Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly

Studies examining the role of philanthropic foundations in advancing social change have primarily focused on the impact of foundations’ financial resources. Few scholars have analyzed how foundations also leverage social mechanisms to advance and legitimate desired change. We conceptualize philanthropic foundations as agents of change known as institutional entrepreneurs to illuminate the social mechanisms they employ in pursuit of institutional change. We study the case of charter schools within the field of U.S. public education, where foundations elevated a new organizational form—the charter management organization—by engaging in three social mechanisms: recombining cultural elements to establish the form, enforcing evaluative frameworks to assess the form, and sponsoring new professionals to populate the form with preferred expertise. We argue that foundations are distinctive due to their ability to simultaneously pursue social mechanisms that are often considered to be the realms of different types of institutional entrepreneurs.

Research on diaspora philanthropy is in its infancy, primarily focused on individual country case studies, and often prone to over-generalization. Based on an extensive survey of the Coptic diaspora in three countries of residence (CORs), this article analyzes the experience and potential of a minority and faith-based diaspora. The survey findings inform a nuanced reading of diaspora philanthropy as practiced and understood. Placing this experience in the context of knowledge to date suggests several findings about diaspora philanthropy. Diasporas are extremely heterogeneous. Members of minority diasporas do not necessarily target their giving only to their fellow minorities in the country of origin (COO). COR giving norms may be integrated alongside faith-based and heritage culture giving norms, possibly displacing the latter at least at the margins. Despite integration in the COR, even over long periods of time and across generations, diasporans may retain a strong interest in philanthropy targeted to the COO.

Mental budgeting (also known as mental accounting) has examined how consumers allocate and expend resources. However, the mental budgeting literature has not yet examined the availability and use of mental budgets for philanthropic, as opposed to day-to-day, consumption. Depth interviews with donors in both the United States and Canada reveal that donors do maintain mental budgets for philanthropy, that charitable gifts are expensed against the mental budget for philanthropy as well as against other budgets, and that donors’ mental budgets are malleable. Study findings extend the literature on the management and malleability of mental budgets, and provide insight to nonprofit organizations (NPO) to better position appeals to maximize donations and strengthen long-term donor relationships.

This qualitative study examines the experiences of four nonprofit human service organizations engaging in performance measurement processes to satisfy accountability requirements and increase organizational and program effectiveness. Nonprofits are increasingly required to respond to performance measurement mandates issuing from multiple sources. However, many of the recommended strategies have been developed in the for-profit and public sectors, and are less appropriate or feasible for nonprofit organizations. Three central findings emerged from interviews, focus groups, and review of archival data. First, the complexity of human change processes and the variation among individual clients complicate efforts to define client outcomes. Second, staff skills play a critical role in effective utilization of data systems. Third, organizational strategies to support performance measurement include incorporating user perspectives into system design and providing adequate staff access to data.

Which characteristics of NGOs are associated with the adoption of modern management practices and to what extent have those practices become standardized? Based on a national sample of 135 international and local NGOs operating in Cambodia, we address these questions by analyzing the dynamics of “monitoring and evaluation” (M&E), a term used to describe a broad range of activities that NGOs undertake to track, understand, and assess their work. We provide an overview of monitoring and evaluation in a developing country setting, investigate the factors associated with more extensive (or sophisticated) M&E using multivariate analysis, and look at how M&E practices vary between local and international NGOs. Findings demonstrate that professionalization, resource dependence, and social embeddedness all play important roles in explaining the activities of NGOs operating in Cambodia. The analysis also suggests that the flow of management practices in the NGO sector differs for local and international actors.

Due to the importance of volunteers within the sport industry, there have been increased efforts to determine the motivation behind these acts of volunteerism. However, most research has focused on volunteers with professional sporting events and organizations, and very few studies have investigated volunteer motivations behind sport-for-development initiatives. The purpose of this study is to investigate the motivation of volunteers who chose to take part in the World Scholar-Athlete Games, a multinational sport-for-development event, and to identify factors related to their retention. This qualitative study was guided by the functional approach to volunteer motivation. Results revealed volunteers were motivated by values, social, understanding, career and self-enhancement factors. In addition, volunteers whose initial motivations for volunteering were satisfied continued to donate time to the event year after year. Implications for theory and practice, as well as future research directions, are discussed.

In this study, we test whether Putnam’s general claim of a negative effect of ethnic diversity holds for (active and passive) involvement in three types of voluntary organizations: leisure, interest, and activist organizations. Using data from the European Social Survey (wave 1), we applied multilevel analyses distinguishing individuals, regions, and countries. Only at the regional level, did we find that ethnic diversity reduced involvement in interest organizations. Yet, ethnic diversity induced passive involvement in activist organizations. Subsequently, we included mechanisms derived from conflict and contact theory to disentangle the indirect effects of ethnic diversity. Ethnic threat perceptions influenced participation in all voluntary associations negatively, while intergroup contact turned out to have positive influences. Our findings stress the necessity of distinguishing different types of voluntary organizations and modes of involvement and underline the importance of incorporating indirect effects of ethnic diversity.

Effective training programs are critical for successful employee performance. The same can be said for volunteer programs. Volunteers need to have the knowledge and skills necessary to fulfill the mission of the organization. In this study, we examine the impact of training methods and trainees’ demographic factors on the effectiveness of a training program for a voluntary program. Survey results (N = 5,727) indicate a very low percentage of participation (16.46%) in the voluntary program after training. Responses also indicate that content knowledge recall after training is affected by training year (the year receiving training), industrial sector, calling history, and training delivery method. Participants’ desires for retraining are also impacted by the type of training received, the industry sector, as well as past participation in the program. Recommendations for voluntary training programs based on study results and future research directions are presented.

Volunteer programs are expected to positively impact the organizations in which they exist. This article reviews the literature on volunteerism, including what volunteers do, how their contributions can be measured, and the financial- and quality-related outcomes of volunteer programs. The focus is on volunteerism in health care settings, particularly hospitals. The article summarizes the existing theoretical and empirical literature concerning the roles of volunteers, the economic value of volunteers, cost–benefit analysis of volunteer labor, and the impact of volunteers on quality and patient satisfaction. The review indicates that the use of volunteers offers significant cost savings to hospitals and may positively impact profit margins. Volunteers are also likely to enhance quality indicators such as patient satisfaction and safety. Implications of these findings for management and future research are discussed.