Nonprofit Resilience in a Natural Disaster Context: An Exploratory Qualitative Case Study Based on Hurricane Florence

Abstract

ABSTRACT This qualitative study explores the impact of natural disasters on nonprofits and the organizational abilities and capacities that contribute to nonprofit resilience. Hurricane Florence was used as a case study, and data were collected through ten phone interviews. This study revealed three types of disaster impacts – property, staff, and service needs – and their corresponding post-disaster recovery paths. These paths include utilizing slack financial resources and insurance, preparing a detailed recovery plan before the disaster, maintaining a high reputation among the community, and close relationships with the local government. Organizational learning was also found to play a significant role in helping nonprofits recover from multiple types of impacts. This exploratory study contributes to the nonprofit literature by identifying several future research directions for nonprofit resilience.Practice Points Infrastructure organizations that support nonprofits in disaster-affected regions should encourage nonprofits to plan for external risks. Nonprofit managers should use multiple ways to increase their knowledge of disasters, such as by hiring staff who have professional knowledge of disaster recovery, providing relevant training, or learning from other nonprofits who have professional knowledge and experience in recovery. Making thorough preparations, setting appropriate goals, and developing collaborations are associated with quicker recovery from changes in service needs Governments and foundations should provide long-term grants for nonprofits to work on long-term disaster recovery.