Nonprofit Partners Research Articles

Understanding how corporate social responsibility partnership factors influence nonprofit supportive intentions

Public relations literature on corporate social responsibility (CSR) has long detailed the impact of CSR outcomes for corporations. This study seeks to understand how CSR influences the nonprofit partners involved in these initiatives and what types of CSR partnerships lead to nonprofit supportive intentions. This study merges perspectives on organization-public relationships (OPR) with nonprofit management literature. An online 2 (NPO reputation: low vs high) x 2 (partnership duration: short vs. long) x 2 (CSR fit: low vs. high) experiment was conducted. A few key factors emerged in the analysis: Positive nonprofit reputation strongly predicted all OPR outcomes and mission accomplishment. Unexpectedly, the short-duration condition led to more positive outcomes and intentions. Fit did not seem to have a direct effect on outcomes, but the high-fit, short-duration partnership led to increased levels of all outcomes. For mediation, satisfaction and commitment had the strongest indirect effects on nonprofit supportive intentions (donation, volunteer, and word-of-mouth). This study expands the understanding of CSR effects on nonprofit partners, specifically by showing how different CSR partnership types play a role in the relationship-building efforts of nonprofits. Additionally, demonstrating how mission accomplishment can strengthen these relationships helps to disentangle the unique position of nonprofits in CSR, whose reputation and mission are at stake.

How businesses are working together to deliver NASA/JPL-designed ventilators to the world in the fight against COVID-19

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) engineers had embarked on an ambitious project to design a reliable, easy-to-use, and low-cost ventilator that was made of readily available parts to address the unexpected global shortage of these lifesaving devices. After successfully designing and building the VITAL (Ventilator Intervention Technology Accessible Locally) ventilator in record time, FDA Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) was obtained and then the license to manufacture and sell these ventilators was made available to select companies through a competitive process. STARK Industries, LLC (STARK), located in Columbus, OH, USA, was one of only eight U.S. companies to be selected to receive this worldwide license. Motivated by its mission to improve human health and well-being through innovated medical technologies, STARK accepted the challenge of further developing the VITAL technology and manufacturing the ventilators in large quantities and making them available to those in need around the world. To this end, Spiritus Medical, Inc (Spiritus) was spun off from STARK to focus on the ventilator business. Through collaborative efforts with various corporate, academic, governmental, and non-profit partners, Spiritus was able to successfully begin manufacturing and selling its ventilators. Due to its low-cost nature and its straightforward design, this ventilator is ideal for use in developing countries where ventilators are in short supply and affordability is a major consideration. This is a story of how NASA's ingenuity, based on space-based know-how and experience, was used to rapidly design this innovative ventilator. And by forging partnerships with highly qualified and motivated partners such as STARK and Spiritus, NASA has succeeded in translating this work into technology that could potentially save thousands of lives in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

Operations, risk, and small firms: Field results from irrigation equipment vendors in Senegal

What are supply chain management challenges in a lower‐income economy, and how do managers at smaller firms address them? This field study presents these challenges from the perspective of the 60 managers who run firms selling irrigation equipment in Senegal. By canvasing 35 cities, we gain unique visibility into how private supply chains, on which public officials and smallholder farmers in Africa rely, effectively deliver agricultural goods. The primary challenges for managers in this supply chain are day‐to‐day risks that are quality and contractual in nature and have financial implications. City size in combination with supplier type, firm size, and manager network determine risk exposure. Firms’ efforts to manage the chain are more reactive than proactive and more informal than formal, which reveals an opportunity for public agencies to support supplier and customer coordination. Public decision makers should tailor support to account for the differential risks that city size brings to supply chain management. This support should include not just financing the firms directly but should also entail giving loans to customers, certifying suppliers, and sharing inventory risk with public and nonprofit partners.

Operational challenges in a US nonprofit network amid COVID-19: Lessons from a food network in Virginia.

The coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) had detrimental health and economic impacts on communities across the globe. Consequently, public, profit and nonprofit organizations had to quickly adjust to the new situation and adopt new operating strategies and service delivery mechanisms. This study examines a nonprofit food network in Virginia and the impact of COVID-19 on food bank services and distribution operations. Guided by the adaptive systems approach, this case study utilizes the Federation of Virginia Food Bank (FVFB) and focuses on operational challenges within the network and the impact of the CARES Act. The data obtained from stakeholder interviews and a survey of local and regional providers suggest communication and adaptive management were crucial in the continuation of network operations. Furthermore, understanding the multifaceted needs of vulnerable individuals, beyond nutrition and food insecurity, is important for nonprofit service partners in a network. The study proposes a conceptual framework for effective operations in a nonprofit network during crisis and highlights the need to create collaborative capacity.

Relationship, leadership, action: Evaluating the framework of a sustainable campus-community partnership

ABSTRACT Campus-community partnerships are a beneficial service learning staple for students, communities, and nonprofit partners. Although many such partnerships are established, it is less likely that the connection weathers student turnover, leadership changes, and misalignments in process or purpose. The Nonprofit Excellence and Transformation (NExT) Program at the Siena College Center for Academic Community Engagement pairs interdisciplinary teams with local nonprofit partners to work on organization-specific projects. The Wildwood Programs project, conducted by a NExT team from 2019–2021, is an ideal template for a long-term, student-led partnership. Themes from community development literature were identified and compared to student experiences to establish reasons for the partnership’s success and sustainability. Best practices found through this study aligned with the three main pillars of the NExT Program: Relationship, Leadership, and Action. This categorical framework can be adapted by scholars, students, and practitioners to improve longevity and quality of future campus-community partnerships in higher education.

Emerging from disruptions and ambiguities: Understanding local government innovative responses during the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic

This article investigates the utility of an integrated approach which combines the Incident Command System (ICS) model and the Disruption-Ambiguity-Innovation-Challenge model, for understanding local government homeless service responses during the COVID-19 pandemic. A case study in the City of Dallas, Texas is used to understand how three functional areas of the ICS (authority, operations, and finances), were influential in creating disruptions, ambiguities, innovations, and challenges for local government and its nonprofit partners. By using an integrated approach, we identify challenges, learning outcomes, and action strategies useful for consideration for local governments’ strategies for crisis management.

Expectations of a Promise: The Psychological Contracts Between Students, the State, and Key Actors in a Tuition-Free College Environment

This qualitative study examines Tennessee Promise students’ (N = 60) perceptions of supports and resources during their first year of college. Students’ reflections suggest that they hold expectations for support from the state beyond scholarship dollars, and that other actors, including faculty, staff, parents, and the state’s nonprofit partner, mediate fulfillment of these expectations. Students’ unmet expectations for the state may impede their college success and signal dimensions of student need not met by current scholarship program provisions. Evidence of these “psychological contracts” has implications for the architecture and framing of Promise programs and the provision of supplemental supports by colleges.

Environmental monitoring of metallic impurities in fine dust (PM2.5) of settlements

Objective. The aim of the study is to identify metallic impurities in fine dust (PM2.5) in the residential area of Srednyaya Akhtuba (Sredneakhtubinsky rayon, Volgogradskaya oblast) exposed to the anthropogenic factor (expanded clay production) in a comparative characteristic with a relatively clean zone (garden non-profit partnership (SNT)) by indicators the number of particles (NPM2.5, %) and their mass fraction (D (dPM2.5), %).Method. The selection of particles (PM2.5) from the leaves of apricot trees and the preparation of aerosol suspensions was carried out according to international methods. The identification of the number and mass fraction of particles was carried out on the basis of the optical method according to GOST R 56929-2016.Result. The obtained values for the studied parameters were checked by the Wilcoxon T-test and were found at a significance level of p <0.05. In the residential area of Srednyaya Akhtuba, 35 times the mass fraction (D (dPM2.5), % of particles (PM2.5) exceeded the conditionally clean zone) and a slight increase in the number of particles (2 times) were found.Conclusion. Based on the results obtained metal impurities in fine dust (PM2.5) in the residential area of Srednyaya Akhtuba and environmental risks for the population living there are predicted. It is necessary to improve the system of protection of the urban economy at the enterprises for the production of expanded clay, etc., located in the industrial zone of Srednyaya Akhtuba.

Community involvement critical for revitalization: Grass-roots initiative key to environmental remediation and restoration in the Great River (St. Lawrence River)

This paper describes the creation of an environmentally conscious community group, the Great River Network, and the role that it has played in the remediation and restoration process as part of one of the Great Lakes environmental programs. Community engagement was initiated in the region as part of the Remedial Action Plan for the Area of Concern at Cornwall/Akwesasne/Massena within the Upper St. Lawrence River. The community group formalised as a network representing 50+ organisations in response to perceived inadequacies in the agency of the community to respond to new environmental concerns outside of the scope of the existing programs. As a grass-roots initiative, the Great River Network has successfully completed remediation and restoration actions of significant value to the environment. These include a series of river clean ups (>42 tonnes of garbage removed), fish habitat restoration, and addressing shoreline erosion issues. Success has been achieved through partnering with a range of organisations, including Indigenous, non-profit, governmental, Conservation Authorities, businesses and industry partners. The action-oriented approach showcases how remediation and restoration led by, and embedded in, the community can result in true revitalization. A simplified framework for adaptive management practices for remediation and restoration efforts that lead to revitalization, including knowledge translation, is proposed. This case study highlights the transformational opportunities that remediation and restoration initiatives can bring. In this instance, the process is intensely local and cooperative and lays the foundation for moving towards a collective impact approach for the region.

Scaling Social Impact: Marketing to Grow Nonprofit Solutions

Nonprofit organizations addressing societal challenges such as hunger, poverty, and racial inequities want to grow the impact of their promising solutions to these problems—scaling social impact. Yet, local, community-based nonprofits often struggle to identify a path to scale their impact. To address this problem, the authors partnered with 11 nonprofits engaged in social impact scaling. By integrating insights on scaling from these nonprofit research partners together with academic research on scaling across a range of disciplines, they outline a framework for scaling community-based nonprofits and the marketing practices that support it. This research advances a two-stage social impact scaling framework termed “T-shaped Scaling.” Within this framework, the vertical bar of the T refers to “scaling deep,” grounding solutions within a community, and the horizontal bar of the T represents “scaling wide,” adapting and transferring the scaled deep solutions to new communities. This framework advances both conceptual and practical understandings of social impact scaling. Finally, the authors explore the policy implications of social impact scaling and call on researchers in marketing to further investigate the scaling strategies and marketing practices that grow social impact.

Supporting Success: ASTHO's Strategies for Reducing Maternal Mortality and Morbidity.

Supporting Success: ASTHO's Strategies for Reducing Maternal Mortality and Morbidity.

Evaluating the Health of Community/University Partnerships: Experiential Learning Practice with an Aim Toward the Public Good

This article looks at campus and community partner relationships, and how they can be assessed. Specifically, readers will find the results of a case study that explores the “health” of the relationship between an urban university and its local nonprofit partners. Additionally, the Community Partnership Health Assessment Framework (CPHAF) is introduced, which is a six-step process that practitioners engaged in service learning, internships aimed at the public good, and volunteer programs can use to evaluate the “health” of their relationships with community partners for community-based learning (CBL). For our current purpose, CBL includes academic service learning, internships, and volunteer work, however the CPHAF process is a general evaluation framework. A general tool is valuable because many universities have partnerships where students arrive from various programs such as volunteers, service learners, interns, or other. The discussion section provides a detailed description of the Community Partnership Health Assessment Framework (CPHAF), and the case study is provided as an example of its use.

Can corporate–nonprofit partnerships buffer socially irresponsible corporations from stakeholder backlash?

PurposeThis study aims to investigate the complex relationship between corporate–nonprofit partnership characteristics (type, duration and source of communication); attitude toward the corporation (pretest and posttest); partnership evaluation; and stakeholders' willingness to engage in anti-corporate behaviors when a corporation behaves irresponsibly and negatively impacts an individual's community. The three partnership characteristics are evaluated, individually and collectively, to discern which, if any, characteristics protect or buffer a corporation from stakeholders' engagement in negative communication behaviors when controlling for how stakeholders evaluate the partnership and the corporation.Design/methodology/approachThe study used an online experiment with 970 participants who were randomly assigned to a 2 × 2 × 3 × 2 factorial design.FindingsContrary to some previous research findings, this study found that individuals who evaluate either the corporation or the partnership favorably are more likely to engage in anti-corporate behaviors. Neither the partnership type nor communication source provides a buffering effect. The only partnership characteristic to generate a buffering effect was duration and that only occurred if the partnership lasted three years. This study concludes that when corporate social responsibility (CSR) and corporate social irresponsibility (CSI) co-occur, an amplification rather than mollifies stakeholders' willingness to enact anti-corporate communication behaviors in instances of CSI.Originality/valueThis study advances scholarly understanding of CSR and CSI as in-tandem concepts and practices. The findings challenge previous claims that corporate–nonprofit partnerships can buffer corporations from negative events. In contrast, we find that partnerships are limited in their ability to reduce stakeholders' willingness to engage in anti-corporate behaviors in instances of CSR. It also answers calls that CSR research should use non-fictitious companies to increase ecological validity of the study design.

198 A Team-based Approach to an Integrated Model of Diabetes Care

OBJECTIVES/GOALS: Diabetes is related to risk for heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, and COVID-19. It is exacerbated by built/social environment issues, e.g., food insecurity, access to healthy foods and health care, and other poverty-related factors. Our goal is to assess the efficacy of an integrated care model for patients with poorly controlled diabetes. METHODS/STUDY POPULATION: We utilize an integrated, team-based approach to diabetes treatment. In a traditional care model, too little focus is on social determinants and their impacts on health and well-being. Our project involves enrollment of patients with diabetes in an intervention whereby their medical care is integrated with intensive diabetes education and provision of social and other health services, including diet and nutrition, exercise, provision of foods and nutritional supplements, and other support services as needed to achieve optimal health and to reduce morbidity and unnecessary hospitalization and emergency room visits. Subjects are underserved patients treated through our non-profit community clinic partners. We track metrics including individual outcomes, organizational outcomes, and collective impact. RESULTS/ANTICIPATED RESULTS: We anticipate that patients enrolled in this study will demonstrate significant improvements in diabetes control and management. Clinical improvements will include better glycemic control, improved hypertension and dyslipidemia management, reduced complications, and increased preventive measures including foot, eye and oral health exams and monitoring of microalbuminuria. Overall, we anticipate decreased frequency of hospitalizations and readmissions as well as decreased frequency of emergency care visits for treatment of diabetes-related issues. We expect patients to experience enhanced self-efficacy, increased physical activity, and improved quality of life. Their outcomes will be compared to controls receiving the standard medical regimen, matched on age, race, gender, and time of onset. DISCUSSION/SIGNIFICANCE: These activities will improve understanding of factors influencing diabetes outcomes at individual and upstream levels. It will inform food distribution and models of care for improved patient outcomes, including social determinants of health and will establish new protocols for community-based provision of health care to our most vulnerable.

Partnering for a Promise: Institutional Logics and a Community College District’s Response to a Promise Program Partnership

ABSTRACT The college promise – or free college – movement is rapidly expanding throughout the United States; however, there is much to learn about community colleges’ organizational responses to promise programs and corresponding partnerships with nonprofit organizations that are involved in some programs. Using institutional logics to frame this qualitative case study, I explored one community college district’s relationship with a nonprofit promise program partner, and revealed the ways in which this community college district preserved and blended their dominant logics with that of their nonprofit partner. The findings from this study shed light on community college professionals’ perceptions of promise programs, their organization’s response, and the college’s relationship with their nonprofit partner. Findings revealed that individual community college actors used dominant community college logic to make meaning of their partnership and maintain their commitment to the community college mission despite blending logics through incorporation of practices associated with dominant nonprofit logics. These findings have implications for the roles of community colleges and nonprofit partners in the implementation of college promise programs, as well as considerations for community college leaders.

TOWARDS A COMMON VALIDATED METHODOLOGY FOR HISTOLOGIC MEASUREMENT OF MUCOSAL HEALING IN ULCERATIVE COLITIS: INTRODUCING A NEW PROJECT OF THE BIOMARKERS CONSORTIUM OF THE FOUNDATION FOR THE NIH

Abstract Ulcerative colitis is a chronic, debilitating disease characterized by damage to the mucous membrane (mucosa) lining the lower gastrointestinal tract. Endoscopic and histological evidence of healing of the damaged mucosa, referred to as mucosal healing, is increasingly accepted as an important endpoint in clinical practice and in clinical trials due to its association with improved clinical outcomes. In fact, in a draft guidance to industry, the Food and Drug Administration encouraged incorporating histologic evaluation in ulcerative colitis clinical trials. However, there is no community consensus regarding how to define mucosal healing and the field lacks standardized protocols for measuring this treatment target endpoint. Standardized assessment of histologic disease activity in clinical trials is challenging for many reasons, including variability in collection of mucosal biopsies (e.g., number and location), lack of fully validated histology scoring systems, and absence of standard definitions of histologic improvement and remission. The lack of standardized measurement of mucosal healing constitutes a major challenge for drug development and negatively impacts optimization of clinical management for patients. Therefore, the Biomarkers Consortium of the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health recently launched a consortium project, with governmental, nonprofit and industry partners, to address this gap by establishing a common methodology for a histologic measurement of mucosal healing in ulcerative colitis. The project will: 1) Establish the optimum number and locations of biopsies required to determine histological inflammation in ulcerative colitis; 2) Establish a standardized histopathologic measurement of mucosal healing that correlates with clinical outcomes; and 3) Develop an automated machine learning-based methodology for histopathological scoring of mucosal healing. The final results of this project will contribute to a consensus methodology with the goal of establishing a regulatory standard for future industry-sponsored clinical trials, with the potential to contribute to improved tools for clinical monitoring of disease activity in ulcerative colitis.

TOWARDS A COMMON VALIDATED METHODOLOGY FOR HISTOLOGIC MEASUREMENT OF MUCOSAL HEALING IN ULCERATIVE COLITIS: INTRODUCING A NEW PROJECT OF THE BIOMARKERS CONSORTIUM OF THE FOUNDATION FOR THE NIH

Ulcerative colitis is a chronic, debilitating disease characterized by damage to the mucous membrane (mucosa) lining the lower gastrointestinal tract. Endoscopic and histological evidence of healing of the damaged mucosa, referred to as mucosal healing, is increasingly accepted as an important endpoint in clinical practice and in clinical trials due to its association with improved clinical outcomes. In fact, in a draft guidance to industry, the Food and Drug Administration encouraged incorporating histologic evaluation in ulcerative colitis clinical trials. However, there is no community consensus regarding how to define mucosal healing and the field lacks standardized protocols for measuring this treatment target endpoint. Standardized assessment of histologic disease activity in clinical trials is challenging for many reasons, including variability in collection of mucosal biopsies (e.g., number and location), lack of fully validated histology scoring systems, and absence of standard definitions of histologic improvement and remission. The lack of standardized measurement of mucosal healing constitutes a major challenge for drug development and negatively impacts optimization of clinical management for patients. Therefore, the Biomarkers Consortium of the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health recently launched a consortium project, with governmental, nonprofit and industry partners, to address this gap by establishing a common methodology for a histologic measurement of mucosal healing in ulcerative colitis. The project will: 1) Establish the optimum number and locations of biopsies required to determine histological inflammation in ulcerative colitis; 2) Establish a standardized histopathologic measurement of mucosal healing that correlates with clinical outcomes; and 3) Develop an automated machine learning-based methodology for histopathological scoring of mucosal healing. The final results of this project will contribute to a consensus methodology with the goal of establishing a regulatory standard for future industry-sponsored clinical trials, with the potential to contribute to improved tools for clinical monitoring of disease activity in ulcerative colitis.

Exploratory Evaluation of Inclusion Wheel Model for Public Health Practice to Include People With Disabilities: Implications for Leadership and Training to Serve the Whole Community.

This study evaluated the presence of the Inclusion Wheel Model's factors and conditions across programs on a variety of public health topics, in which people with disabilities were intentionally included. We used an action research approach to facilitate three learning groups and two communities of practice, including participants from the national disability community, nonprofit, university, and government public health partners. We conducted a qualitative analysis using virtual meetings, meeting notes, and the series of feedback surveys as data sources. A primary coder and secondary coder reviewed, coded, and analyzed each data source according to preset coding schemes, using a previously developed codebook based on the Model. All supports and factors of the Inclusion Wheel were identified, including adaptive leadership supports, readiness for the change of including people with disabilities in public health efforts, capacity building activities, and capacity efforts across settings and topics. This examination has critical implications for public health trainers, leaders, and program designers on the inclusion of people with disabilities and other underserved populations in health promotion efforts. Public health practitioners must serve the whole community, including underserved and marginalized demographic groups, like the one in four Americans living with a disability. The Inclusion Wheel may be used as a model to guide disability inclusion training among public health partners and leaders in nonprofit, corporate, and government sectors, as well as to prioritize involvement of marginalized and underserved population groups in planning health promotion efforts.

Be open and flexible to help nonprofit partners succeed in peer‐to‐peer campaigns

Be open and flexible to help nonprofit partners succeed in peer‐to‐peer campaigns

Policy Enactment During a Pandemic: How One School Responded to COVID-19 in Negotiation With a Nonprofit Partner

Policymaking is not linear or neutral, nor is it ever made or enacted in isolation, especially not during a crisis. Framed by theories on the contextual, interactive nature of policy enactment, this year-long, ethnographic study examined how an urban elementary school and nonprofit organization worked to address challenges made visible by the COVID-19 pandemic. Analyses explored how negotiations among the school, its nonprofit partner, and district shaped pandemic policy responses. Data included 35 transcriptions and eight field notes from stakeholder interviews and principal–partner meetings, and 128 external stakeholder artifacts. Findings showcase the policy enactment of family–school communication and access to remote learning, and limitations of the partnership due to structural and racialized processes. The discussion presents implications for educational policymaking in response to crises, highlighting the need to understand the external contexts and racialized discourses that are part of shaping those responses to be dynamic and “nonlinear.”