Reassessing Charity Trusteeship in Britain? Toward Conservatism, Not Change

The growing prominence given to charity trustees' strategy-making roles and responsibilities is encouraging reassessment of the values and purposes of trusteeship in Britain. This occurs against a background of an increasingly professionalized and managerialist charity sector. Trustees are seen, in public policy terms, as a homogeneous and leadership-oriented group, while some charity managers aspire to or are already fulfilling leadership roles. This research note reviews these developments, considering trustees' strategy-making and controlling functions, and the nature of the relations between charity staffs and trustees. It describes the development of a tentative typology by the authors, characterizing trustees' approaches to their roles, as a means of illustrating the heterogeneous rather than homogeneous nature of the overall charity trustee body. The research process, leading toward the typology's development, is outlined and critiqued. Reflections on the value of the typology are given and possible future developments in trusteeship are considered. The authors consider that those trustees willing to remain in role are likely to adopt custodial rather than entrepreneurial approaches to their trusteeship. Such a role is likely to be increasingly at odds with the role sought or adopted by senior managers in some charities, and also with the proactive model of trusteeship that is being encouraged by the regulatory systems for British charities.     

Variations in trusteeship: cases from Boston and Cleveland, 1925–1985

Case studies suggest that important changes in the composition and structure of boards of trustees of non-profit organisations have occurred in recent decades. The nature of these changes, and how they may vary across industry and locale, are not well documented. This pilot study compares changes in structure and board membership of three elite non-profit organisations in two cities at three points in time: 1925, 1955 and 1985. This study focuses on governing boards of the major art museum, largest non-profit hospital and local United Way of Boston and Cleveland. Board members' biographical data are used to assess models of board diversification based on environmental pressures and changes in local elites. We find evidence that trusteeship varies historically, regionally and across industries, and we set the stage for broader-based empirical comparative work on changes in non-profit boards of trustees.     

Charity law and pressure politics in Britain: after the Oxfam inquiry

The Charity Commissioners' report of inquiry into Oxfam in 1991 was heralded as having major significance for Britain's charities and their legal position with respect to political activity. The verdict was critical of the charity, and publicly threatened trustees with sanctions in the event of a recurrence of political abuse. However, the outcome cannot be claimed as an important victory for right-wing political forces in their campaign to end what in their view is an unacceptable left-wing political bias in some of the country's leading charitable agencies. Organisations like Oxfam will be able to continue to participate in the political arena. Nevertheless, they face awkward dilemmas concerning their relationships with government, at a time when their own understanding of third world problems and increasing pressure from their overseas partners urge them to take on the mantle of a pressure group.The author wishes to thank two referees of an earlier version of this paper for their exceptionally thorough and helpful comments. Any errors of fact or interpretation are, of course, the responsibility of the author.     

Mandatory Public Benefit Reporting as a Basis for Charity Accountability: Findings from England and Wales

Charitable status is inherently linked in many jurisdictions with the requirement that an entity must be established for public benefit. But, until recently the public benefit principle had relatively little impact on the operations of most established charities. However, in England and Wales, reforms linked to the «Charities Act 2006» led to a new requirement for public benefit reporting in the trustees’ annual report (TAR) of every registered charity. This new narrative reporting requirement had the potential to affect the understanding of accountability by charities. The paper investigates the impact of that requirement through a study of over 1,400 sets of charity reports and accounts and subsequent qualitative work with trustees and others involved in preparing TARs.     

Representational Roles of Nonprofit Advocacy Organizations in the United States

This research explores what roles nonprofits play in political representation by applying the concept of the representational role to nonprofits. The representational role consists of representational focus and style. Representational focus shows those whom nonprofits aim to serve: members, constituents, or the general public. Representational style denotes the ways nonprofits advocate for their focal groups: the delegation, trusteeship, and education styles. The survey and regression analysis results demonstrate that nonprofits serving their members are most likely to convey their members’ voices directly to policy makers: the delegation style. In contrast, nonprofits advocating for their constituents are likely to pursue what they independently identify as their constituents’ interests: the trusteeship style. Finally, nonprofits speaking for the general public are most likely to work toward educating the general public: the education style. These results suggest that nonprofits play different roles in political representation, depending on the types of their focal groups.     

Rockefeller Philanthropy and the Institute of Pacific Relations: A Reappraisal of Long-Term Mutual Dependency

Archival evidence is used to explore the development of funding for the Institute of Pacific Relations (IPR) and the Canadian Institute of International Affairs (the secretariat for the Canadian national council of the IPR) provided by the Rockefeller Foundation (RF). It suggests that the withdrawal of funding should be interpreted in a long-term perspective as a joint responsibility of mutually dependent recipients and funders, rather than simply as the fault of RF decision makers responding reactively to the prevailing climate of McCarthyism. Moreover, it is argued that the conventional wisdom as to the balance of influence within the RF between key staff and trustees is in need of revision. Conceptual implications of these examples of recipient dependence are explored, including the reasons for and dangers of such mutual dependence, the meaning of donor responsibility, and the mediating role of foundation officers.     

Elicited vs. voluntary promises

We set up an experiment with pre-play communication to study the impact of promise elicitation by trustors from trustees on trust and trustworthiness. When given the opportunity a majority of trustors solicits a promise from the trustee. This drives up the promise making rate by trustees to almost 100%. We find that elicited promises are more likely to be trusted than volunteered promises, but trustees who make an elicited promise are not more likely to be trustworthy than trustees who make a voluntary promise.     

Birthing the Pill at the University of Vermont (1970-1976)

The introduction of the birth control pill in 1960 precipitated 2 decades of intense social change in the United States, particularly in the area of sexuality. Colleges and universities were not immune to these changes. The author examines the struggles at 1 land-grant university to find common ground on this issue among students, faculty, administrators, and trustees between 1970 and 1976.     

Birthing the pill at the University of Vermont (1970-1976)

The introduction of the birth control pill in 1960 precipitated 2 decades of intense social change in the United States, particularly in the area of sexuality. Colleges and universities were not immune to these changes. The author examines the struggles at 1 land-grant university to find common ground on this issue among students, faculty, administrators, and trustees between 1970 and 1976.     

Special interest group coalitions: Ethical standards for broad-based support efforts

Coalitions are an increasingly important tool of special interest group public affairs efforts. While coalitions are not usually formed with the intent to deceive, some groups take shortcuts which amount to buying results and manipulating the public. These “front” groups which deceive or mislead the public or policy-making bodies can undermine the professionalism of public relations and damage the public trust.The author examines case studies of coalitions formed by a for-profit corporation, a trade association and a foreign government. Findings were that: (1) coalitions perform an important role if they represent a broad public interest but if they do not represent a broad base, they may be deceptive, unethical, and potentially damaging to the public interest; (2) media play an important role as diligent watchdogs but don't always rise to this responsibility, and (3) the public relations profession bears the brunt of public and media concern over unethical coalition activity. Ethical guidelines for coalition development are offered.     

The financial information that nonprofit trustees need and how they can get it

With one exception, the accounting principles governing the information reported on the financial statements of nonprofit organizations should be the same as those for business organizations, and trustees should use this information to decide on budgets and analyze actual performance in essentially the same way as do business boards of directors. The exception is that nonprofit organizations receive capital contributions, which are rare in business corporations. In some nonprofit organizations, especially colleges, the information that trustees actually receive is confusing because of the unnecessary use of fund accounting and other peculiarities. Nevertheless, trustees can insist on businesslike financial statements.     

Is the beauty premium accessible to all? An experimental analysis

We conducted a trust game experiment to investigate whether women are trusted more when they wear makeup than when they do not. Facial attractiveness, which was manipulated through the application of makeup by a professional makeup artist, was measured before and after makeovers. Trustors were shown a photograph of their female counterparts before they made decisions about money transfers to trustees. The results showed that wearing makeup increased perceived attractiveness, which in turn led trustors to make larger transfers to female trustees during the trust game. Additionally, we discovered a pure makeup premium that was mediated by gender. Specifically, female trustees with makeup received larger transfers than female trustees without makeup when the trustors were men, even after controlling for female trustees’ levels of attractiveness.     

Fundraising encroachment on public relations: A clear and present danger to effective trustee leadership

When fundraising encroachment occurs, strategic publics who can affect a charitable organization's success and survival are rarely brought to the attention of trustees because public relations practitioners are denied access to these leaders, and the manager who does have access—the fundraiser—is trained and rewarded to concentrate on donor publics. A national survey documents fundraising encroachment in five of the six major types of charitable organizations. Although only 23 percent of the respondents (N = 175) reported structural encroachment, 40 percent agreed that the senior fundraisers in their organizations had more say in policy decisions than the senior public relations officers. Small but significant correlations were found between encroachment and the extent to which the public relations department has the knowledge and expertise to practice two-way models of public relations and communications support.     

选举后的治理问题:困境及缓释之道——基于上海城市社区的调查分析

民主决策、民主管理和民主监督都是社区治理的重要内容。当前,上海城市社区建设总体情况良好,但依旧存在选举后的治理难题。要针对社区治理难题,提升社区治理绩效,必须构建民主合作型社区治理体制,还应健全社区内部治理、拓展社区外部环境、充分发挥政府的主导作用、优化公共服务体制等,重视理顺政社关系,合理架构社区内部的组织关系。     

Preventing Tragedy in Canada? Risk and Responsibility in Government Discourses about Alcohol Consumption and Pregnancy

The feminist analysis presented in this article interrogates the fundamental assumptions that informed the first document produced by the Canadian government about alcohol consumption during pregnancy. Our analysis shows that constructions of risk and responsibility are rooted in neoliberal principles. We argue that such ideas can reinforce a problematic notion of individualization that is at the core of the neoliberal state—one that devalues a sense of social responsibility for the public good and contributes to a highly moralized pregnancy discourse that encourages the widespread surveillance of women’s reproductive bodies and behaviors.     

Public Participation: Moving Beyond the Four Walls of Therapy

Family therapists have an ethical responsibility for public participation, to work toward creating a better society. Serving the public interest and developing laws to promote the profession and the public good can be achieved through policy advocacy and political participation. Political and policy work are important but overlooked aspects of family therapy, which is significant given the consequences differing policies have for clients and the profession. This paper reports on results from a random, national survey of licensed family therapists’ (N = 174) advocacy actions. Findings indicate family therapists have overarching policy concerns yet lack proactive legislative and activist engagement. The exploration of therapists’ actions and beliefs presented in this paper, serves as a springboard for therapists’ movement into the public arena. Video abstract accessible by clicking here .     

Gender and Networks in a Local Voluntary-Sector Elite

Focusing on gender inequality in a local community elite, we investigate the role of gender in access to and participation in networks of nonprofit trustees in Louisville, Kentucky. We examine two types of network relations: participation in the network of overlapping board memberships (the structural network) and interpersonal ties of collegiality and friendship (the social network). Asking whether the gender hierarchy found in most private and public sector organizations is mirrored in this inner circle of trustees, with men occupying the most influential positions in the structural and social networks, we find some male advantage in the structural network. Men predominate in holding most board seats, occupying multiple board seats, and in having slightly greater network centrality. By contrast, women hold the edge in the social network, with slightly greater centrality and higher levels of social integration. Women's disadvantage in the structural network is at least partly counterbalanced by their prominence in the social network of trustees in Louisville. Results indicate that the local nonprofit sector includes a small number of women (but no people of color) in leadership roles.     

Who joins unions in the public sector? The effects of individual characteristics and the law

Analysis of a large micro-data set shows that state public-sector bargaining laws significantly influence state and local government union membership in several ways. Membership probability is lowest where a right-to-work law is present; it is greatest when there are mandatory agency shop provisions. Compulsory arbitration leads to a significantly greater probability of membership than does the right-to-strike. Simulations based on model estimates indicate that policy changes along the lines of proposed national public bargaining laws could lead to major changes in public-sector union density. Among individual and demographic characteristics, membership probability is significantly affected by full-time/part-time status and the statewide extent of private-sector unionism. Although non-whites and males are more likely to be union members, race and gender membership differentials are shown to be relatively small. The author thanks Jack Fiorito, Paul Jarley, Joe Stone, and Rob Valletta for their helpful comments. Any remaining errors are his sole responsibility.     

城市生态绿化项目的政府投资方式改革——基于绿地建设与房产开发商的利益互动关系研究

通过对公共产品的内涵分析表明，仅由政府提供公共产品经常会出现不经济现象；只要解决外部性问题，公共产品是可以由私人提供的。以上海公共绿地为例，在分析目前公共绿地政府投资方式的基础上，研究绿地建设与房产开发商的利益互动关系，探讨城市绿地外部效应内部化的投资方式改革，提出房产与绿地联合开发建议，以期减轻政府建设城市绿地的资金压力，为实现城市公共绿地的最优投资提供理论上的依据。