Abstract
Non-profit organizations (NPOs) have become increasingly important in the last decade for Romanian society since the state often failed to fulfill some of its social responsibilities. Romania’s economic and financial crisis several years ago hardly hit non-profit sector because it led to a significant drop in public spending at the government level and cuts of financing programs from companies, two main donors for NPOs while simultaneously has amplified society’s problems and gave rise to new target groups requiring support. This led to an acute need to address sustainability at organizational level since existing sustainability models in the literature are hardly adequate for Romanian context. We developed a model based on literature survey and Romanian experts’ interviews, which allow us to identify relevant factors for Romanian non-profit sustainability. Three determinants were considered: Cognitive competence (nine items analyzed), Social awareness (seven items analyzed) and Financial vulnerability (four items analyzed), as well as two types of results: economic and social. The model was tested through an empirical research on 103 Romanian NPOs and on two sub-samples (nongovernment organizations and community based organizations) and found, using univariate and bivariate analysis, that the three considered determinants are correlated and statistically influence Romanian NPOs sustainability.
Highlights
Non-profit sector is increasingly transforming into a subject of economic research, from both theoretical [1,2] and pragmatic perspectives [3,4]
Given the large number of active non-profit organizations worldwide (1.57 million in United States, several million in European Union, and 65,000 in Romania) [6], growing share of people dedicating their time and energies to volunteering (34% in EU and 13% in Romania) [6] and share of GDP generated by Non-profit organizations (NPOs) [7], the non-profit sector manages to distinguish itself as a fundamental part of any democratic society
This determinant of Romanian NPOs sustainability is related to the external dimension of any non-profit, the way it is perceived in the community, by its stakeholders and beneficiaries
Summary
Non-profit sector is increasingly transforming into a subject of economic research, from both theoretical [1,2] and pragmatic perspectives [3,4] It is an expanding field for scholars considering its current extent in many countries and impact on society and economy in terms of people involved, in various ways, in non-profit activities, as employees, volunteers or beneficiaries of NPO initiatives. The crisis gave rise to new groups requiring support, raising concerns about balancing resources to cover all these new emerged needs This led to a large number of NPOs reconsidering their strategy, seeking diversification of activities and prioritization of resources. Opportunities, many NPOs executives have to be interested in finding out which are the determinants of organizational sustainability for their organizations This paper addresses this topic, presenting an approach relevant for Romanian context, and for the literature
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