What Motivates Which Volunteers? Psychographic Heterogeneity Among Volunteers in Australia

Six psychographic segments of volunteers in Australia are constructed on the basis of their volunteering motivations. The resulting segments include “classic volunteers,” whose motivations are threefold: doing something worthwhile; personal satisfaction; and helping others. “Dedicated volunteers” perceive each one of the motives for volunteering as relevant, while “personally involved volunteers” donate time because of someone they know in the organization, most likely their child. “Volunteers for personal satisfaction” and “altruists” primarily wish to help others, and finally, “niche volunteers” typically have fewer and more specific drivers motivating them to donate time, for example, to gain work experience. The segments are externally validated and demonstrate significantly different socio-demographic profiles. Consequently, it seems that motivation-based data-driven market segmentation represents a useful way of gaining insight into heterogeneity amongst volunteers. Such insight can be used by volunteering organizations to more effectively target segments with customized messages.     

Engaging publics via documentaries: A typological study of advocacy functions among Taiwanese NPOs’ productions

A typological analysis was conducted to analyze how Taiwan's NPO documentary productions varied in sparking publicity, shaping policies, and building activist networks in this study. Findings suggested that documentaries are favorable because they (1) have more sustainable advocacy impacts, (2) are relatively easier to deploy in tackling sensitive issues normally circumcised in the institutional process, and (3) are valuable tools to build internal consensus at special occasions. Efforts to create synergic effect were then discussed.     

我国非营利组织能力：资源状况检视

我国非营利组织能力和能力建设问题,较少得到重视,只有关于其较低能力的常识性看法。对资源状况的相关统计资料分析表明,与经济组织相比,我国非营利组织资源能力水平确实比较低,但存在着一定的类别差异,特别是层次差异极其明显。     

A Calmly Disruptive Insider: The Case of an Institutionalized Advocacy Organization at Work

Through a case study of a leading service provider organization in Philadelphia, this paper explores the advocacy work of a publicly funded, professionalized, institutionalized nonprofit organization. In this article I relate how in the spring of 2002, staff at the organization responded to a recurring political issue: local business groups were again calling for official action against “aggressive panhandlers” in the downtown district. I use ethnographic and historical data to show that the organization’s institutionalization and ties to the public sector have allowed staff to develop resources and skills for being both contentious claim-makers and influential actors in the institutional political arena.

International Funding of NGOs in India: Bringing the State Back In

This article seeks to understand how the Indian state exercises control over transnational ties between foreign and domestic actors by examining the national legislative practices that determine receipt of foreign funds and the data on foreign funding flows to NGOs (a database of more than 18,000 associations). The article shows how legislative practices of democratic states serve to reduce foreign influence. Issue characteristics are also shown to determine state response to externalization, blocking transnational ties in “high politics” areas such as minority claims. Finally, within state imposed restrictions, religious rather than secular organizations remain dominant transnational actors in India. The study contributes evidence to suggest that contrary to the arguments of world polity theory and many transnational social movement scholars, states continue to remain powerful actors limiting transnationalization.

Nonprofit Organizations and Human Services in Greece: The Residual Segment of a Weak Sector

The majority of Greek nonprofit organizations active in the field of human services belong in two categories: the first is homes for the elderly that provide assisted living to seniors and the second is philanthropic societies, which primarily fight against poverty. This paper argues that this sector is small in terms of membership, voluntary performance, beneficiaries, and budget. Nonprofit organizations have succeeded in developing close relationships with local communities, as well as in providing essential alleviation quickly and flexibly. On the other hand, organizations are very dependent on the state and they keep beneficiaries away from decision making; moreover, their contribution to building social capital is trivial and participation in policy-making minimal. The lack of collective representation prevents an open society and hinders communication with government.

Corporatism Revisited—The Legacy of History and the German Nonprofit Sector

Salamon argues strongly in favor of a public–nonprofit partnership model expressing the European flavor of corporatism. Germany provides a textbook example of corporatist arrangements, particularly in the fields of health care and social services. Whereas American nonprofit organizations are suffering from a crisis of legitimacy caused by marketization, German nonprofit organizations have been confronted with a crisis of legitimacy and identity caused by corporatism since the early 1980s. This particular scenario, however, is not covered by Salmon's analysis.     

The ACORN story: An analysis of crisis response strategies in a nonprofit organization

In 2009, two political activists published hidden-camera recordings of their visits to the offices of a national, community-based, nonprofit organization. In the videos, the activists posed as a prostitute and a pimp in order to elicit damaging information from the organization's employees. This incident was just the latest in a series of disastrous situations for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN). In the year prior to the video controversy, the organization addressed allegations of voter registration fraud in the 2008 presidential election and reacted to the expose of a hidden embezzlement by a family member of ACORN's founder. This study employs the Situational Crisis Communication Theory (SCCT) to analyze how ACORN responded to this series of damaging public relations attacks. The study investigated ACORN's crisis response strategies through an analysis of media coverage about the crises.     

非营利组织问责:公共选择的分析

本文运用公共选择的理论框架,从规范、实证、操作层面上探索了非营利组织的问责问题。非营利组织的问责包括:利益相关者的偏好加总、行动者的交互作用和实施中的委托代理。相应的解决之道包括:明确组织使命、提升组织透明度,扶植弱势群体、提供选择性激励、加强协作合作,引入竞争、提供正负激励、加强内部和自我问责等。