Government Nonprofit Research Articles

Power Distribution Within Government–Nonprofit Partnerships and Individual Charitable Decisions

Power Distribution Within Government–Nonprofit Partnerships and Individual Charitable Decisions

Government Expenditure and Nonprofit Sector Size: Testing Boundary Conditions for Theories of Government–Nonprofit Relationships With Evidence From Chinese Environmental NGOs

This study explores boundary conditions for the two competing models—supplementary and complementary models—of government–nonprofit relationships within the context of Chinese environmental nongovernmental organizations (eNGOs). Analyses of 8 years of panel data and in-depth interviews reveal the following: First, while the complementary model effectively explains the relationship between government and environmental government-organized NGOs (eGONGOs), the sector size association between the government and civic eNGOs displays a pattern that combines supplementary and complementary models. Second, when predicting the sector size association between the government and civic eNGOs, the complementary model prevails when the government size is small while the supplementary model dominates when the government is large. Third, the complementary relationship persists for a longer duration under certain policy contexts, particularly in cases where direct registration policies are implemented. This study contributes to the literature by complementing recent endeavors to explore potential moderating or mediating effects of government–nonprofit relationship models.

The Relationship Between Public Administration and Third Sector Organizations: Voluntary Failure Theory and Beyond

Abstract Among Lester Salamon’s early theoretical contributions was the introduction of the “Voluntary Failure” concept. In a series of articles published in the second half of the 1980s (Salamon, L. M. 1987a. “Of Market Failure, Voluntary Failure, and Third-Party Government: Toward a Theory of Government-Nonprofit Relations in the Modern Welfare State.” Journal of Voluntary Action Research 16 (1–2): 29–49. Reprinted in Salamon (1995): 33–49, Salamon, L. M. 1987b. “Partners in Public Service: The Scope and Theory of Government-Nonprofit Relations,” In The Nonprofit Sector. A Research Handbook, edited by W. Powell Walter, 99–117. New Haven: Yale University Press, Salamon, L. M. 1989. “The Voluntary Sector and the Future of the Welfare State.” Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly 18 (1): 11–24. Reprinted in Salamon (1995): 203–19) Salamon rejects the existing theories concerning the existence and the growth of nonprofit entities, both demand-side theories such as “government failure” (Weisbrod) and “contract failure” (Hansmann) and supply-side theories (James). He introduces the so-called “third-party government” approach underlining the interdependence between the state and various other (profit and nonprofit) social actors (Salamon Lester M. and Toepler S. 2015. “Government–Nonprofit Cooperation: Anomaly or Necessity?” Voluntas 26: 2155–77). The “voluntary failure theory” is based on the recognition of four limits of nonprofit organizations’ action: (a) philanthropic insufficiency; (b) philanthropic particularism; (c) philanthropic paternalism; (d) philanthropic amateurism. These shortcomings can be overcome by the creation of an institutional framework of collaboration between the public administration and the most organized part of civil society, namely the so-called third-sector organizations. The aim of this paper is to open a discussion around the adequacy of the above-mentioned approach to explain the complex configurations that current relationships between public administration and third sector organizations have assumed in Western democracies, especially in the field of welfare policies. We will do so through the analysis of the recent scientific literature on government-nonprofit relationships, with a particular focus on the so-called “new public governance” (Osborne Stephen, P. 2006. “The New Public Governance?” Public Management Review 8 (3): 377–87, Osborne Stephen, P. ed. 2009. The New Public Governance? Emerging Perspectives on the Theory and Practice of Public Governance. London: Routledge) and the co-creation and co-production paradigm (Torfing, J., E. Sørensen., and A. Røiseland. 2016. “Transforming the Public Sector into an Arena for Co-creation: Barriers, Drivers, Benefits, and Ways Forward.” Administration & Society: 1–31), that emphasize the involvement of citizens (i.e. users or clients) and their associations in the definition of the policies, programs, and services directed to them.

Kirsten A. Grønbjerg and Steven Rathgeb Smith: The Changing Dynamic of Government–Nonprofit Relationships: Advancing the Field(s)

Article Kirsten A. Grønbjerg and Steven Rathgeb Smith: The Changing Dynamic of Government–Nonprofit Relationships: Advancing the Field(s) was published on January 1, 2022 in the journal Nonprofit Policy Forum (volume 13, issue 1).

Between East and West: Government–Nonprofit Relations in Welfare Provision in Post-Socialist Central Europe

This article reviews the main developments in social welfare provision in East Central Europe (ECE), the emergence of nonprofit organizations as welfare providers, and changing nonprofit–government relations in social welfare provision since the early 1990s. In assessing the strengths and weaknesses of nonprofit organization (NPO)–government relations in social welfare provision in ECE, the article suggests that after establishing a firm basis by the mid-2000s, to varying degrees in different countries, nonprofits have not been able to maintain a secure independent role in the face of fluctuating government attitudes to their role and growing competition from private sector and church organizations.

How Government and Community Nonprofit Collaboration and Non-Collaboration Affects Public Sector Outcomes

ABSTRACTThis four state foster care study seeks to understand what practices state public managers perform with regards to community nonprofits that contributes to effectiveness in producing better public sector outcomes. The study produced key player field research data on the conditions under which community nonprofits produce better public sector outcomes.This article offers reasons as to why some effective community nonprofits were able to achieve collaboration with the public sector, while others were not, despite their effectiveness. Effective public managers in the area of foster care administration permit, and at times recruit, community nonprofits to have an impact on their foster care domain, while ineffective public managers never reach out to community nonprofits as partners or further yet, block nonprofits from access.

Evaluating and Informing the Local Government–Nonprofit Relationship: Cross-Sector Partnerships in Loudoun County, Virginia

Over the past few decades, Loudoun County, Virginia, has experienced dramatic economic and population growth and diversification. Though one of the wealthiest localities in the nation, the county has faced challenges in meeting the demands for increased human services associated with the county’s rapid development and growth. In 2016–2017 and within this dynamic and challenging context, the county partnered with the Virginia Tech Institute of Policy and Governance to conduct a needs assessment to identify service, resource, and funding gaps and to develop recommendations to improve the ability of Loudoun nonprofits and public agencies to meet existing and emerging resident needs. The academic, local government, and nonprofit engagement resulted in targeted strategies and served as a mechanism to move the cross-sector relationship toward increased sustained collaboration. This case study provides an overview of the academic research, the assessment process and results, and the marked achievements and challenges of the process. Subscribe to JNEL

Nonprofit Spending and Government Provision of Public Services: Testing Theories of Government–Nonprofit Relationships

Empirical studies and theories of government–nonprofit relationships have assumed a unidirectional funding flow from governments to nonprofits and therefore focusing on the impact of governments on nonprofits. By articulating multiple mechanisms of how nonprofits may influence government spending and utilizing a unique panel dataset that contains nonprofit and local government spending on parks, this article tests several prominent theoretical models of government–nonprofit relationships to answer the question of how spending by park-supporting charities influences the level of public spending on parks and recreation services. The findings indicate that spending by park-supporting charities spending has a decreasing effect on the level of public operational spending on parks, which supports the supplementary model. However, there is a net gain in total community support for parks and recreation services. Finally, this article suggests that government–nonprofit relationships are not identical when funding sources for public service provision differ in subsectors. A two-way understanding is essential for the theory building and testing in government–nonprofit relationships.

From Service Contracting to Collaborative Governance: Evolution of Government–Nonprofit Relations

SummarySocial service contracting between governments and nonprofit organizations has received increasing popularity in China and has aroused enthusiasm in engaging nonprofit organizations in governance issues. This study argues that service contracting, driven by New Public Management tenets, may unexpectedly evolve toward collaborative governance (CG) by creating and consolidating necessary conditions of CG. Practices in Shanghai present evidence that governments and contracting nonprofits jointly make decisions, enforce regulatory functions, set rules, and improve community governance. The analysis shows that over time contracting may lead to generation of mutual trust, acquisition of governing resources, and consolidation of collaborative accountability. The evolutionary perspective provides not only a contingent way to develop CG in a context of heavy social control but also a theoretical link between New Public Management and New Public Governance. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Retaining the Benefits of Government–Nonprofit Contracting Relationship: Opposites Attract or Clash?

The benefits and negative consequences of government–nonprofit contracting are well documented. From the literature, we know that government and nonprofits can demonstrate contradictory organization-level characteristics. Some argue that these contradictions make government and nonprofits complementary partners, but empirical evidence reveals the potential loss of nonprofit voluntariness. How does one harvest the alleged benefits of the government–nonprofit relationship while minimizing the potential loss of nonprofit voluntariness? Through the qualitative investigation of one nonprofit, this study identifies seven types of organizational-level differences between the government and the nonprofit. These conflicts are manifested by three forms of power struggle. This illuminates that power struggles are the root cause of the potential loss of nonprofits’ voluntariness. The author argues that as long as nonprofits depend on the government for resources, power struggles will persist and voluntariness will be at risk; hence, addressing resource dependence is the key to answering our research question.

Erratum to: France: A Late-Comer to Government–Nonprofit Partnership

Erratum to: France: A Late-Comer to Government–Nonprofit Partnership

Erratum to: Poland: A New Model of Government–Nonprofit Relations for the East?

Erratum to: Poland: A New Model of Government–Nonprofit Relations for the East?

Erratum to: Dependent Interdependence: The Complicated Dance of Government–Nonprofit Relations in China

Erratum to: Dependent Interdependence: The Complicated Dance of Government–Nonprofit Relations in China

Harnessing Faith for Improved Quality of Life: Government and Faith-Based Nonprofit Organizations in Partnership

ABSTRACTThis article focuses on a public social services department’s intentional recruitment of the faith-based community in meeting the department’s mission. Using the framework of network governance theory, we describe and analyze how the City of Philadelphia Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual disAbility Services realized that reaching the largest number of clients and providing services that people would be willing to accept must involve the faith-based community. The department and the process it took are described and analyzed through the lens of network governance. Practice, policy, and theory implications are discussed.

Dependent Interdependence: The Complicated Dance of Government–Nonprofit Relations in China

This article examines the evolving pattern of government–nonprofit relations in China and assesses how this relationship seems likely to evolve in the years ahead. To do so, it documents the diverse types of institutions this sector contains, the considerable scale of institutions it already includes, and the significant shifts that have occurred as the state seeks to take advantage of the important contributions the nonprofit sector is making, while seeking to retain a degree of control over nonprofit operations. Of particular note is the variety of tools the government has deployed to support the nonprofit sector and the remaining issues the sector faces as it finds its way in the highly constrained atmosphere of this biggest remaining socialist country.

France: A Late-Comer to Government–Nonprofit Partnership

This article puts the current cooperative pattern of state-nonprofit relations in France into historical context against the country’s statist past and suggests the implications this experience may have for other countries that share the statist background that France, perhaps in somewhat different form, also embodies. To do so, the discussion first reviews the current shape of the French nonprofit sector and the substantial scope and structure of government support of nonprofit human service delivery that exists. It then examines the unfavorable historical background out of which the current arrangements emerged and the set of changes that ultimately led to the existing pattern of extensive government–nonprofit cooperation. Against this background, a third section then looks more closely at the tools of action French governments are bringing to bear in their relations with nonprofits, the advantages and drawbacks of each, and the nonprofit role in the formulation of public policies. Finally, the article examines the key challenges in government–nonprofit cooperation in the provision of human services and the lessons the French experience might hold for Russia and other similar countries.

The Netherlands: The Paradox of Government–Nonprofit Partnerships

This article illustrates the development of government–nonprofit collaboration in the Netherlands. It first gives an overview of the scope and structure of the nonprofit sector and voluntary work and then explains the crucial steps in the evolution of the 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 social backgrounds, the Netherlands created an elaborate mechanism for government–nonprofit collaboration in which nonprofit organizations fulfill functions in service delivery and policy formation. However, the sector is now fundamentally fragmented and has little shared identity left today. Paradoxically, its past success also makes it less likely that the Dutch nonprofit sector will be regarded as a solution to current social problems.

Poland: A New Model of Government–Nonprofit Relations for the East?

This article explores the growth of the socio-economic strength of the nonprofit sector in Poland over the past 25 years of post-communist transition and this sector’s increasingly strong relations with government in the fields of human service delivery and social policy formulation. Among the factors contributing to the expanding role of the country’s nonprofit sector examined in the article are the early post-communist welfare gap, the impact of Poland’s accession to the EU, the new legal framework for nonprofits established during this period, the significant decentralization of governmental authority, and the resulting expansion of governmental support now reaching a level close to that in many Western European countries. At the same time, the article identifies the remaining vulnerabilities that continue to plague Polish nonprofit organizations as a consequence of its reliance on short-term contracts, limited access to public procurement procedures, and a general pull-back of the state from the provision of human services.

Government–Nonprofit Relations in Russia’s Regions: An Exploratory Analysis

Government–nonprofit cooperation has been an issue of considerable debate in public management literature. Most studies have focused on Western countries where collaborative forms of government have become a core element in the provision of social services. Less is known about transitional countries such as Russia where government–nonprofit cooperation is a relatively new phenomenon that is taking shape in the ambiguous context of a hybrid political regime. This article studies the nature and extent of government–nonprofit relations in Russia’s regions. It focuses on the regional implementation of the Russian government’s program to enhance the cooperation with socially oriented nonprofit organizations enacted in 2010. The article aims to understand how this program has been realized on the ground, at the regional level, and how it is assessed by the actors involved. The article thereby contributes to a broader comparative understanding of the evolution of government–nonprofit relations by bringing the special case of Russia into systematic view.

Government–Nonprofit Cooperation: Anomaly or Necessity?

This paper challenges widespread philosophical and conceptual theories of the nonprofit sector and the state that question, or leave little conceptual room for, extensive cooperation between nonprofit organizations and government. To do so, the paper calls attention to shortcomings in the prevailing market failure/government failure theories of the nonprofit sector that have obscured recognition of key features of the sector that make cooperation with the state a natural and necessary path to effectiveness, and to certain inherent limitations of the state that make engagement of nonprofits a natural and useful path to state effectiveness. The article then outlines a set of conditions that must be met by both nonprofits and governments for this partnership to achieve the promise of which it is capable.