Nonprofit Human Service Research Articles

What Kills Nonprofits? A Study on U.S. Human Service Nonprofits Dissolution (2007-2018)

What Kills Nonprofits? A Study on U.S. Human Service Nonprofits Dissolution (2007-2018)

Programming Change Among Nonprofit Human Service Organizations During the COVID-19 Pandemic

ABSTRACT Research shows that nonprofit human service organizations are nimble in times of crisis. The surprising nature of the pandemic posed unique challenges to both the supply and demand sides of the human service sector. One way that nonprofit human service organizations responded to the pandemic environment was through programming change, including adding new programs, serving new populations, and discontinuing previous programs. Drawing from a two-wave statewide survey, our results indicate that a sizable proportion of nonprofit human service organizations engaged in these changes within the first five months of the pandemic. Such decisions were associated with both resource and mission considerations. Extant research shows how strategic change made in response to environmental shifts often leaves an imprint on organizations. As such, pandemic-era programming change may have a lasting impact on the human service sector, further evidenced by leaders’ intentions to sustain them in the years to come.

Organizational and Environmental Determinants of Board Performance in Community-Based Human Service Nonprofit Organizations

ABSTRACT Previous studies have examined board-level determinants of board performance but left other organizational and environmental factors underexplored. This study examines determinants of board performance through multiple theories by using a sample of community-based human service nonprofits in Taiwan. The results show that organizational characteristics, such as governance structure, organizational stability, and management professionalization, are associated with board performance. A two-tier board design and a stable organization are essential to effective board performance, while having professional chief executive officers is linked to less effective board performance. Surprisingly, the results also show that external funding sources are not associated with board performance.

Relationships Between Social Entrepreneurial Orientation and Social Work Management Competencies in Nonprofit Human Service Organizations

ABSTRACT Social work managers face multiple challenges when seeking to create organizational environments that support community social outcomes. This study aims to provide a model of human services organizational management that includes social entrepreneurial orientation (SEO), and employs a multivariate regression analysis to identify relationships between SEO and social work management competencies using a nationally representative sample of nonprofits in Canada. Significant relationships were found between the SEO Scale (including social innovation, proactivity, risk-taking, and market engagement) and the Social Work Management Competencies Scale (including executive leadership, resource management, strategic management, and community collaboration). Further, organizational health significantly predicted resource management and strategic management, while revenue level significantly negatively predicted executive leadership. Multiple implications for findings are provided and a discussion is focused on applications for social work management.

A Test for the Welfare-Partnership: Austria’s Nonprofit Human Service Organizations in Times of Covid-19

ABSTRACT The pandemic has impeded Austrian NPHSOs on multiple levels: service delivery, income streams, costs, and human resources. To analyze the consequences, we tackle two questions: How has the neo-corporatist welfare-partnership between the government and NPHSOs passed this stress-test? What are the potential effects on the overall composition of the sector? Theoretically, we draw on social origins theory to explain the welfare-partnership in Vienna. Empirically, we analyze online-survey-data and interviews with NPHSO-executives from 2021. The results indicate that Vienna’s welfare-partnership has passed this stress-test successfully, but overall in favor of large NPHSOs, thus forwarding concentration in the sector.

Colorblind on the color line: critical ethnography of racial inequity in a human service organization serving a community of single-mother families at the margins

AbstractThis study takes an in-depth critical ethnographic look at a local nonprofit human service organization, Lavender Refuge, that supports marginalized families. This study explored the communication of staff/volunteers and residential clients that facilitate or inhibit the nonprofit’s aims to create an inclusive community culture. Critical race theory and social identity theory were utilized as theoretical frameworks to better understand the culture of Lavender Refuge’s community. Findings revealed three dominant themes related to issues of racial (in)equity at Lavender Refuge. The desire for positive identities, controlled performances within the community hindering race conscious (Crenshaw, K. (1995). Race, reform, retrenchment: Transformation and legitimation in anti-discrimination law. In K. Crenshaw, N. Gotanda, G. Peller, & K. Thomas (Eds.), Critical race theory: The key writings that formed the movement (pp. 103–126). New Press: Distributed by W.W. Norton & Co.) communication. Further, conversations about race were seen as fostering intergroup competition along racial lines, explaining resistance to race communication. Our research team concludes with practical recommendations, resources, and training in hopes they could change the community culture so racial diversity is embraced and equity fostered.

Non-Profit Social Purpose and Social Enterprise Outcome Themes That Transfer to Businesses

The attention cast toward social enterprise since the mid to late 1990s by private businesses, nonprofit human service organizations, and public sector stakeholders has driven interest in the best ways to measure social mission-related outcomes and whether or not such endeavors truly achieve impactful change. Little clarity from the methodological models has emerged to inform social mission outcome measurement due in part to the blurring of cross-sector principles underlying the tasks at hand. A barrier is that businesses engaged in social mission must make choices that redefine profit-making, and it is a rare case where nonprofit and social purpose organization (SPO) evaluation models trace whether or not and to what degree their efforts have led to the social outcomes they profess to accomplish. This essay depicts the compromises and accommodations leaders and decision makers among five case examples encompassing philanthropic, nonprofit human services and social service providers, government and business actors make in their social enterprise work toward social mission outcomes and impact.

An application of the nonprofit virtual accountability index: Accountability in sport for development and peace

AbstractIn this research note, we examine web‐based accountability practices of human service nonprofits. Data were collected directly from the organizational websites of an international sample of 532 organizations involved in operating sport for social change programs, more commonly known as the field of sport for development and peace. Websites were coded using the nonprofit virtual accountability index—a theoretically grounded and robust tool—to measure information and interactivity available for stakeholders across five dimensions of accountability. Analyses of variance and independent t‐tests were used to test potential group differences based on geographical region, the thematic types of social change efforts, and the type of sport used to deliver programming. The results of this analysis highlight the critical importance of geographical location and other organizational variables for web‐based accountability practices. Furthermore, the results allow nonprofit leaders to identify common areas in need of improvement for smaller and emerging nonprofits.

Human Service Nonprofits Providing Services to Sex Workers: Efforts to Manage Competing Logics and Ideologies From an Inhabited Institutions Framework

Human service nonprofits (HSNPs) are primarily responsible for addressing prominent social problems such as poverty, homelessness, addiction, and mental health. As such, they vary considerably in their service provision to their marginalized clients. In this paper, I use the theories of institutional logics and inhabited institutions to highlight how individual actors within HSNPs translate different institutional logics in service provision. Using qualitative interviews from 38 HSNP managers working with sex workers, I focus on competing logics and gender ideologies that influence HSNPs. Findings show that despite conflict between different gender ideologies, HSNP employees discover merits in combining logics and ideologies, discovering ways to reinterpret these at the ground level in conjunction with social relationships and interactions in the field. The implications around the role of individual agency and meaning-making in nonprofit dynamics, as well as a reflection upon what this means for HSNPs and their work, is discussed.

Does goal ambiguity influence the program structure of nonprofit human service organizations?

This study presents an alternative to outcome management based on accountability by analyzing the ambiguity of nonprofit human service organizations’ program goals and program structures. A total of 761 programs were chosen from the 2010–2020 annual plans of P Rehabilitation Center for analysis. The program goals were analyzed according to quantitative accuracy and outcome attainability standards and the program structures were analyzed using the program theory model. Human service organizations need to have a logical program structure according to the program goal, and it is necessary to minimize logical errors in the program structure.

Inequality of the Safety Net: The Rural-Urban Continuum, County-Level Poverty, and Nonprofit Human Services Expenditures

Using IRS-990 data from the National Center for Charitable Statistics, this study assesses differences in county expenditures on nonprofit human services, by level of county rurality, in American counties. It also examines the relationship between nonprofit human services expenditures and county-level poverty rates. The findings suggest that rural counties have a negative association with nonprofit human services expenditures as compared with urban counties after controlling for relevant covariates. There is intrarural heterogeneity: The most rural counties have the lowest rates of nonprofit human services expenditures and a negative association with nonprofit human services expenditures that persists after controlling for all covariates, whereas the most populous rural counties have relatively higher rates of expenditures. A negative association between county-level poverty and nonprofit human services expenditures is explained by the combination of county-level rurality and regional effects, underscoring the importance of policy attention to the underprovision of human services in rural counties.

At the Frontlines of Policy Implementation: Contrasting Experiences of Affordable Care Act Navigators

ABSTRACT This qualitative study addresses the experiences of paid professionals and volunteers who worked through nonprofit human service organizations to help people obtain health insurance in the first wave of open enrollment for the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA). Focusing on the state of Alabama, we compare and contrast the experiences of ACA navigators in different settings: (1) established nonprofits that received federal contracts to provide navigation services, and (2) a new nonprofit started specifically to help people sign up for ACA coverage. Findings contribute to the policy implementation literature by illuminating how policy implementation in different nonprofit settings can result in varying experiences of personal and political transformation. Findings contribute to the policy feedback literature by illustrating the potential for policy feedback effects on frontline workers. The study also illustrates again that human services nonprofits can create organizational conditions to promote empathy, excitement, and dedication at the frontlines.

Assessing Multidimensional Approaches to Measure Program Outcomes in Human Service Organizations.

This study explores scholars’ approaches to measure performance in nonprofit human service organizations. While acknowledging that each human service organization’s unique mission makes it challenging to create a generalizable model across all nonprofit human service organizations, we propose three multidimensional frameworks for performance measurement derived from survey and qualitative data of organizations in this subsector. The frameworks will help researchers and practitioners rethink, adapt to, and reflect on the implications of their current methods of program performance measurement. While contributing to the academic discussion on the measurements used to evaluate human service organizations’ program performance, our research also offers important insights for researchers, managers, marketers, board members, and funders to use moving forward.

Understanding Foundation Philanthropy to Human Service Organizations: Funding Stratification in an Urban Grants Economy

ABSTRACT Human service nonprofit organizations navigate a complex funding environment. Grants from philanthropic foundations are one piece of this puzzle, conveying both funds and legitimacy. This paper examines foundation funding to human service nonprofits in one urban grants economy. Nonprofits are stratified into three groups: new entrants, repeat players, and sustained players. This sorting has serious consequences and is related to organizational characteristics, resource dependence, institutional factors, and network participation. Further, it appears that funding to repeat players is becoming more concentrated over time. Implications for research and practice are considered.

Critical Applications of Heterogeneity Theories to Power in Nonprofit Human Services Organizations

The field of nonprofit studies often assumes that efforts of actors in the nonprofit landscape are beneficial, especially when considering nonprofit human service organizations. However, there are both theoretical and empirical reasons for scholars to adopt a more critical lens when examining these organizations. Taking nonprofit human services organizations as a common setting, the article uses a critical lens to apply classic, “mainstream” theories of the role of heterogeneity in nonprofit sector formation and illuminate risks often neglected in nonprofit human services research. In this way, the article demonstrates that classic social science theories of heterogeneity already offer us the tools we need to critically question dominant assumptions about nonprofit human services provision and challenges the reader to consider why we so rarely use these well-known theoretical frameworks in a critical manner. The article concludes by inviting scholars to utilize additional critical theoretical perspectives in future studies of nonprofit human services.

Understanding Foundation Philanthropy to Human Service Organizations

Human service nonprofit organizations are a vital part of the social safety net providing a diverse array of services from job training, to assistive housing, to emergency food provision (Allard, 2009). To achieve their missions and raise funds to support their work, human service nonprofits must navigate an increasingly fragmented, complex, and competitive funding environment, piecing budgets together from multiple revenue sources (Allard & Smith, 2014; Galaskiewicz & Bielefeld, 1998; Smith, 2015; Young, 2007). Grants from philanthropic foundations comprise one piece of the funding puzzle for many human service nonprofits (Marx, 1996; Young, 2007). This paper explores foundation grantmaking to human service nonprofits in Chicago, IL from 1990 to 2005. We find three classes of nonprofits: sustained players, nonprofits that are continuously funded (by different foundations); repeat players, nonprofits with greater than average duration of funding; and new entrants, nonprofits that secure foundation funding for only a few years. This pattern of funding led to an increasing concentration of foundation funds in a small, privileged group of organizations. This paper explores the factors leading to this bifurcation of the grants economy and the consequences of such patterns.

Final Lines of Defense: Explaining Policy Advocacy by Immigrant-Serving Organizations

AbstractNonprofit scholars have developed a rich literature on nonprofit advocacy. While the literature is rich, however, gaps remain in our collective knowledge, especially regarding specific sectors of nonprofit human service organizations. Here, we apply existing theory on advocacy by human service organizations to an important subset of the nonprofit community, that being immigrant-serving organizations (ISOs). Most prior research on nonprofit advocacy has not focused on politically polarized issues, such as contemporary immigration policy. Using a nationwide survey of ISOs, we find that unlike other types of human service organizations, the majority of ISOsdoengage in at least some forms of policy advocacy. However, those that report using the H-election status on their Form 990s are significantly more likely to engage in advocacy and do so to a wide variety of policymakers, including legislators, chief executives, and even local law enforcement agencies. H-election groups are also more likely to perceive their advocacy activities as effective. These findings add to the evolving knowledge on when and how human service groups seek policy change for marginalized groups.

Within Source Diversification When the Going Gets Tough: Examining Alterations to Human Service Nonprofit Funding by Levels of Government

Government increasingly relies on nonprofit organizations to deliver public services, especially for human services. As such, human service nonprofits receive a substantial amount of revenue from government agencies via grants and contracts. Yet, times of crises result in greater demand for services, but often with fewer financial resources. As governments and nonprofits are tasked to do more with less, how does diversification within the government funding stream influence government-nonprofit funding relationships? More specifically, we ask: How do the number of different government partners and the type of government funder—federal, state, or local—influence whether nonprofits face alterations to government funding agreements? Drawing upon data from over 2,000 human service nonprofits in the United States, following the Great Recession, we find nonprofit organizations that only received funds from the federal government were less likely to experience funding alterations. This helps to illustrate the economic impact of the recession on state and local governments as well as the nonprofit organizations that partner with them.

Need‐resource indicators and nonprofit human services organization density

AbstractThe challenges facing the US nonprofit human services organizations (NHSOs) in securing philanthropic resources and the resulting pressure for increased commercialization are well‐known in the nonprofit literature. However, there is still limited research on how such financial challenges are likely to affect their location choices, particularly in a post‐recession context. Using organizational ecology theory, we conducted a nationwide longitudinal study covering the period of the US 2008 recession to examine whether resource availability is more likely to predict the density of NHSOs than human needs. We used secondary data on a variety of socioeconomic variables from the National Center for Charitable Statistics and the US census survey in a linear multivariate regression analysis. The findings supported a majority of hypotheses, suggesting that NHSOs pursuing earned income are less (versus more) likely to be established in regions where the socioeconomic factors indicate a high (versus low) level of human needs. These findings suggest a counterintuitive trend in the establishment of NHSOs and present cautionary information on pursuing commercial activities in the human services sector.

Government-nonprofit funding relationships in human services: Differences in cost-reimbursement and fixed-cost agreements

Funding agreements are the legal foundation for government-nonprofit funding relations and specify the terms and expectations for both parties. Yet little attention focuses on the funding agreements themselves, which vary in structure, form, compensation arrangements, and amount of risk each party bears in the funding relationship. Using data on human service nonprofits in the U.S., we examine whether the type of funding agreement—cost-reimbursement versus fixed-cost—influence the reliability of government funding during the Great Recession and the level of engagement by nonprofit providers. We find those who bear the burden of the risk at the outset have less reliable funding during recessionary times and nonprofit providers with a flat amount agreement are less engaged with government funders. Findings have implications for public and nonprofit managers to carefully consider risks and relationships to implement effective funding agreements.