The nonprofit leadership deficit: A case for more optimism

Recent headlines claim that a looming nonprofit leadership crisis will soon be precipitated by retiring baby boomers. Analysis of baby boom demographics, using national census data on the age distribution and other demographic characteristics of top leaders by sector, confirms the aging nonprofit workforce. However, the issue of whether the aging workforce portends a nonprofit leadership crisis, when analyzed within a theoretical framework of supply and demand in the market for nonprofit executives, reveals flaws in most commentaries about the leadership crisis. Workings of the labor market and nonprofit organizations themselves suggest trends that could be expected to affect labor supply and demand and mitigate a leadership deficit. Reasonable—and likely—market and organizational adjustments, including higher executive pay, increased labor force participation of older workers, skill acquisition of younger workers, possible consolidation of nonprofit organizations, board and volunteer skill sharing, and even venture philanthropy, can be expected to moderate the shock of baby boom retirements, much in the way that schools, job markets, and housing markets have accommodated the movement of this “bulging” generation through earlier decades of their lives.     

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.     

Does volunteer work pay off in the labor market?

Focusing on the investment motive for volunteer work, this paper examines whether volunteer work has an economic payoff upon the labor market in France. Using a switching regression model with endogenous switching, we find that in the public sector volunteers receive a positive wage premium that does not influence their involvement, while the premium is negative in the private sector. We also find little evidence of the presence of alternative types of returns on the labor market, such as employment mobility or entry into the labor market. Our findings are more consistent with a consumption motive and we suggest that volunteering is carried out with a relational purpose.     

The Effects of Individual Risk Propensity on Volunteering

Serving as a volunteer is gratifying and rewarding, but by nature it is also considered a risky decision. Volunteering risk may come from the lack of sufficient training, asymmetric information between volunteers and managers, and the lack of support and protection from nonprofit organizations. Abundant studies discuss volunteering behaviors based on demographics. However, people's decisions are mainly determined by their own preferences rather than demographic differences. Accordingly, this study hypothesizes that individual risk propensity is an important predictor for volunteering behaviors. Using a nationally representative data set, this study finds that risk‐accepting individuals are more likely to volunteer than their risk‐averse peers. Also, the former tend to volunteer more frequently than the latter once they decide to be part of the volunteer labor force. Several managerial implications and volunteer recruitment strategies for nonprofit organizations are discussed.     

“Don't you want to stay?” The impact of training and recognition as human resource practices on volunteer turnover

Managing volunteers is a difficult undertaking. This study draws on human resource (HR) management theory and literature to investigate the effect of two HR practices—training and recognition—on volunteer turnover. We use longitudinal administrative data collected by an Indiana nonprofit organization, which contains individual volunteer characteristics, organizational HR practices, and information on actual turnover behavior. We found that recognizing volunteer contributions with awards predicted volunteer retention in the following year. Training did not have a direct effect on volunteer turnover, but interacted with gender; men who received training were more likely to stay than women. The study contributes to the literature on HR management in the volunteer context, adds to the emerging literature on awards as incentives for volunteers, and addresses the common method bias by using longitudinal data.     

Economic analysis of volunteers’ motivations—A cross-country study

While some core theories on volunteer labor supply decisions can be found in the economic literature, little efforts were made so far to operationalize these models and verify their implications in an empirical context. This paper aims at narrowing the research gap between the theoretical economic literature on volunteer motivations and the empirically observed motivations for volunteer labor supply. A common indicator ‘voluntary contributions by others’ linking the theories of public goods, private consumption and investment has been identified and examined on the basis of structural equation modeling and regression analysis. Using representative micro data collected for volunteers in Bangladesh, Ghana, Poland and South Korea, the paper finds that this indicator significantly influences an individual's motivation. Particularly, observed findings are in accordance with theoretical predictions.     

Volunteer Reliability in Nonprofit Organizations: A Theoretical Model

The reliability of volunteers is a major concern for many nonprofit organizations. To address this problem in more detail, we develop a theoretical model of volunteer reliability based on psychological contract theory. By taking this perspective as a starting point, we explore how individual volunteer characteristics, organizational factors, and sociological developments shape the exchange of inducements and contributions between volunteers and nonprofit organizations. We discuss how these factors can create tensions in the psychological contract and determine the extent to which volunteers behave reliably. As such, we develop a theoretical framework for addressing the reliability problem in volunteer management.     

Retaining Critical Human Capital: Volunteer Firefighters in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania

Effective delivery of services for the public good involves a multiplicity of organizations and actors, including those from the public, nonprofit, and private sectors. In some cases, service delivery is accomplished using programs that directly engage volunteers, including key public services like community-based and nonprofit volunteer fire departments. Volunteers in fire departments—often highly engaged volunteers with specialized training—provide vital services for a substantial portion of the United States, allowing local governments to realize considerable cost savings. Thus, issues of volunteer retention are a critical challenge for fire departments. Existing research has addressed issues of retention in a variety of settings; we argue that the challenging and particular context of fire departments is worthy of focused research. This article is an exploratory study of the predictors of voluntary firefighter retention in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. We use data from a web-based survey of volunteer firefighters to examine the factors that influence volunteer retention, focusing specifically on volunteer management practices and broader job-related concepts. Results indicate that volunteer training, performance management, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment influence both short- and mid-term intent to remain, indicating that management practices and programs, as well as other contextual factors that shape satisfaction and commitment, are important in retaining volunteers.     

Reporting Volunteer Labour at the Organizational Level: A Study of Canadian Nonprofits

Volunteer contributions in the production of services are an important resource internationally. However, few countries include volunteer contributions in their national accounts, even though many encourage their populations to engage in volunteering. At the organizational level, many nonprofit organizations using volunteers often limit their input to a footnote in annual reports acknowledging their contribution; few estimate their value in financial terms. As a result, their financial accounts lack information upon which to base decisions affecting the organizations and the communities they serve. Additional information is required to assess the impact of volunteers in individual nonprofits as well as the sector as a whole. This study focuses on Canada, one of the few countries that include volunteers in the national accounts, to examine to what extent nonprofit organizations estimate a financial value for these contributions and include this in their financial statements. This paper reports the results of an online survey of 661 nonprofits from across Canada. In order to understand why some organizations keep records for volunteer contributions and quantify them, two sets of explanatory factors are explored: organizational characteristics and the attitude of the executive director. We find larger organizations were more likely to engage in record keeping and estimating volunteer value, as were organizations with a relatively large group of volunteers and volunteer programs. The attitude of the executive director is important in determining which organizations engage in these practices.     

Does Charging Nonprofit Volunteers Affect Their Satisfaction?

Nonprofits that offer volunteer experiences in foreign countries have long charged fees to their volunteers, but recently some other nonprofit organizations have begun to charge as well. Volunteer attitudes toward such fees have not previously been studied. Product marketing research has suggested that fees can sometimes improve participants’ evaluation of their experience, but public service motivation research seems to suggest that fees will diminish participants’ satisfaction. This study examines the attitudes toward fees of 4,400 volunteers who paid $310 to participate in a week‐long project that built and repaired housing in Appalachia. Although a third of volunteers believed that the fee enhanced their appreciation of the program, an equal proportion disagreed. An even larger percentage of the volunteers believed the fee discouraged some volunteers. Concerns with fees were more common among youth volunteers than adult volunteers and among those who volunteered for altruistic rather than for career reasons. Most volunteers, even those critical of fees, were positive about their volunteer experience, but those who were least positive about the fees were also somewhat less positive about their experience. These results suggest that decisions about volunteer fees must balance the benefits of additional funds for enhanced client services against the likelihood of discouraging some potential volunteers, especially younger or more altruistic volunteers.     

Using Economic Theory and Research to Better Understand Volunteer Behavior

The literature on the determinants of volunteering for nonprofit organizations is highly complex, and noconceptual model has received general support (Winniford, Carpenter, and Grider, 1997). Researchers often cite the huge economic impact that nonprofit organizations have on the economy as a whole. However, they seldom mention the small but potentially important body of research on the determinants of the supply of volunteer labor that appears in the economics literature. �The purpose of this article is to outline some of the economic arguments used to explain the determinants of volunteering and point out some cases where they may support other theories and concepts concerning the determinants of volunteering.     

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.     

ANTITRUST TREATMENT OF NONPROFITS: SHOULD HOSPITALS RECEIVE SPECIAL CARE?

Nonprofit hospitals receive favorable tax treatment in exchange for providing socially beneficial activities. Extending this rationale suggests that nonprofit hospital mergers should be evaluated differently than mergers of for-profit hospitals because suppression of competition may also allow nonprofits to cross-subsidize care for the poor. Using detailed California data, we find no evidence that nonprofit hospitals are more likely than for-profit hospitals to provide more charity care or offer unprofitable services in response to an increase in market power. Therefore, we find no empirical justification for applying, as some courts have suggested, different antitrust standards for nonprofit hospitals. (JEL I11, L1, L44)     

Voluntary Membership and Well-Being of Nonprofit,Government, and Business Employees

While the benefits the volunteers offer nonprofit organizations are substantial, they can also cause problems for these groups. In an environment where people willingly donate their time and energy to a cause that they ostensibly support, why is disruptive behavior so common? This ethnographic study of volunteers at an animal shelter identifies the factors that lead to problematic behavior. The paper argues that disruptions occur when there is a mismatch between the needs of the volunteer and the needs of the organization and because of structural conditions that lead to uncertainty among volunteers. These findings shed light on volunteer behavior broadly and present the opportunity to address disruptive behavior. As a result, the benefits the volunteers provide for an organization can be maximized.     

Why Can’t You Just Follow the Rules? Volunteer Rule Breaking and Disruptive Behavior

While the benefits volunteers offer nonprofit organizations are substantial, they can also cause problems for these groups. In an environment where people willingly donate their time and energy to a cause that they ostensibly support, why is disruptive behavior so common? This ethnographic study of volunteers at an animal shelter identifies the factors that lead to problematic behavior. The paper argues that disruptions occur when there is a mismatch between the needs of the volunteer and the needs of the organization and because of structural conditions that lead to uncertainty among volunteers. These findings shed light on volunteer behavior broadly and present the opportunity to address disruptive behavior. As a result, the benefits volunteers provide for an organization can be maximized.     

Volunteers in Brazilian Hospitals: Good Citizens or Strategic Agents?

Volunteers are recognized as people devoting significant time to provide unpaid services to social organizations. In nonprofit hospitals, volunteers play three essential roles. First, they provide assistance and care to patients. Secondly, they generate strategic value through fundraising, marketing, and community relations’ activities. Third, they generate financial benefits for the institution by reducing hospital costs. This article examines such roles and contributions of volunteers at two Brazilian nonprofit hospitals. Managers at these organizations consider volunteers valuable for the psycho-social service they provide, the strategic actions they develop, the cost savings they generate, the goodwill they create, and the funds they raise. In conclusion, volunteers at both hospitals are key stakeholders whose altruistic motives as good citizens motivate them to join either of the organizations, help humanize their services, and assist with the development of strategies that make significant contributions to the improvement of performance at both locales.     

Arbeitslosigkeit und ehrenamtliche Tätigkeit im Zeitverlauf

Starting point of the article is the discussion about possibilities to defuse the crisis on the German labor market by supporting volunteer work. Therefore, the effects of unemployment on the probability to volunteer are of special interest. For this purpose, logistic regressions are estimated for the years 1992 and 1996, using longitudinal data from the West German sub-sample of the German Socioeconomic-Panel (GSOEP). There is no evidence for an increasing propensity of take up or maintain volunteer work among the unemployed. In contrast, it is shown that the chance to volunteer especially in creases with a higher educational degree or if the person lives in ?secure’ family circumstances. On the ?volunteer market’ similar qualifications are in demand, which also support a successful participation in the regular labour market. Therefore, the hope an assumed in dividually higher willingness to volunteer among the unemployed may contribute to cope with the general labour market crisis turns out to be misleading. Especially low-educated persons, being a problem group on the labour market, do not look at volunteering as an adequate activity for themselves.     

Volunteer Performance in the Light of Organizational Success: A Systematic Literature Review

Volunteers are crucial to the functioning of nonprofit organizations. Thus, researchers in various disciplines investigate volunteer performance, broadly defined as the value of individual volunteers’ activities for the accomplishment of organizational goals. Yet a comprehensive overview is still missing. To structure this fragmented literature, the systematic review presented herein covers the antecedents and dimensions of individual volunteer performance in the light of organizational success discussed in 75 academic articles. With an integrated framework of volunteer performance, derived from theoretical considerations of organizational success and the ability–motivation–opportunity framework, this article suggests a systematic classification of current scientific knowledge about the antecedents and dimensions of volunteer performance. In turn, this review offers two instructive research avenues helping to develop a holistic picture of the antecedents and dimensions of individual volunteer performance.     

Stability and Change in Nonprofit Organizations: The Volunteer Contribution

This paper reports on a study of the microprocesses of stability and change in a nonprofit welfare organization in Australia. We position volunteering and voluntarism as core constitutive phenomena in and of nonprofit organizations and the nonprofit sector more generally, and examine volunteer agency in action. Developing a model drawn from neoinstitutional theory and adopting an ethnographic approach, the paper illustrates theoretically and empirically how volunteers create and revise institutional orders operative within organizations in ways hitherto poorly articulated and understood.     

Games of Capacity Manipulation in Hospital-intern Markets

In this paper, we analyze capacity manipulation games in hospital-intern markets inspired by the real-life entry-level labor markets for young physicians who seek residencies at hospitals. In a hospital-intern market, the matching is determined by a centralized clearinghouse using the preferences revealed by interns and hospitals and the number of vacant positions revealed by hospitals. We consider a model in which preferences of hospitals and interns are common knowledge. Hospitals play a capacity-reporting game. We analyze the equilibria of the game-form under the two most widely used matching rules: hospital-optimal and intern-optimal stable rules. We show that (i) there may not be a pure strategy equilibrium in general; and (ii) when a pure strategy equilibrium exists, every hospital weakly prefers this equilibrium outcome to the outcome of any larger capacity profile. Finally, we present conditions on preferences to guarantee the existence of pure strategy equilibria.