The governance of social enterprises: Mission drift and accountability challenges in hybrid organizations

We examine the challenges of governance facing organizations that pursue a social mission through the use of market mechanisms. These hybrid organizations, often referred to as social enterprises, combine aspects of both charity and business at their core. In this paper we distinguish between two ideal types of such hybrids, differentiated and integrated, and we conceptualize two key challenges of governance they face: accountability for dual performance objectives and accountability to multiple principal stakeholders. We revisit the potential and limitations of recently introduced legal forms to address these challenges. We then theorize about the importance of organizational governance and the role of governing boards in particular, in prioritizing and aligning potentially conflicting objectives and interests in order to avoid mission drift and to maintain organizational hybridity in social enterprises. Finally, we discuss future research directions and the implications of this work for rethinking traditional categories of organizations, namely business and charity.     

Engaging stakeholders through Twitter: How nonprofit organizations are getting more out of 140 characters or less

While it may seem difficult to communicate in a meaningful manner with 140 characters or less, Twitter users have found creative ways to get the most out of each Tweet by using different communication tools. This paper looks into how 73 nonprofit organizations use Twitter to engage stakeholders not only through their tweets, but also through other various communication methods. Specifically it looks into the organizations utilization of tweet frequency, following behavior, hyperlinks, hashtags, public messages, retweets, and multimedia files. After analyzing 4655 tweets, the study found that the nation's largest nonprofits are not using Twitter to maximize stakeholder involvement. Instead, they continue to use social media as a one-way communication channel as less than 20% of their total tweets demonstrate conversations and roughly 16% demonstrate indirect connections to specific users.     

Engaging stakeholders through social networking: How nonprofit organizations are using Facebook

Since social networking sites, such as MySpace and Facebook, began allowing organizations to create profiles and become active members, organizations have started incorporating these strategies into their public relations programming. For-profit organizations have used these sites to help launch products and strengthen their existing brands; however, little is known about how nonprofit organizations are taking advantage of the social networking popularity. Through a content analysis of 275 nonprofit organization profiles on Facebook, this study examines how these new social networking sites are being used by the organizations to advance their organization's mission and programs. Solely having a profile will not in itself increase awareness or trigger an influx of participation. Instead careful planning and research will greatly benefit nonprofits as they attempt to develop social networking relationships with their stakeholders.     

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.     

Policy lessons for strengthening nonprofits

Those who develop or influence Australian public policy impacting on the nonprofit sector rarely have adequate empirical research upon which to base their judgments. Giving Australia research evidence relevant to strengthening giving and volunteering is brought together in this article to inform policy options for government, nonprofit and philanthropic entities. It begins with consideration of research findings related to the capacity of those that give or volunteer and the implications these findings have for policy. Three key criteria are developed for assessing policies to strengthening giving and volunteering, behaviours that primarily assist nonprofit organisations – policies that build trust between those that give and the recipients of their gifts, policies that strengthen affiliation and policies that encourage planned giving.     

非营利组织理事会角色与责任研究--基于中美比较分析的视角

无论是理论上的逻辑推理,还是实践中的经验总结,都揭示出非营利组织理事会所扮演的角色和承担的责任要重于企业董事会,清晰地界定理事会角色与责任是非营利组织治理的首要课题.利用因子分析可以将理事会角色与责任分为高级人力资源管理、决策、财务管理、筹资、维护与任务环境关系五类.通过中美之间的比较分析,可以以美国为参照系,折射出中国非营利组织理事会角色与责任的现实状况.实证分析的结果显示,发达国家非营利组织理事会在承担角色和责任方面要全面领先于中国.而就中国而言,基金会理事会在某些方面优于社会团体.     

英美日公益信托社会的发展现况与比较分析

公益信托是以慈善、文化、艺术、宗教或其他公益性质为目的的信托模式,因公益信托具有设立手续弹性简便与营运成本低的优点,较容易引导大众支持参与。但现阶段的非营利组织面临着同构型的机构募款竞争以及企业界对非营利组织的商业化包装竞争,导致发展空间处处受限。本文先以老牌信托王国的英国开始探讨公益信托事业的历史演变,再参酌重视资本运营效益的美国模式,最后以信托业融入东方社会价值观的日本进行比较分析,借鉴国际公益信托事业可持续发展的运作手法。相对于中国公益信托事业还处于萌芽阶段,除了不具英国有庞大民间财力可左右城市开发政策之外,加上人民过度依赖政府、信托法令不周全、中央地方政策冲突、领导过于重视经济开发、企业社会责任淡薄、非营利管理人才欠缺等等都让公益信托事业无法深入民心。因此本文以第三部门为视角,探索除政府、企业职能之外,对自然环境与文化资产保护该如何协助政府对公共利益观念的落实并因此创造可观的文化观光财。     

Are nonprofit density and nonprofit expenditures related to youth deviance?

This study explores whether neighborhoods with greater nonprofit density (nonprofits per mile) and/or larger nonprofit expenditures (nonprofit expenditures per 10,000 people) interact with social control to experience lower levels of adolescent deviancy. Data include cross-sectional surveys of 1541 youth. The data are analyzed using Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM). The dependent variable is a measure of deviance that is the sum of ten items, which assess deviant behaviors. For analysis the square root of this measure is used to adjust for negatively skewed data. The sample was drawn through a two stage-geostatistical sampling procedure, with the final sample including 50 zip codes throughout California. The study finds that adolescents' deviance is not associated with an interaction between social control and either nonprofit density or nonprofit expenditures. However, the analysis found strong positive associations between being male, being older, having higher levels of mean social control and the square root of deviance.     

慈善组织的公信力建设浅析

慈善组织是我国慈善事业发展的基础,公信力则是每个慈善组织的生命力。提升公信力不仅是慈善组织开展慈善活动的前提,而且是其健康发展的需要。结合非营利组织公信力的标准,文章分析了造成慈善组织公信力不足的原因,并就提升慈善组织公信力的措施进行了探讨。     

Exploring nonprofit-business partnerships on Twitter from a network perspective

This exploratory study attempts to understand the role of nonprofits and their position in corporate social responsibility (CSR) partnership communication. Employing social network analysis, the study identifies and interprets the network strategies used by top U.S. nonprofits in communicating about their CSR partnerships on Twitter. The results show that although all the nonprofit issue sectors disclosed extensive business partnerships, they selectively mobilize communication with certain business partners. The present study extends the network approach in a CSR context. Theoretical and practical implications were discussed.