Factors associated with fundraising dependency among nonprofit organisations in Australia

Despite the importance of fundraising to the nonprofit sector there has been surprisingly little research on fundraising as a revenue source in Australia. Research that has been conducted both here and internationally has focused on the cost of fundraising – the proportion of fundraising expenses to total fundraising revenue, and fundraising performance – the absolute or relative amount of money raised by organisations via fundraising. This paper examines why some nonprofit organisations are more dependent on fundraising as a source of revenue than others. The paper applies multivariate techniques to examine the influence that three broad sets of factors: organisational; revenue generation model; and fundraising approach, have on what we term ‘fundraising dependency’ – the percentage of a nonprofit organisation's total revenue that is derived from fundraising activities. It finds that fundraising dependency is associated with a range of organisational characteristics (e.g. size, geographical scope of the organisation and tax status); alternative forms of revenue generation (e.g. reliance on government funding and commercial venturing) and fundraising approach (e.g. whether professional fundraising staff are employed, the use of volunteer fundraisers and the number of fundraising practices used). The results support taking a multidimensional approach to understanding fundraising dependency.     

Factors associated with fundraising dependency among nonprofit organisations in Australia

Despite the importance of fundraising to the nonprofit sector there has been surprisingly little research on fundraising as a revenue source in Australia. Research that has been conducted both here and internationally has focused on the cost of fundraising – the proportion of fundraising expenses to total fundraising revenue, and fundraising performance – the absolute or relative amount of money raised by organisations via fundraising. This paper examines why some nonprofit organisations are more dependent on fundraising as a source of revenue than others. The paper applies multivariate techniques to examine the influence that three broad sets of factors: organisational; revenue generation model; and fundraising approach, have on what we term ‘fundraising dependency’ – the percentage of a nonprofit organisation's total revenue that is derived from fundraising activities. It finds that fundraising dependency is associated with a range of organisational characteristics (e.g. size, geographical scope of the organisation and tax status); alternative forms of revenue generation (e.g. reliance on government funding and commercial venturing) and fundraising approach (e.g. whether professional fundraising staff are employed, the use of volunteer fundraisers and the number of fundraising practices used). The results support taking a multidimensional approach to understanding fundraising dependency.     

Teaching qualitative research to BSW students through exposure to aging

This article describes one rural program's efforts to expose students to gerontology through teaching qualitative research methodology. A collaborative research pilot project was developed with a local nursing home. BSW students worked in two groups to conduct and present qualitative research projects by the course's completion. This article describes the research project and evaluates the project's success from student and instructor viewpoints. Significant differences were found in self-reported student knowledge of key concepts at the project's completion, compared with pre-test knowledge. Student comments revealed value in this teaching approach. Implications for further engaging students in gerontological research are discussed.     

Researching a Contemporary Archive

This paper documents the experiences of a researcher offered unlimited, privileged access to the archive of a recent, contemporary, charismatic social reformer based in Naples, who was also at the head of an international fundraising network. It documents, first, the unintended consequences of embarking on a research project on the basis of an informal friendly understanding between researcher and researched. It then comments on particular, practical features of this research undertaking, before focusing upon the major ethical dilemmas it presented. The author concludes by offering advice to future archival researchers in the light of her memorable experience in this case.     

Fundraising of Nonprofit Organizations: Specifics and New Possibilities

Fundraising can be viewed as a systematic activity aimed primarily at raising financial resources for the activities of either an organization or an individual. The inconsistency of this effort usually cannot be blamed on internal factors within an organization, but rather phenomena of a macroeconomic, legislative or societal nature. In an effort to gain an insight into the measure of utilizing fundraising principles in nonprofit organizations, extensive research was conducted for the ninth time among nonprofit organizations in the Czech Republic, the sample of which consisted of 313 fully completed questionnaires. Based on the research results focusing on fundraising, measures were proposed to expand the possibilities of ensuring effective multisource funding for a selected nonprofit organization. One of these options and at the same time the current trend in marketing not only for the nonprofit sector is crowdfunding. Crowdfunding is a new concept of funding projects that has seen a significantly growing trend in the fundraising is part of marketing activities, or at least it is very closely connected with them.     

Linking Community Initiatives to National Institutions: Ghana

The ILO has developed an innovative concept of global solidarity for social security — the Global Social Trust — which supports the development of national social protection systems through international financing. The concept is ready to be tested nationally and the present paper proposes a pilot project for Ghana. The paper considers the virtues and weaknesses of developing-country social security healthcare systems and community-based voluntary insurance schemes, their lack of informal sector coverage on the one hand and their financial disequilibria on the other. It outlines the socio-economic and macro-policy context of Ghana and the current health policy environment. It argues for a fusion of the social health insurance and mutual health organization concepts in Ghana, thus linking community initiatives to national institutions, enhancing coverage and the quality of services for all. The paper outlines a basic model that could apply to Ghana, its organizational structure, practical functioning, financing arrangements and expected outputs. In particular it seeks to develop a model for the cross-subsidization of insurance premiums for the poor. It describes a concept that would combine local ownership initiatives with national responsibility and financing, arguing for a truly interrelated network of social protection. The authors welcome feedback and comments from the wider social security audience.     

Learning to love (the state) again? Money,legitimacy and community sector politics

The erosion and dismantling of the post‐war welfare settlement has entailed an expanded role for the community sector, as a complex ‘mixed economy of service provision’ has developed. Critiques from both right and left have undermined the legitimacy of a statist model of welfare; state funding of non‐government community organisations is one aspect of the move away from centralised delivery. Despite their important role in this process, the distinctive perspectives of community sector organisations are rarely considered in broader theoretical and political debates. These organisations face significant dilemmas in struggling to maintain their viability and independence. Analysis of three major arguments for funding shows how organisations challenge the state's legitimacy by insisting on their own independent role but precariously rely on traditional sources of welfare state funding. This analysis draws into question the possibility of satisfactory non‐statist theories of welfare. It also suggests that the community sector might need to reposition itself as part of a broader public system of welfare, rather than in opposition to government, but that this strategy entails obvious risks for organisations' independence.     

Social capital and community building through an electronic network

This paper describes a social policy experiment that explores current and potential links between trends in Australian public policy. The central example is provided by the implementation of a wired community set up in a low‐income public housing estate by an entrepreneurial not‐for‐profit internet service provider, InfoXchange. ‘Reach for the Clouds’, the wired community being established at Atherton Gardens in Fitzroy, Melbourne, is attractive to policy‐makers and funding bodies, combining community‐building, public‐private partnerships, self‐help and place‐based management. However, although the project is promoted as an exercise in community‐building through technology, many of the key assumptions are untested. It seems self‐evident that low‐income people who are socially and economically excluded would benefit from greater ‘connectedness’ with one another. However, it is not clear that such exchanges, online or off‐line, will build ‘community’. The paper attempts to establish some distinctions between online communities of interest and place based communities, untangling the relationship between social connectedness and models of social capital.     

英美日公益信托社会的发展现况与比较分析

公益信托是以慈善、文化、艺术、宗教或其他公益性质为目的的信托模式,因公益信托具有设立手续弹性简便与营运成本低的优点,较容易引导大众支持参与。但现阶段的非营利组织面临着同构型的机构募款竞争以及企业界对非营利组织的商业化包装竞争,导致发展空间处处受限。本文先以老牌信托王国的英国开始探讨公益信托事业的历史演变,再参酌重视资本运营效益的美国模式,最后以信托业融入东方社会价值观的日本进行比较分析,借鉴国际公益信托事业可持续发展的运作手法。相对于中国公益信托事业还处于萌芽阶段,除了不具英国有庞大民间财力可左右城市开发政策之外,加上人民过度依赖政府、信托法令不周全、中央地方政策冲突、领导过于重视经济开发、企业社会责任淡薄、非营利管理人才欠缺等等都让公益信托事业无法深入民心。因此本文以第三部门为视角,探索除政府、企业职能之外,对自然环境与文化资产保护该如何协助政府对公共利益观念的落实并因此创造可观的文化观光财。     

Development NGOs and the Challenge of Partnership: Changing Relations between North and South

This paper reviews the changing relationships between Northern development NGOs (NNGOs) which are organizations with their roots in industrialized countries, and local southern NGOs (SNGOs) which exist in many aid-recipient countries. It draws on selected experiences from the Bangladesh context. There are three main changes which have taken place. Firstly, many NNGOs in the past decade or so have moved from implementation of development projects towards a partnership approach in which they fund and attempt to work with SNGOs. This has increasingly led to the idea of NGO "capacity-building" as a key objective, but a significant growth in SNGO capacity in a country such as Bangladesh increasingly renders such objectives less meaningful. Secondly, official bilateral or multilateral development donors are increasingly moving towards the direct funding of Southern NGOs rather than the previous model of funding through Northern NGOs in the partnership approach. This leaves many NNGOs in an uncertain position. Thirdly, the need to respond to international emergencies in the post-cold war order has led governments increasingly to fund NNGOs to undertake relief and emergency work on a contractual basis. This trend also potentially raises questions about the viability of their longer-term development work. All three sets of changes are contributing to an uncertain future for NNGOs, which arguably face an "identity crisis", and they will need to adapt carefully to the emergence of new global social policy agendas if they are to continue to be effective.     

Social Inclusion and Place‐Focused Initiatives in Western Sydney: A Review of Current Practice

This paper presents a review of the range of policies and programs that currently direct resources to disadvantaged communities in New South Wales, with a specific focus on the western Sydney region. These ‘place‐focused initiatives’ are the main sources of funding for community renewal from a range of government agencies at federal, state and local government levels. The research on which this paper is based identified thirty‐six programs administered or managed through thirteen government agencies or departments with a combined budget in excess of $163m in 2000/2001. It is argued that this diverse range of programs, while important, is highly fragmented, lacks a coherent spatial targeting framework, is poorly related to either local social or physical planning processes, and is poorly integrated in terms of its local outcomes. Moreover, beyond the public housing estates, existing policies lack the capacity to address the poor housing market conditions that generate local concentrations of disadvantage. A number of alternative policy ideas are presented that, if developed, might offer a better framework for the delivery of integrated policies to address the problems of social disadvantage and exclusion at the local level.     

Teaching Quality Audit

This paper comments briefly on the experience of the Teaching Quality Audit (social policy) organized by the Higher Educational Funding Council (UK), from the point of view of those who were audited. It is an impressionistic account rather than a survey report. It concludes with recommendations as to hew the operation of Teaching Quality Audit might be rendered more efficient, effective, equitable and credible.     

广州市越秀区社区健康教育的实践与探索

社区健康教育在促进社区居民健康,改善社区居民生活质量,以及在健康社区的建设中发挥着重要的作用。针对越秀区社区健康教育工作开展中面临的一些困难,广州市越秀区社区教育学院一院通过社区健康教育项目"健康直通车"的实施,将健康教育融入社区教育中,探索出有效促进社区健康教育发展的实践路径,通过对"健康直通车"项目实施成效的分析,提出了进一步推动越秀区社区健康教育发展的建议。     

Online Donation Experiences,Donation Awareness,and Intention of Future Donation Among Teenagers in South Korea

Younger generations have become less likely to donate than older generations. Online fundraising might be a solution to encourage young donors. This study examines the mediating effects of online donation on the donation awareness of teenagers, as well as the pathway from online donation to an intention to donate in the future. Using data collected from 287 teenagers through an online survey, the study found that online donation experience has positive effects on the frequency of future donation, mediated by donation awareness. These results suggest that nonprofit organizations should consider online donation platforms to be important fundraising mechanisms in encouraging young donors. Future research is need in order to develop the theoretical models of online donation as well as investigate the applicability of the models, especially for young generations.     

In Whose Interests? A Case Study of Community Work in a Voluntary Welfare Agency

This article traces the development of a community work project sponsored by a voluntary welfare agency. The context of its birth is outlined, as are the struggles it encountered during its operation. These struggles hinged on questions of accountability to the local community and the resistance to this concept from the sponsoring agency, resistance which led ultimately to the demise of the project. Community work has been regarded at times as the ‘radical’ form of social intervention, the means of working for dramatic social change in society. Whether or not it can be that, it certainly need not be. The events to be related here concern a welfare agency of essentially conservative orientation seeking to redefine its role within the changing welfare environment of the 1960s and 1970s. In the event it was quite prepared to embrace the outward forms and codes of community work, so much a part of the new welfare ethos of the Whitlam era, while maintaining unaltered its conservative orientation. For its field staff, however, the situation was hot so easy. Themselves influenced by the thoughts and practices in community work, they found a real tension between accountability to local community on one hand and to the sponsoring agency on the other. Conflict was inevitable. It was only when the agency was faced with demands regarding community accountability, a concept cutting across its traditional practice and presenting a perceived threat to agency autonomy and control, that it moved away into other, safer directions.     

Facing Up to Underfunding: Equity and Retrenchment in Community Care

Local social services departments in the UK are expected to distribute their cash-limited budgets for community care in ways that achieve an equitable allocation of resources in situations where, with present levels of funding, they cannot meet all the needs with which they are presented. This paper discusses a case study of the introduction of a "needs-based" formula to allocate a local authority's budget for home care services and a follow-up survey to investigate whether services reached the people intended to benefit. The article argues that the "gatekeeping" role of community care assessments is important to safeguard equity without the inflexibility of highly standardized tests of eligibility. However, with the new Labour government seeking to reduce dependency on public expenditure, and a growing lobby for national standards of social care, it will be increasingly important that local authorities justifiy their different practices with evidence about how they relate to local needs.     

Work incapacity and reintegration: Theory and design of a cross-national study

This article presents the theory and design of a prospective cross-national study on work incapacity and reintegration with cohorts of low back pain patients from Denmark, Germany, Israel, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and the United States. The aim of the project, which is being coordinated by the ISSA, is to learn how social security, labour, and healthcare systems address problems of work incapacity and reintegration and to measure and evaluate the effectiveness of various interventions, incentives, and disincentives on return to work. The article includes discussion of common problems that motivated the sponsors to join the project, the benefit programmes and services currently available in the participating countries, the theoretical model for the research, the project's core research design, and some key elements of its methodology.     

Community development activities in the context of contracting

In Australia, as elsewhere, relations between government and community sector organisations^* have undergone fundamental change over the past decade. Economic rationalism and new manageralism have reshaped funding arrangements, seeing the widespread introduction of contracts with service specifications, performance measures and reporting requirements. Within the literature there is considerable anxiety about the impact contracting may have on the community development activities of community sector organisations. This article draws on the experience of over 500 community sector organisations that provide human services to explore how contractual arrangements have affected some aspects of their community development activities. The research findings suggest that, from the perspectives of organisations, the adverse impacts have been less than anticipated.     

京西古村落遗产旅游可持续发展探索——以爨(川)底下村为例

古村落是文化遗产体系中的一种重要类型,是人类智慧和自然环境的结晶,有着重要的历史、艺术及科学价值。京西门头沟地区分布着30余座古村落。目前大多数古村落已经或即将进行旅游开发。本文以爨底下村为例,在评述遗产资源的基础上,指出其旅游发展中出现的问题,并对爨底下村遗产旅游可持续发展提出建议。     

Who Takes Care of Education 18 months on? A follow‐up study of looked after children's perceptions of support for educational progress

This paper represents a follow‐up publication to the findings of a previous paper by documenting the views of a follow‐up sample of 56 young people, aged 12–19 years, looked after in three English local authorities. Young people were interviewed on two separate occasions, 18 months apart, to assess their perceptions of educational progress and identify factors that might support or hinder their education. The interviews took place as part of an ongoing evaluation of the Taking Care of Education project, a development programme designed to facilitate improvements in the education of looked after children. Most young people were aware of individual project‐related activities and a number of these were seen to contribute towards educational progress. Perceptions of educational progress were significantly higher at follow‐up interview and an increased proportion of young people reported that being looked after had had a positive impact upon their education. Carers and teachers continued to be the most frequently mentioned providers of educational support, but the proportion of comments relating to educational support from social workers increased at follow‐up. The most consistent explanation given for improved educational progress was the availability of support and encouragement for educational progress and acknowledgement of young people's achievements.