Welfare reform and the future of nonprofit organizations

This article discusses implications of the 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) for nonprofit social service organizations. We emphasize their role in the contemporary social safety net in relation to the public sector. Based on a study of ninety organizations operating in the Detroit metropolitan area, we adopted the supplementary, complementary, and adversarial framework from Young (1999) to assess the complex and evolving relationship between the nonprofit and public sectors in the post‐PRWORA era. The findings indicate a clear presence of all three perspectives; however, the continued shifting of responsibility for social services to private, nonprofit organizations suggests a growing dominance of the supplementary role. This raises concerns regarding future nonprofit capacity and other potential costs of nonprofit sector service provision.     

Do Nonprofits Treat Their Employees Differently? Incentive Pay and Health Benefits

We examine how nonprofit, public, and for‐profit establishments vary in the provision of health benefits and insurance and performance‐based incentives using the 2002 National Organization Survey of establishments in the United States. We found that in comparison to for‐profit firms, both nonprofit and public organizations are less likely to use performance‐based incentives, although they provide their employees with better health benefits and insurance. Sectoral differences in the provision of health benefits and insurance and use of performance‐based incentives persist after controlling for correlates of sector that predict these outcomes, including establishment size, independence of establishment, market competition, establishment age, and unionization. We also found trade‐offs between the provision of health benefits and insurance and use of performance‐based incentives. Our results are generally consistent with the prediction from agency theory and also consistent with a view that public and nonprofit organizations are more concerned with the well‐being of their employees.     

Using Social Network Analysis to Enhance Nonprofit Organizational Research Capacity: A Case Study

As donor agencies become more specific in funding requirements, research that can demonstrate the collaborative efforts of a nonprofit agency with its organizational neighbors and how those efforts pay off in terms of capacity and provision of services is highly useful. Recognizing these benefits, a local funding agency in Virginia commissioned a study to look at the ways in which social network analysis (SNA) can enhance the data resources available to nonprofits for funding and grant requests. In this article, we present a case study of a network of 52 nonprofit organizations to illustrate the viability of SNA in terms of funding and research needs specific to nonprofit organizations. We discuss the outcomes of the case study in terms of how the visual and metric outputs of SNA can be used by nonprofits to enhance the accomplishment of their organizational missions and strengthen their grant requests.     

Changing Relationships Between Nonprofit and For-profit Human Service Organizations Under the Long-Term Care System in Japan

In Japan, a nonprofit organization system enacted in the late 1990s and the later introduction of privatization policies in human services were expected to overturn government dominance of nonprofit organization activities. By focusing on the long-term care insurance (LTCI) system, which privatized public human services for the first time in the country, this study empirically examines whether, and to what extent, nonprofit–government relationships in Japan have actually changed as a result of this new system. In addition, because LTCI newly allows for-profit organizations to provide services, the influence of such organizations were incorporated into the analysis. The outcomes of this study demonstrate that the government continues to extend its sphere of influence over nonprofit and for-profit organizations through LTCI. In addition, for-profit organizations appear to be more successful than nonprofit organizations, in that the former organizations have overcome their lack of experience as public service providers by taking over the roles that nonprofit organizations have traditionally occupied.     

Reinventing a Large Nonprofit: Lessons from Four Voluntary Health Associations

This article describes attempts by four voluntary health associations to obtain their member organizations' consent to an emphasis on national rather than local goals and to new structures that centralized the members' management and governance functions while keeping service delivery decentralized. It argues that at three of the four associations, the member organizations agreed to a restructuring because the national organizations won their trust through a broadly inclusive decision‐making process and because the members were persuaded that the restructuring would increase resources available for local programs and services. Although the shift in focus to national goals risks diminishing local support, the reorganizations are evidence of a broadly felt need in nonprofit associations for a new decision‐making model and for new roles for volunteers that take better advantage of their community relationships.     

Small organization mergers in arts and humanities

This chapter discusses a case study of the merger between two relatively small organizations: a local nonprofit arts council and a public county‐level humanities commission. As this case deviates from other merger analyses that tend to focus on larger health and social service agencies, the chapter examines how well key findings of the nonprofit merger literature apply to mergers of organizations of smaller size and in other fields. Generally, we find that the merger literature so far provides sufficient guidance for nonprofit managers in fields such as the arts, where merger pressures have only now begun to mount.     

Service learning from the supply side: Community capacity to engage students

The rapid increase in the use of service learning raises important public policy questions about who is being served and whether partner agencies have the capacity to meet student demand for community‐based experiences. This article uses a large sample of nonprofit organizations and a comparative framework to examine the characteristics of partner agencies and the scope and nature of college student community involvement. Multivariate analysis tests these factors on a community agency's ability to engage more students, particularly service learners. The findings are generally optimistic about agency willingness to involve students, suggesting widespread community benefits from their involvement. While organizational size and capacity predict current student engagement, an agency's past experience with students and its perceptions of student benefits have the greatest impact on its willingness to take on future students.     

The Relationship between Provision of Membership Benefits and Fulfillment of Representational Roles in Nonprofit Advocacy Membership Organizations

This article explores the ways nonprofit advocacy membership organizations can manage their resource dependence on members and fulfill the organizations' representational roles, focusing on the provision of membership benefits. Membership organizations rely on financial or other resources from members and thus are constrained by them. For a nonprofit that aims to primarily speak for members, constraints by members may help to focus organizational attention on members' interests. Contrarily, for a nonprofit that aims to mainly represent broader constituents, members' constraints may hamper an organization's ability to advocate for broader constituents because members do not necessarily share the same policy goals with broader constituents. The provision of membership benefits can be a useful strategy for organizations to fulfill their representational roles and to satisfy and engage members, because people often join an organization to enjoy certain membership benefits. For an empirical analysis, this study collected a large‐scale data set through web and mail surveys of nonprofit advocacy organizations across the United States. The mixed‐mode surveys achieved a 57.5 percent response rate (729 responses). The survey and regression analysis results show that member‐serving nonprofits providing members with opportunities to participate in advocacy work are more likely to represent members' interests directly. Although broader constituency‐serving nonprofits tend to prioritize members' opinions, these organizations are more likely to adhere to the mandates of broader constituents when providing selective material membership benefits. However, when providing purposive membership benefits, these nonprofits are more likely to represent members' opinions.     

Toward More Targeted Capacity Building: Diagnosing Capacity Needs Across Organizational Life Stages

Investments to build nonprofit organizational capacity have increased rapidly in recent years as both funders and nonprofits seek ways to improve performance. Yet, while research has elucidated the variety of capacity areas organizations generally depend on, we do not yet have a clear empirical understanding of which capacity areas are important to focus on developing or how these capacity needs vary across organizations. Using a life-cycle perspective and extensive data on 71 human service organizations, we examine the relative strength of ten capacity areas at different stages of the nonprofit life-cycle. Findings contribute greater empirical grounding for research on organizational capacity development and have implications for researchers, managers, and funders interested in nonprofit capacity building.     

The Who,Why, and How of Reinvention in Nonprofit Organizations

Although reinvention of government agencies is being extensively discussed, relatively little is known about the reinvention strategies of nonprofit organizations. This article reports survey results for a randomly selected group of nonprofit organizations from across the United States. We conclude that reinvention is being used as a management tool by nonprofit organizations and that it is affecting day‐to‐day operations. Regardless of how reinvention was implemented, these organizations generally view their reinvention activities as successful for increasing productivity, enhancing services, improving performance, and managing costs.     

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.     

Making Service-Learning Partnerships Work: Listening and Responding to Community Partners

This study explored community partners’ perspectives regarding the motivations and barriers to engaging in service-learning partnerships. Three focus groups (N = 19) were held with representatives from diverse nonprofit organizations recruited from a university-based center for community service learning. Desire for expanded organizational capacity emerged as the strongest motivator, although enjoyment of mentoring students and the ability to acquire new knowledge also motivated individuals above and beyond the needs of their organizations. Faculty engagement presented the greatest barrier, which poses questions about the power dynamics of service learning and the extent to which faculty respect the community in these relationships.     

“协同治理”视角下的社会组织公共服务供给

城市社区建设中的公共服务与产品供给是城市发展中的核心问题。城市社会组织作为一个新的社会化服务网络,开始承载公众生活内容、满足公众社会需求、提高社区居民生活质量,成为城市治理中的一个功能载体,凸显出其在城市社区建设的重要意义。在我国的城市社区建设中,应将社会组织作为社区公共服务供给中的重要主体,建立政府、市场和社会组织共同参与社会管理的模式,以协同治理来应对市场的失灵、弥补政府的不足,有效地整合和配置社会资源,提升社会组织自身潜能,最大化地满足社区民众多样化的社会需求。     

Megachurch involvement at the local level: Examining conditions for church action in economic development

The roles of small congregations and their social impacts are well known, but few theoretical studies investigate megachurch congregations. These mammoth organizations have the potential for advancing social good, but minimal research specifically focuses on the activities of these congregations in economic development (ED). This study addresses this dearth of information by answering the following research questions: (a) In what ways are megachurches involved in ED activities? (b) Who benefits from these programs and how are the programs offered? and (c) What factors influence megachurches to offer ED activities? We frame our investigation using both demand‐ and supply‐side arguments from Frumkin's (2002) model of nonprofit and voluntary action. Online survey data and follow‐up interviews with 42 megachurch leaders in the Dallas/Fort Worth and greater Houston areas show that megachurches are implementing ED activities in alignment with demand‐side explanations, especially when advancing opportunities for the unemployed and underemployed. However, supply‐side arguments provide more explanatory power, indicating that volunteer engagement with ED activities plays a significant role in the provision of ED services through megachurches. Our study offers a better understanding of why megachurches carry out ED activities with considerable attention devoted to how megachurches partner with other congregations, nonprofits, and government entities to encourage economic growth and improve the economic well‐being of community members.     

Gendered,Invisible Work in Non‐profit Social Service Organizations: Implications for Worker Health and Safety

Nonprofit organizations (NPOs) play an important role in the provision of health and social services. In Canada the nonprofit sector includes 7.5 million volunteers and employs over 1.6 million paid workers. The sector is overwhelmingly female‐dominated — women make up over 80 per cent of workers in these nonprofit services. Work performed by women has traditionally been undervalued and invisible. It has often been considered safe by researchers, employers, policymakers and sometimes even workers themselves. Although there is some indication that jobs in the restructuring social services sector can be characterized by constant demand, high stress and violence, research into the working conditions and health hazards of these types of jobs has not been a priority. Using data from a qualitative study examining work in NPOs, we trace the ways that work performed in these workplaces is both gendered and invisible. We identify three types of invisible labour. ‘Background work’ facilitates and supports more visible and recognized organizational activities. Certain organizational language obscures the full spectrum of work that takes place in the organizations and the risks it may involve. ‘Empathy work’ includes the relationship building, counselling and crisis intervention that comprise key components of social service delivery. ‘Emotional labour’ involves the management of client emotions and workers' own emotions in the process of working with clients and delivering care under conditions of scarcity and contraction. The invisibility of these activities means that much of the day‐to‐day work done in the organizations, while particularly important in the context of social service restructuring, is taken‐for‐granted and undervalued by organizational outsiders. As a result, many of the hazards present in the jobs are hidden from view and workers' health may be compromised. We argue that the invisibility and taken‐for‐grantedness of certain types of work in NPOs is reflected in, and constitutive of, particular exclusions and shortcomings of current occupational health and safety systems designed to protect the health of workers.     

The Case for Better Maps of Social Service Provision: Using the Holy Cross Dispute to Illustrate More Effective Mapping

Third-sector organizations provide essential services, but not all types of organizations operate equally well given different intensities of public problems. This article argues for maps that would help social service funding bodies. Those maps would include three elements: (1) a measure of service demanded by a community, (2) data on the full range of organizations able to supply those services, and (3) a chart that identifies those organizations that provide services at different intensities of need. By providing information about the supply of organizations in a community, with measures of demand for services, state funding bodies, foundations, and individual philanthropists can make informed decisions about where to allocate funds. An ideal map is illustrated by using the case of the Holy Cross Dispute (2001), whereby a host of voluntary sector organizations provided a voice for residents in this divided Belfast community. The result is a call for more intensive mapping exercises of voluntary sector social service provision.     

How nonprofit human service organizations manage their funding sources: key findings and policy implications

Major findings and policy implications on how nonprofit social service organizations manage their funding relations are summarized. Data from in-depth case studies of six medium-sized social service organizations with distinctive funding profiles yielded findings on the major contingencies associated with controlling fees, the volatility of donations, and the driving force of public funding relationships for funders (public and private), nonprofit managers, and the role of nonprofit organizations.     

Nonprofit and for-profit home care in Israel: clients' assessments

Clients' assessments of differences between nonprofit and for-profit organizations delivering home care services to Israel's frail elderly were studied. No significant differences were found between nonprofit and for-profit providers with respect to organizational efficiency; speed of placement and replacement of home care workers; responsiveness to clients' complaints; and supervision of care plans, schedules, and service delivery. Systematic differences were found, however, in clients' perceptions of workers employed by nonprofit versus for-profit service providers. The differences related to the home care workers' adaptation to clients' needs and wants; how well workers delivered services; and how satisfied clients were with the services received. Indications are that the relatively high efficiency of nonprofit organizations can largely be attributed to the performance of their home care workers.     

“We Actually Trust the Community:” Examining the Dynamics of a Nonprofit Funding Relationship in New Zealand

Funding relationships in nonprofit management are increasingly defined by a philosophy of rational management, characterized by measurement of outputs and benchmarking, which represents an audit culture system (Burnley, Matthews, & McKenzie, 2005). There is concern that these approaches are constantly undermining the mission of community service nonprofit organizations (Darcy, 2002). In this research, we analyzed the management of funding relationships by examining dynamics within a nonprofit funding relationship in New Zealand. Through focus groups we explored the relationship between 17 representatives from nonprofit organizations and four Board members of a funding Trust. The management of this funding relationship was characterized by an appreciation of the diverse nature of nonprofit organizations, a balance between trust and control, and communication. We suggest that elements of these dynamics could be incorporated into nonprofit funding relationships in order to challenge an over-reliance on audit culture systems, and to re-establish relationships characterized by interaction between nonprofit organizations and their funders. Finally, we call for future research in this area.