Nonprofit Governance Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Most research on the governance of nonprofit organizations concentrates on welfare-oriented organizations and disregards other types of nonprofits. This article examines the governance structures of trade associations and unions as a special type of nonprofit organization. Analysis is based on a qualitative case study survey of thirty Swiss trade associations. The results distinguish four categories of governance: satellite governance, delegate governance, executive governance, and inner-circle governance.

- by Georg von Schnurbein
- •
- Nonprofit Governance

This article illustrates the development of government-nonprofit collaboration in The Netherlands. It first gives an overview of scope and structure of the non-profit sector and voluntary work and then explains the crucial steps in the evolution of partnership arrangement between the public sector and nonprofit institutions. The article describes the past significance of so-called pillarization on the development of the nonprofit sector and its collaboration with the state. In accommodating a broad diversity of nonprofit organizations with different religious and societal background, The Netherlands created an elaborate mechanism for government-nonprofit collaboration in which nonprofit organizations fulfil functions in service delivery and policy formation. However, the sector is now fundamentally fragmented and now has little shared identity left. Paradoxically, its past success also makes it less likely that the Dutch nonprofit sector will be regarded as a solution to current social problems.

- by Taco Brandsen and +1
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- Nonprofit Studies, Third Sector, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), Voluntary Associations

This article analyzes the financial vulnerability of 228 British nongovernmental development organizations (NGDOs) during the period 2008–2012. To do this, we use the Financial Vulnerability Index developed by Trussel et al. (2002). This index is commonly used in the literature on nonprofit organizations. However, we observe a very poor adaptation of the index to the reality of this industry, at least in predictive terms. The article goes deeply into each of the variables that are used to calculate this index, and we offer explanations of their inadequacy to this subsector of nonprofits.
Keywords: financial vulnerability, nonprofit, development cooperation, United Kingdom

- by Pablo de Andres and +2
- •
- Nonprofit Governance, Vulnerability

This paper discusses various issues and challenges facing philanthropy and nonprofit organizations in the United States of America. This report presents effective fundraising strategies and discusses management techniques employed by veterans in the nonprofit sector. Additionally, descriptions of each of the nine major areas associated with foundation funding are summarized, and certain grantsmanship practices are highlighted. Finally, this report will discuss seven basic components necessary for writing a successful grant proposal.

- by Dr. Lisa Marie Portugal
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- Nonprofit Studies, Fundraising, Nonprofit, Nonprofit Governance

Free Expression of Religion and Freedom of Speech or Not, That is the Question

- by Dan Peterson
- •
- Religion, Constitutional Law, Religious Education, Nonprofit Governance

Nonprofit organizations perform some of the most important functions in society that support and strengthen communities. They have broad missions and touch nearly every aspect of our lives. Donors, funders, and the general public have escalated their demand for information regarding nonprofit performance, and thus demand for nonprofit accountability has also increased. While the
academic study of nonprofit organizations is a relatively recent phenomenon, the explosive growth in the number and variety of nonprofits around the world, the expansion of nonprofit regulation, and the increased financial pressures necessitate our understanding this complicated accountability environment. The
term accountability does not have a universally accepted definition; these four articles examine this concept from different viewpoints and in different contexts.

During the last few years, some donor countries (especially the US and the UK) have been increasingly outsourcing services in post-conflict operations to international non-governmental organisations (INGOs) and private military and security companies (PMSCs). These states have also adopted ‘integrated approaches’ to their policy interventions, contributing to the emergence of an ‘aid and security market’. The article uses ideas from both development and defence studies and re-problematises the contracting states’ relationship with PMSCs and INGOs. It argues that although INGOs and PMSCs are very different types of non-state actors, there are striking similarities in outsourcing practices. Moreover, it demonstrates that the leading contracting states have poorly managed their contracts with both INGOs and PMSCs, and have not seriously reflected on the unintended consequences of their contracting practices on the recovery of war-affected countries.

- by Bob Edwards
- •
- Sociology, Political Sociology, Social Theory, Social Theory

Per indicare l'insieme di organizzazioni che non appartengono alla sfera pubblica e si differenziano, al tempo stesso, dalle imprese tradizionali, si fa spesso riferimento a termini quali settore non profit o ancora Terzo settore. Tali espressioni rimandano ad una concezione residuale del fenomeno e rivelano, probabilmente, l'assenza di una definizione chiara dello stesso. In particolare, per distinguere le organizzazioni non profit dalle imprese lucrative, si chiamano in causa criteri non sempre omogenei e condivisi quali, ad esempio, le caratteristiche dell'attività svolta dall'ente o le finalità perseguite dai soci. Nonostante la pertinenza di entrambi gli aspetti, in questa sede si sosterrà che l'elemento qualificante del non profit sia da rintracciarsi non tanto negli elementi sopra richiamati, quanto piuttosto nel sistema di regole che ne definiscono la struttura dei diritti di proprietà.

- by Claudio Balestri
- •
- Civil Law, Social Sciences, Third Sector, Law and Economics

We argue that the broader Resource Mobilization (RM) approach remains very relevant to analyzing the full spectrum of contemporary social and political movements, and strongly recommend that contemporary analysts take a fresh look at resource mobilization theory. The first major section of this paper examines how RM has been used in recent research before considering briefly why it has been under-utilized. The second major section articulates a contemporary reformulation of a core portion of RM related specifically to resources. That section begins by differentiating a five-fold categorization of resource types that extends well beyond considerations of money, people and formal organizations, which have predominated in recent research. We then discuss the analytical importance of two key resource attributes (how fungible and proprietary resources are) before turning our attention to the broader issue of how movements gain access to resources. Four major mechanisms of resource access characteristic of social and political movements are delineated. Finally, we discuss the important concept of the exchange relationships through which specific movement actors gain access to particular resources and the constraints (or facilitations) various kinds of exchange relations can place on movements. We conclude by sketching new lines of research and contending that the RM approach is well-suited for analyzing the full spectrum of contemporary movements.

- by Bob Edwards and +1
- •
- Organizational Behavior, Sociology, Political Sociology, Social Change

This Masters by Coursework project investigated ways in which nonprofit leaders – in CEO, board and mid-management roles – abuse or misuse positions of authority in nonprofit organisations. 15 interviews were conducted with industry... more

Abstract
The purpose of this paper was to present an assessment of leader’s effectiveness relationship with ethical leadership style in the context of organizational performance. The assignment of the “research design” comprehensive question suggests that “results from qualitative research indicate that a leader’s effectiveness is related to the leader’s ethical example and leadership style” while research has shown the importance of the leadership style impact on employees’ motivation and performance, the proposed theories to be considered about ethics and effective leadership are discussed. In order to seek understanding of how ethics in leadership is related to effectiveness, ethical leadership is described as competency, from the standpoint of compliance with governance, which determines on the one hand the leader’s ethical behavior, and on the other hand explains the leader’s effectiveness. In this paper ethical leadership is explained to examine which theory is best related to effectiveness. The paper also provides a literature review of previous studies that focus on ethical leadership relationship with effectiveness.
Keywords: Ethical leadership, Leadership behavior, Leader’s effectiveness, Qualitative research, Organizational performance, Work engagement, Motivation.

Micro finance serves as a vital role for women entrepreneurship development in the developing countries as well as in Sri Lanka. As a result of 30 years conflict situation, women lost their male relatives in struggle, and forced to take a responsibility of their family in order to look after their children, aged parents and their male relatives. Micro finance institutions help the poor people particularly women in effective ways in order to create income generating activities. This study focuses the challenges and Scenarios associated with the adoption of microfinance as an instrument for empowering women entrepreneurs in Jaffna District in Sri Lanka. The prime objective of this study is to identify the challenges and scenarios in empowering women entrepreneurs through micro finance in Jaffna District. In this study the rural areas of Jaffna, Nallur, Kopay Divisional Secretariat Divisions, were selected as the sample size of population of women entrepreneurs who were involving in numerous self employable activities around 76 women. Both primary and secondary data were used for gathering information and quantitative and qualitative analysis was carried out to find out the results. To find out the results and check the validity and reliability of quantitative analysis the case study method also used in this study. In the quantitative analysis the correlation and regression method was used to find out the association between the variables of entrepreneurship challenges and needs and micro finance objectives by using SPSS. Three case study method also was included in this study that the women entrepreneurs were improved their activity by the support of micro finance institutions facing many challenges. The result of this study concluded that there is no significant relationship between the objectives of micro finance institutions and the needs of the respondents. In addition to this, using micro finance facilities create more job opportunities and variety of economic activities and improve household education, family welfare and empowering women themselves. Further this study shows that even though micro finance scheme is a strategy for increasing women entrepreneurs those who express their feelings on challenges and issues on marketing activities due to transport problem and financial difficulties. It is suggested that if much awareness will be created to enlighten the women entrepreneurs on record keeping, building assets, managing risk and increasing savings, it would be identified as the best strategy for helping poor women entrepreneurs' access on financial and non-financial services in MFIs.

- by Rathiranee Yogendrarajah and +2
- •
- Women's Studies, Social Sciences, Higher Education, Women's Rights

This paper uses a unique data set containing detailed micro-information on organisations, managers, workers and volunteers belonging to public, private forprofit and private nonprofit institutions delivering social services in Italy. The analysis aims to estimate the determinants of wages across organisations at a sector level focusing on the role of hiring and job search methods, including informal networks. We find that, independent of the organisation type, being hired through public competitions brings with it a substantial wage premium (ranging from 7 to 32%). Informal networks bring with them a wage penalty (-6.5%) in the state sector, where formal hiring methods are common, and a wage premium (6.3%) in social cooperatives and religious institutions, where formal hiring methods are not common. Interestingly, the differences in hiring and in job search methods between state and private organisations explain from 50% to 100% of the conditional wage differentials across organisation types. Our interpretation of these findings is that nonprofit organisations prefer informal recruitment methods not for nepotistic reasons, but to better select the most motivated workers, those who share the nonprofit mission. This paper adds to the previous literature by suggesting that in addition to lower than average monetary compensations, informal recruitment methods are part of the process of self-selection of motivated workers in nonprofit organisations.

- by Francesco Pastore
- •
- Industrial And Labor Relations, Sociology, Economics, Labor Economics

With the booming of civil society organizations in Lebanon, exploring the governance of such institutions has become essential. Those organizations are still governed by an archaic law dating from the Ottoman Empire and devoid of a section on internal governance. In light of the absence of this legal framework that guides nonprofit governance in Lebanon, the following questions are raised: What is the state of nonprofit governance in Lebanon? Are these organizations self-regulating and working towards implementing proper governance to provide transparency and accountability for the nonprofit sector, citizens and the state? To answer the above questions, multiple methods were used, ranging from primary quantitative research tools to secondary data gathering. Surveys were sent to around 503 associations in Lebanon. The questions focused on a better understanding of governance styles in associations. The secondary research methods involved extracting all information from previous research around governance within CSOs in different contexts. This information was used to identify the gap constituting the missing components of governance within Lebanese CSOs and the perception and understanding of the concept of governance by actors involved in it. Throughout the study, most Lebanese CSOs were observed as open and democratic, involving multiple stakeholders in their internal decisions and affairs, and strong on the communication and connectedness front. Also, they were perceived as having strong general accountability, internal formalization, power-sharing, decentralization, and representativeness. So, generally speaking, the Lebanese CSOs had more cooperative and coordinative internal governance. Without any doubt, every study comes with its limitations, and the ones related to

- by Tania Haddad and +1
- •
- Nonprofit Governance, Civil Society, Nonprofit sector

Small arts and cultural organisations are facing a number of significant challenges through the on-going austerity programmes impacting on their funding and practices. These challenges are made more complex and problematic through the isolation and time poverty they experience as a result of small budgets, less paid staff and through primarily volunteer run governance. There is a contradiction in inherent in the importance of recruiting and retaining volunteers and the on-going capacity of volunteer governance. This paper seeks to identify and explore these tensions and contradictions by identifying governance skills sets that can support the volunteer function, and inform a training process that is practice-based and overcomes the limitations of isolation, funding and time.

- by Peter Bryant
- •
- Nonprofit Governance, Arts Management, Third Sector Studies, Volunteerism
- by Chiara Cordelli
- •
- Political Philosophy, Nonprofit Studies, Political Theory, Social Justice

Sosyal politikanın önemli aktörlerinden biri olan sivil toplum kuruluşları tarihin her döneminde çeşitli şekillerde var olmuştur. Ancak, sanayi devrimi sonrasında ve özellikle de küreselleşme sürecinde nicelik ve nitelik açısından önemli değişimler yaşamıştır. Ülkelerin gelişmişlik düzeylerine ve sahip olduğu sosyo-kültürel özelliklere bağlı olarak farklı sivil toplum modelleri ortaya çıkmıştır. Japonya da yaşadığı hızlı kalkınma süreci ve kendine has kültürel özellikleri nedeniyle sivil toplum kuruluşlarının farklılık gösterdiği ülkeler arasında yer almaktadır. Sivil toplum rejimleri arasında yer aldığı devletçi model, Japonya’da sivil toplum kuruluşlarının ne tür özellikler gösterdiğini incelemeyi gerekli kılmaktadır. Bu çalışma da, Japonya’da sivil toplum kuruluşlarının ne anlama geldiğini, kurumsal yapılanmanın tarihsel gelişimini ve günümüzde STK’ların mevcut durumunu sosyal politika çerçevesinde incelemeyi amaçlamaktadır.

This encyclopedia chapter discusses the marked differences between Nonprofit Agencies/NPAs and Nonprofit Membership Associations/NMAs (voluntary associations) as the two principal types of Nonprofit Organizations (NPOs). Very often, scholars in our field/emergent academic discipline of voluntaristics (Smith 2013, in NVSQ) conflate NMAs with NPOs, which is a broader term/category that clearly also includes nonprofit NMAs, not just NPAs. This is a gross conceptual error.
NPAs and NMAs differ markedly in many ways, though both are key types of NPOs. Most fundamentally, NMAs are bottom-up, member-controlled, essentially democratic organizations/groups. NPAs are generally top-down, elite-controlled, essentially hierarchical organizations, which operate like business corporations and government agencies in terms of power structures. Lower participants have little or no power. Most NMAs in all nations for the past 10,000 years have been and are local, grassroots groups (Grassroots Associations/GAs), as relatively informal, non-professional, leisure time groups run by volunteers. They are usually NOT work organizations, run by paid staff, even though they may have a Service Volunteer Program/SVP, as a volunteer department.
The differences between NPAs and NMAs are so stark and fundamental that the author (Smith 1991, in NVSQ) has argued they should be seen as separate, distinct subsectors of the Voluntary Nonprofit Sector/VNPS or Third Sector/TS---or indeed as two distinct sectors of society. Research in the past 25 years has strongly supported Smith’s early argument for this distinctiveness of NPAs and NMAs, making his proposal attractive. There are indeed two very different subsectors of the VNPS, which should be distinguished, and probably should be seen as distinct societal sectors. NMAs at all territorial levels are too often ignored by voluntaristics scholars, who tend to use flat-earth global maps of our sector (Smith 1997, in NVSQ).

- by David Smith
- •
- Nonprofit Studies, Voluntary Associations, Nonprofit, Nonprofit Governance

Abstract
This paper discusses various issues and challenges facing philanthropy and nonprofit organizations in the United States of America. The writer believes that effective grant writing abilities are necessary for leaders in higher education and those who posses these skills will be able to lead more efficiently. The paper will present effective fundraising strategies and discuss management techniques employed by veterans in the nonprofit sector. Additionally, descriptions of each of the nine major areas associated with foundation funding are summarized, and certain grantsmanship practices are highlighted. Finally, this paper will discuss seven basic components necessary for writing a successful grant proposal.

Civil society is often seen as an important part of societal governance, and often discussed as the intermediary link between the individual and society. There is a plethora of studies about how the surrounding society enables and limits the agency of the organizations that make up civil society. This chapter presents a longitudinal case study of the governance within a large, member-based, federative Swedish civil society organization – IOGT-NTO. The study illustrates how one of the major original goals of the organization – to provide and promote cultural activities for members and non-members alike –is transformed into an organizational tool. This development is first propelled by the merger between the larger IOGT and the smaller NTO in 1970. It is further enhanced by the outsourcing of cultural activities to other organizations within the wider movement and the subsequent narrowing of the organization’s own remaining activities. This chapter tells the story of the activities that were pushed aside when the IOGT-NTO organization was radicalized.

This chapter has two themes: (1) the scope of formal and informal volunteering and of
nonprofit, voluntary, membership associations in the world, by which we mean the
quantitative magnitudes of these phenomena at or near the present time, and (2) the long
term and recent (past few decades) trends in these magnitudes. Global data are used, when available, but we also report data for world regions and for specific nations when feasible. Besides such data, we also report on estimated magnitudes of association wealth and income, the economic value of volunteering, internal structures and processes of associations, participation rates in associations, and issues regarding computer mapping of data such at that presented in this chapter. Usable knowledge, future trends, and needed research are discussed.

In this article we examine how information problems can cause agency slippages and lead to governance failures in nonprofit organizations. Drawing on the principal-agent literature, we provide a theoretical account of an institutional mechanism, namely, voluntary regulation programs, to mitigate such slippages. These programs seek to impose obligations on their participants regarding internal governance and use of resources. By joining these programs, nonprofit organizations seek to differentiate themselves from nonparticipants and signal to their principals that they are deploying resources as per the organizational mandate. If principals are assured that agency slippages are lower in program participants, they might be more likely to provide the participants with resources to deliver goods and services to their target populations. However, regulatory programs for nonprofit organizations are of variable quality and, in some cases, could be designed to obscure rather than reveal information. We outline an analytical framework to differentiate the credible clubs from the "charity washes." A focus on the institutional architecture of these programs can help to predict their efficacy in reducing agency problems.

- by Aseem Prakash
- •
- Nonprofit Studies, Accountability, Non-profit Management, Nonprofit Governance

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.

- by Jurgen Willems
- •
- Nonprofit Studies, Effectiveness, Performance, Nonprofit

Indigenous sovereignty has been both expanded and restricted in the current self-determination era of federal Indian policy in the United States. This has allowed both the expansion and strengthening of indigenous governments, as well as the continued successful efforts to restrict and regulate these sovereign indigenous nations. The existing models of governance, development, and planning fail to adequately account for these challenges to the fundamental legitimacy of indigenous governments. I propose the model of the ‘indigenous shadow state’ based around community land trusts and other indigenously-controlled nonprofit organizations, as a complementary model, to compensate for these challenges as a means of ensuring the long term viability of indigenous social and political institutions. I discuss how a community land trust can be utilized to perform the role of a government and serve the long term needs of its citizens in the areas of housing, economic development, and land reclamation. I also briefly discuss how this model can be applied in the urban context.

- by Samuel W Rose
- •
- Ethnic Studies, Native American Studies, Indigenous Studies, Nonprofit Studies

This is a fictionalized case based on real events. It is intended as a teaching tool to stimulate discussion about procedural issues in nonprofit governance; board roles and responsibilities; communications; and relationships between boards, chairs, and executives, particularly in the context of smaller organizations. It is meant to support sessions on nonprofit boards and governance in introductory courses on nonprofit management or for use in workshops with new or less experienced executives and board members. Set in an organization engaged in cultural exchange, the case can be used in introductions to nonprofit management, arts administration, or international nongovernmental management.

In several database applications, parameters like selectivities and load are known only with some associated uncertainty, which is specified, or modeled, as a distribution over values. The performance of query optimizers and monitoring schemes can be improved by spending resources like time or bandwidth in observing or resolving these parameters, so that better query plans can be generated. In a resourceconstrained situation, deciding which parameters to observe in order to best optimize the expected quality of the plan generated (or in general, optimize the expected value of a certain objective function) itself becomes an interesting optimization problem.

- by Sri Suryanti
- •
- Cognitive Science, Dentistry, Nonprofit Studies, Employment Law

This encyclopedia chapter discusses the marked differences between Nonprofit Agencies/NPAs and Nonprofit Membership Associations/NMAs (voluntary associations) as the two principal types of Nonprofit Organizations (NPOs). Very often, scholars in our field/emergent academic discipline of voluntaristics (Smith 2013, in NVSQ) conflate NMAs with NPOs, which is a broader term/category that clearly also includes nonprofit NMAs, not just NPAs. This is a gross conceptual error.
NPAs and NMAs differ markedly in many ways, though both are key types of NPOs. Most fundamentally, NMAs are bottom-up, member-controlled, essentially democratic organizations/groups. NPAs are generally top-down, elite-controlled, essentially hierarchical organizations, which operate like business corporations and government agencies in terms of power structures. Lower participants have little or no power. Most NMAs in all nations for the past 10,000 years have been and are local, grassroots groups (Grassroots Associations/GAs), as relatively informal, non-professional, leisure time groups run by volunteers. They are usually NOT work organizations, run by paid staff, even though they may have a Service Volunteer Program/SVP, as a volunteer department.
The differences between NPAs and NMAs are so stark and fundamental that the author (Smith 1991, in NVSQ) has argued they should be seen as separate, distinct subsectors of the Voluntary Nonprofit Sector/VNPS or Third Sector/TS---or indeed as two distinct sectors of society. Research in the past 25 years has strongly supported Smith’s early argument for this distinctiveness of NPAs and NMAs, making his proposal attractive. There are indeed two very different subsectors of the VNPS, which should be distinguished, and probably should be seen as distinct societal sectors. At all territorial levels, NMAs are too often ignored by voluntaristics scholars, who tend to use flat-earth global maps of our sector (Smith 1997, in NVSQ).