characteristics of workers and characteristics of nonprofits. The analysis revealed that nonprofit organizations engaging volunteers pay lower wages to their employees. Our findings contribute to the understanding of wage‐setting behavior of nonprofits and improve the methodological approach of empirical research in this field.     

Crisis in leadership or failure to plan?

During the past ten years, succession planning and managing executive transitions have emerged as important issues in the nonprofit sector. Demographers and economists have speculated for years about the potential effects of the retirement of baby boomers. The time has finally arrived: the oldest of the baby boomers are now eligible for retirement. The question that remains is how this trend will affect the nonprofit sector and the communities they serve. This study examines the issues of turnover and succession planning at the executive level, along with career development among young nonprofit professionals in Charlotte, North Carolina. Not only do the findings suggest that the community may very well see a crisis in leadership, but they also illustrate a growing disconnect between executive leaders and young professionals in nonprofit organizations. In addition to struggling with the realities of working in the nonprofit sector (limited benefits, challenging workloads), most young professionals reported that they felt undervalued by older managers and staff, and very few aspire to the position of executive director. Taken together, these findings have important implications for the local community and the broader nonprofit sector.