Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly

Nonprofit organizations contribute to society through service provision, advocacy, and community building. As they face the challenge of pursuing a social mission while operating in a market economy, many adopt businesslike practices in response. Nonprofits’ tendency to adopt such practices has become a contested scholarly topic, with, however, limited empirical evidence. Using survey data from nearly 600 nonprofits in the Vienna region, we examine how organizational practices—specifically businesslike managerial and democratic ones—relate to nonprofits’ emphasis on service provision, advocacy, and community building. Democratic and managerial practices follow institutional logics that may activate interpretation frame effects that influence organizational goals. Contrary to concerns in previous literature, we find that implementing managerial practices is harmonious not only with service delivery but also advocacy and, to some extent, community building. Democratic organizing, conversely, supports community building while reducing service delivery focus. Combining these practices can support a balanced societal role profile.

This article intends to contribute to further research on cross-border phenomenon in nonprofit and philanthropic studies by developing a conceptual model for diaspora philanthropy, the transfer of resources such as money, time, labor, and knowledge to countries of origin for the public good. The interdisciplinary opportunities for the topic of diaspora philanthropy can be considered a strength, but at times, they result in disparate studies and minimal consideration for larger questions and theory development. In this article, we hope to aggregate relevant research in order to remedy some of these challenges. An interdisciplinary approach allows us to chart macro, meso, and micro theories and empirical work that help to explain diaspora philanthropy. We ask: What are the (global) drivers that influence diaspora philanthropy (macro level)? What are the channels that allow for, or challenge, diaspora philanthropy (meso level)? And what are the individual motives of diaspora philanthropists (micro level)?

Despite demographic change leading to increased age diversity among volunteers, extant research offers limited guidance on how organizations can manage age-diverse volunteer teams. In this study, we delve into the dynamics of age diversity in a volunteer context by analyzing the case of German World Shops. We collected extensive ethnographic and interview data from age-diverse volunteer teams over a period of 2.5 years. In our analysis, we identified three overarching barriers to age-diverse teamwork—resistance to change and innovation, communication preferences, and power dynamics—and three enablers—creating space to experiment, ensuring protected spaces, and fostering spaces of encounter. In doing so, we contribute to the existing literature on diversity in volunteering and offer guidance for volunteer coordinators to foster collaboration and the build-up of relational capital among volunteers to create successful age-diverse volunteer teams. Moreover, this research opens avenues for further exploration into this emerging and critical phenomenon.

This article investigates the complex interactions between local and national economic contexts and volunteering behavior. We examine three dimensions of local economic context—economic disadvantage (e.g., the percentage of families living in poverty), income inequality, and economic growth (e.g., the change in median household income)—and the impact of a national/global economic jolt—the Great Recession. Analysis of data from the Current Population Survey’s (CPS) Volunteering Supplement (2002–2015) reveals that individuals who live in places characterized by economic disadvantage and economic inequality are less likely to volunteer than individuals in more advantaged, equitable communities. The recession had a dampening effect on volunteering overall, but it had the largest dampening effect on individual volunteering in communities with above-average rates of income equality and higher rates of economic growth. While individuals living in rural communities were more likely to volunteer than their urban counterparts before the recession, rural/urban differences disappeared after the recession.

Religion is a strong social identity cue that creates in-group and out-group identity. Yet individuals can harbor multiple identities, and a political ideology is another significant identity marker. Similarly, personal experiences with disease also create another social identity where individuals may feel part of the same social group as individuals who have experienced a similar adverse event. How do these identities intersect in an individual’s willingness to volunteer for individuals from and outside their faith during a crisis event? We attempted to answer this question using an original sample of Muslims and Christians and their willingness to volunteer for COVID-19-related causes. We find that stronger religiosity increases volunteering toward individuals in their faith group (in-group). However, conservative beliefs reduce volunteering toward causes outside of an individual’s faith community (out-group). We find that COVID-19 diagnosis increases volunteering, but only when an individual or their family member is hospitalized.

Social enterprises (SEs), hybrid entities balancing revenue generation and social or environmental goals, often employ bricolage due to resource constraints. Interviews with 37 SE managers unveiled two pivotal bricolage strategies—utilizing SE status–related marketing resources and leveraging available technological resources—as well as how their interplay influences geographical expansion and the contingent roles of stakeholder participation in facilitating their impact. Quantitative studies of 778 U.K. SEs confirm that the predominant facilitator of geographic expansion is the utilization of status-related marketing resources, surpassing the impact of leveraging available technological resources. SEs’ efforts to utilize SE status–related marketing resources should be harmonized with community participation, whereas SEs aiming to leverage available technological resources should align their efforts with employee participation. We also underscore the substitution dynamic between these two bricolage strategies. However, SEs prioritizing employee participation are better positioned to mitigate the challenges arising from this substitution than those emphasizing community participation.

This study examines the implications of excess cash in nonprofit hospitals. Using a nationally representative sample of hospitals, I benchmark nonprofit cash holdings against for-profit cash holdings, and find that nonprofit hospitals hold significantly more cash. I consider three potential uses of excess cash in nonprofit hospitals: (a) investment in fixed assets, (b) increased charity care provision, and (c) higher executive compensation. I find that excess cash is associated with investments in fixed assets but not with increased charity care provision. Moreover, I find a positive relationship between excess cash and growth in CEO compensation. The results suggest that while nonprofit hospitals may accumulate cash to finance fixed assets, some of the accumulated cash may be diverted toward executive compensation. Overall, concerns regarding agency problems in nonprofit organizations may not be unfounded.

As disparities in access to social services continue, nonprofit practitioners are reimagining mechanisms to support service provision through systems of care. Systems of care are interorganizational referral networks that assemble a cross-section of nonprofits to coordinate care. Care systems use human navigators to support clients connecting to services. Through semi-structured interviews with a community-driven care system in Chicago and a grounded approach, this work posits that human navigators embody two novel roles distinct from other care contexts: community resource advocate and consensus builder. Based on ecological systems theory, these roles emphasize connectivity and advocacy to increase access and use of services created through interpersonal and interorganizational relationships. This work highlights the transformative influence of human navigators in care systems, demonstrating how community resource advocates and consensus builders enhance care access and interorganizational response, creating more equitable service delivery. This work offers a typology for role design for local service delivery.

This article explores the relationship between solicitation messages posted by nonprofit organizations on their Facebook profile and attracting donations during online fundraising events. Recent studies suggest that certain types of messages are more effective at spurring donors to give, but the evidence base is founded mainly on experimental designs. We use observational data for 752 nonprofits that participated in one or both of the Omaha Gives fundraising events in 2015 and 2020. Using the total amount of money donated to each organization as our outcome, we find nonprofits that post more diverse solicitation messages raise more money during online fundraising events. Consistent with previous studies, social media network size and activity (likes, posts, and shares) are once again important factors in explaining fundraising success. Our results provide deeper insights into the nuances of social media strategies for attracting donors and raising funds.