Doing Good,Public Good,and Public Value

In this article, using multiple illustrative case examples, we demonstrate that philanthropic institutions are in the business of creating public value. In framing the work of philanthropy more broadly to include the process of public value creation, philanthropic institutions and leaders are challenged to be more strategic not only in their mission‐fulfillment grant‐making with nonprofit organizations but also in the way they stimulate and encourage collaboration, create the “third space” necessary to incubate ideas to transform society, and leverage resources to increase the return on their investments toward system‐wide change. The implications for philanthropic actors and institutions suggest that the strategic contributions they make toward creation of public value are those that go beyond transactional performance measures, such as number of dollars spent or clients receiving services, to include ways that their investments are amplified by meaningful partnerships with nonprofit and other organizations, changed behaviors of institutions and individuals, and transformative public policies.     

You Shall (Not) Pass: Strategies for Third-Party Gatekeepers to Enhance Volunteer Inclusion

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations - Volunteering appears to be a mechanism that can contribute to societal inclusion. As nonprofit organizations continuously...     

Administrators of volunteer services: their needs for training and research

Despite the importance of volunteer administrators to nonprofit and many government organizations, little systematic research has been focused on these officials. Using a large national survey of volunteer practitioners conducted in 1989-1990, this article examines empirically several hypotheses concerning organizational support to meet administrator needs for continuing education. Using the survey responses, the article also elaborates the subjects recommended by the administrators for treatment in a basic seminar in volunteer management, in an advanced seminar, and in further research.     

‘Young,Fun, and Free:’ Episodic Volunteers in Ghana,South Africa and Tanzania

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations - As scholarship on episodic volunteering expands, researchers question if episodic volunteering is similar to, and/or...     

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.     

In Search of Strategy

The canon of volunteer administration contends that adoption of specified practices separates effective from ineffective programs. Alternatively, structural contingency and strategic human resource management theories suggest that managers make adoption decisions based on how organizational circumstances dictate the applicability or efficacy of particular practices. We test propositions that universalistic adoption of “best practices,” contingent adoption of practices, and configurational adoption of bundles of practices are associated with program outcomes of recruitment ease, retention of volunteers, and the net benefits that volunteers bring to organizational operations. With all sets of tests garnering limited empirical support, we conclude that human resource practice in volunteer administration is loosely coupled with outcomes, but that some organizations do—and many more should—manage according to the singular context of their institutional and external environments.     

You Thought That This Would Be Easy? Seeking an Understanding of Episodic Volunteering

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations - This article is intended as the leading article in a Special Issue of Voluntas devoted to episodic volunteering from a...