The Organization of Nonprofit Activities

This paper investigates the repertoire of organizational forms in Western societies in order to assess the nonprofit sector's distinctiveness. A repertoire of six different ideal type constructs is presented adding to and reformulating existing theories, which have primarily focused on the market and the firm. This new extended theoretical platform builds both on theories discussing market, organization, and governmental failures and on approaches where homo economicus is replaced by homo complexicus and transactions by interactions. This effort aims at making the nonprofit (or voluntary) sector in society both more visible and theoretically substantiated. At the end of this paper, the theoretical framework is applied by analyzing empirical nonprofit organizations.     

A Case Study of Adaptation in a Nonprofit Human Service Organization

This paper demonstrates the applicability of political economy theory to understanding adaptation of human service organizations. Through the use of a case study, the paper demonstrates the adaptation that occurred over twenty years in a family service agency. The findings show an organization selecting a particular service niche in which to operate. The findings further demonstrate a specialized clientele, a diversified program style, marked stability in the organization's financial strategy, and a diversified financial style. The major tier of revenue groups was dominated by Purchase of Service Contracts (POSC) which demonstrated volatility in response to changes in the external environment. Implications are drawn from education and practice.     

Stakeholder Performance Measurement in Nonprofit Organizations

According to recent findings, nonprofit organizations should address the relationships of nonprofit service quality, satisfaction, loyalty, and organizational identification when planning and evaluating donor surveys. This article presents a donor satisfaction barometer that can be used to gain insights into the strength of these key relationships and thereby establish a basis for calculated relevant indices. With such indices, nonprofit organizations can compare stakeholder performance over time and benchmark themselves against other organizations. Data from 2,599 blood donors to one section of the German Red Cross, collected through the proposed donor satisfaction barometer, show that service quality drives satisfaction, and donor satisfaction and organizational identification both exert significant positive effects on donor loyalty. Therefore, nonprofit organizations should use a combined strategic approach that improves both donor satisfaction and organizational identification to increase donor loyalty. The successful application of the donor satisfaction barometer also suggests its value for other nonprofit industries and offers important insights for managers.     

Nonprofit Board Balance and Perceived Performance

Based on prior literature, this article offers a reconciliation of the core roles of nonprofit boards and aligns these role‐sets with organizational theories. A survey instrument was developed and validated to measure each of four role‐sets (monitoring, supporting, partnering, and representing) to assess whether emphasis on specific roles affects board members’ perception of performance. Our study of nonprofit boards in a midsized midwestern city found that balance across the role‐sets was associated with effective organizational performance. Furthermore, when board members describe any of the four role‐sets as deficient, they perceive the organization as less effective. The results of the study provide practitioners with a validated survey tool that provides nonprofit boards with a method to identify which roles their board emphasizes.     

Behavioral Determinants of Nonprofit Board Performance

There is an increased awareness that the performance of boards (good governance) is not only determined by structural determinants but by behavioral determinants as well. These behavioral determinants might be particularly important for public and nonprofit governance, where the role of the board is more diffuse and heterogeneous than in corporate governance. Here we investigate how social dynamics within boards in secondary education influence their performance. We follow a concise model that includes cognitive conflict, the use of expertise, effort norms, and social cohesion as determinants of board task performance. A survey among all secondary schools in the Netherlands serves as the empirical underpinning for this process‐oriented model of good governance. We show that the behavioral determinants have different effects on the control task and advice task of boards. Also, we find that cognitive conflicts in supervisory boards do not lead to less but rather to more social cohesion within boards. Building on these findings, we suggest a revised model of the behavioral determinants of nonprofit board performance.     

Networking Modes and Performance in Israel's Nonprofit Organizations

The present article examines the relationship between networking modes and performance for 138 nonprofits in Israel. We draw upon the bridging and bonding concepts and social exchange theory and introduce the sharing and consulting networking modes to predict performance in terms of organizational growth in resources. We suggest that differences in networking modes (1) reflect variations in organizational size and age and (2) affect organizational growth in resources. We show that (1) the consulting networking mode is more frequent among managers of smaller and younger nonprofits, (2) sharing is characteristic of managers in older and larger nonprofits, (3) sharing has a strong effect on organizational growth, and (4) the sharing and consulting modes are better predictors of organizational performance than those of bonding and bridging. The results indicate that nonprofit growth in organizational resources is possible with networking when managers aspire to higher involvement in the networking process due to the scope and extent of goals.     

Seven Trade-offs in Measuring Nonprofit Performance and Effectiveness

To complement contemporary nonprofit literature, which mainly offers theory-driven recommendations for measuring nonprofit effectiveness, performance, or related concepts; this article presents seven trade-offs for researchers and practitioners to consider before engaging in a nonprofit effectiveness measurement project. For each trade-off, we offer examples and suggestions to clarify the advantages and disadvantages of methodological choices that take various contextual elements into account. In particular, we address the differences between formative and reflective approaches, as well as the differences between unit of interest, unit of data collection, and unit of analysis. These topics require more in-depth attention in the nonprofit effectiveness literature to avoid misinterpretations and measurement biases. Finally, this article concludes with five avenues for further research to help address key challenges that remain in this research area.     

A Strategic Planning Process for a Small Nonprofit Organization: A Hospice Example

Strategic planning is an essential part of management. However, planning processes can consume great amounts of time and resources that small, nonprofit organizations may lack. Moreover, the process that is used can be tedious and may result in plans that are discarded before or during their implementation. In this article, a strategic planning process is presented that incorporates a Policy Delphi group technique and Situation Structuring, a computer program that assists participants in structuring or defining the problems to be addressed in the plan. The organization to which the process is applied is a small, nonprofit hospice. Both the planning process and an evaluation of the implementation of the resultant strategic plan are examined.     

Strategic Performance Measurement and Management in Nonprofit Organizations

The managers and constituents of nonprofits are increasingly concerned about measuring and managing organizational performance. Financial measures alone, or even supplemented with a collection of ad hoc nonfinancial measures, are not sufficient to motivate and evaluate mission accomplishments. This article describes the adaptation of a new performance measurement and management approach, the Balanced Scorecard, to the nonprofit sector. Several examples of actual implementation are provided.     

Political Influence and the Performance of Nonprofit Spanish Banks

This article presents empirical evidence about factors that influence the solvency of Spanish savings banks. It also studies whether the presence of politicians in their governance has led to lower solvency ratios and, consequently, to the current economic situation in the Spanish banking sector. We use multivariate regressions, taking the solvency ratio as the dependent variable; and efficiency, the coverage ratio, political influence, CEOs’ political influence, size, growth, and age as independent variables. Our results confirm that banking entities controlled by politicians resulted in poor performance, and political influence on the boards of savings banks led them to insolvency. The findings show that the non‐ownership structure of savings banks, the lack of best practice corporate governance mechanisms, and political presence have weakened them.     

The Impact of Board Diversity and Expertise on Nonprofit Performance

This study examined the impact of board of director characteristics on nonprofit performance. Using data collected through a survey of nonprofit colleges and universities, the author provides evidence that specific board member characteristics are vital in shaping the financial and nonfinancial success of nonprofit institutions of higher education. Results indicate that both board member diversity and expertise are associated with better‐performing organizations. This work makes important initial forays into the relationships between board of director qualities and nonprofit performance. Although limited by the relatively small sample of colleges and universities, this study is unique in its ability to analyze nonprofit boards and both financial and nonfinancial performance measures.     

Wage Inequality and Performance in Nonprofit and For‐Profit Organizations

This article examines the effects of several forms of wage inequality on service quality and employee effort. We suggest that two popular theories, tournament and fair wage/equity, are not necessarily competing. Each theory accurately describes aspects of employee behavior, but because of sectoral differences in organizational objectives and employee attitudes, tournament theory's predictions are relatively stronger in the for‐profit sector, while fair wage/equity theory's predictions are relatively stronger in the nonprofit sector. Using an employer–employee matched data set of nursing homes linked to a federal regulatory database and a resident survey, we found that ownership moderates the relationship between wage inequality and service quality. Although wage inequality positively affects service quality in the for‐profit sector, the reverse is true among nonprofit organizations. We also found that overall wage inequality in the workplace has a more pronounced influence on employee discretionary effort than does the employee's place in the distribution of wages.     

Neighborhood Organization and Local Social Action:

This case study examines the history, structure and social, economic, and political changes of an urban neighborhood in Ohio, and how local social actors and organizations affect those changes. The data are based on personal interviews, meeting minutes, newsletters, newspaper articles, and other documentation and materials. The analysis shows that (1) individual social actors are the most important factors in bringing about change consistent with the local social action system, (2) there is a significant and positive relationship between the economic condition of the neighborhood and the success of the changes in the neighborhood, (3) changes consistent with the local social action system are most effectively induced when various organizations and social groups are organized independently of each other but at the same time associated through coalition activities, and (4) the larger urban system (both political and economic systems) in which the neighborhood is located can have strong influence on the neighborhood change.     

Accountability in Nonprofit Organizations

Accountability, Performance Reporting, Comprehensive Audit: An Integrated Perspective, by Guy LeClerc, W. David Moynagh, Jean-Pierre Boisclair, and Hugh R. Hanson. Ottawa: CCAF-FCVI (Canadian Comprehensive Auditing Foundation- Fondation Canadienne pour la Verification Integral), 1996. 373 pp., $85.00 (Canadian, plus shipping) cloth. Managing for Accountability: Preserving the Public Trust in Public and Nonprofit Organizations, by Kevin P. Kearns. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1996. 255 pp., $27.95 cloth.     

CEO Power and Nonprofit Financial Performance: Evidence from Chinese Philanthropic Foundations

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations - CEO power and its implications are neglected in research on nonprofit governance. This is surprising considering the...     

Muslim Immigrants in Greece: Religious Organization and Local Responses

Muslims are the second largest religious group in Greece. In this essay their migration process, numbers, settlement patterns and demographic characteristics are presented. It is shown that Muslims in Greece include not only economic migrants but also an indigenous population residing in the northern part of the country. The essay discusses mainly the immigrants' efforts to establish associations and prayer halls as well as the state's initiative to establish a central mosque in the suburbs of Athens. It argues that although Muslims are now an integral part of a multi-religious Greece, there is a long way to go to achieving their integration.     

Muslim Immigrants in Greece: Religious Organization and Local Responses

Muslims are the second largest religious group in Greece. In this essay their migration process, numbers, settlement patterns and demographic characteristics are presented. It is shown that Muslims in Greece include not only economic migrants but also an indigenous population residing in the northern part of the country. The essay discusses mainly the immigrants' efforts to establish associations and prayer halls as well as the state's initiative to establish a central mosque in the suburbs of Athens. It argues that although Muslims are now an integral part of a multi-religious Greece, there is a long way to go to achieving their integration.     

Sustainability of Nonprofit Human Service Organizations in a Neighborhood Context

Nonprofit human service organizations (NHSOs) carry both practical and symbolic implications for serving local needs. Whether neighborhood characteristics influence the existence of NHSOs is a critical inquiry, albeit with mixed results. This study examines the relationship between neighborhood characteristics and organizational sustainability based on the data of the capital district of New York State. Spatial analysis showed that the largest concentration of NHSOs remains in the inner‐city neighborhoods. Regression analysis identified small revenues of organizations and density of African American residents as significant factors that are negatively associated with the longevity of NHSOs, controlling for neighborhood income level. These findings imply that small‐budget organizations in African American neighborhoods may experience a quick turnover, which prompts a deeper understanding of how NHSOs attempt to sustain in such neighborhoods.     

Technological and Organizational Innovations and Financial Performance: Evidence from Nonprofit Human Service Organizations

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations - The aim of this research was to explore whether several types of innovations were related to relevant measures of...