Nonprofit Management Research Articles

Do donors value volunteer commitment in assessing nonprofit effectiveness?

AbstractEvaluating organizational effectiveness is a significant challenge for nonprofit donors making donation allocation decisions. Donations may be misallocated if organizational effectiveness is inadequately assessed, and donors, who are often organizational outsiders, rely on nonprofit disclosures on IRS Form 990 to make such assessments. We examine whether donors value volunteer commitment, as measured by the number of volunteers that nonprofits disclose on Form 990, alongside financial and governance disclosures in assessing organizational effectiveness. Donors and volunteers prefer to make respective gifts of money and time to nonprofits that are effective in furthering their missions. Based on the premise that volunteers, as organizational insiders, are better positioned than donors to judge the impact of their contributions, we hypothesize that volunteer commitment provides value‐relevant information to donors for use in assessing imprecise effectiveness signals—namely, the program ratio and corporate governance disclosures. Consistent with this, we find that the value relevance of the program ratio and corporate governance disclosures to donors is increasing with the level of volunteer commitment. These results suggest that donors view volunteer commitment as a signal of effectiveness, useful in interpreting other signals of effectiveness. The evidence is more pronounced among nonprofits that report more credible volunteer disclosures, have a larger proportion of sophisticated donors, and are more complex. These findings have implications for regulators considering nonprofit disclosure policies, as well as nonprofit managers and directors engaging volunteers.

Addressing “Idealism Exploitation” Through Unionization: Causes and Outcomes of Nonprofit Worker Labor Organizing in the U.S.

Through in-depth interviews with nonprofit workers and full-time union organizers in the nonprofit sector, this qualitative study examines the causes, outcomes, and workers’ perceptions of the recent nonprofit worker unionization movement. We found that chronic low pay, substandard working conditions, and a concern for compromised services to clients were the impetus for workers’ labor organizing. Interviews revealed that existing unionization efforts yielded significant wins for workers. This shows that nonprofit organizations could figure out resources to reprioritize labor costs even though they face constraints by funders. Unionization also benefited nonprofit management, including favorable work policies applying to managers and reduced staff turnover. Previous literature suggests that the highly gendered and value-based labor dynamic in nonprofits is a barrier to labor organizing. We found that workers are reevaluating this sacrificing, “labor-of-love” logic and aligning workers’ rights with clients’ rights. This has transformed a barrier to a powerful facilitator for labor organizing.

Analysis of Employee Satisfaction in Non-Profit Organisations - Based on a Survey of an Association in Nanjing City

Since the beginning of the 21st century, with the gradual expansion of the non-profit organization team, its related needs in human resource management have become increasingly urgent. And the related research on human resource management in non-profit organizations has gradually attracted attention. However, compared with the more mature research on human resource management in for-profit organizations, there are relatively few studies on human resource management in non-profit organizations. This paper selects employee satisfaction as the starting point to study the human resource management of non-profit organizations. Employee satisfaction, as one of the dimensions for judging the human resource management level of non-profit organizations, can detect problems in the human resource management of the organization as early as possible and make corresponding improvements to meet the needs of employees and enhance their work enthusiasm. At the same time, employee satisfaction can also predict employees' mobility intentions and become an important reference for preventing brain drain in advance. This research is based on the relevant theory of job satisfaction, using a questionnaire survey and in-depth interviews as research methods. Take an association in Nanjing as an example to conduct field research and analysis on employee satisfaction in non-profit organizations. In-depth analysis, using SPSS software to carry out descriptive statistical analysis on the data collected by the questionnaire survey and test the reliability and validity of the questionnaire results, found the shortcomings of human resource management in non-profit organizations. Through relevant theoretical analysis, taking into account the actual situation of the association, it puts forward corresponding improvement measures and suggestions for the human resource management of non-profit organizations.

Technology-Driven Financial Risk Management: Exploring the Benefits of Machine Learning for Non-Profit Organizations

This study explores how machine learning can optimize financial risk management for non-profit organizations by evaluating various algorithms aimed at mitigating loan default risks. The findings indicate that ensemble learning models, such as random forest and LightGBM, significantly improve prediction accuracy, thereby enabling non-profits to better manage financial risk. In the context of the 2008 subprime mortgage crisis, which underscored the volatility of financial markets, this research assesses a range of risks—credit, operational, liquidity, and market risks—while exploring both traditional machine learning and advanced ensemble techniques, with a particular focus on stacking fusion to enhance model performance. Emphasizing the importance of privacy and adaptive methods, this study advocates for interdisciplinary approaches to overcome limitations such as stress testing, data analysis rule formulation, and regulatory collaboration. The research underscores machine learning’s crucial role in financial risk control and calls on regulatory authorities to reassess existing frameworks to accommodate evolving risks. Additionally, it highlights the need for accurate data type identification and the potential for machine learning to strengthen financial risk management amid uncertainty, promoting interdisciplinary efforts that address broader issues like environmental sustainability and economic development.

Volunteer Management in Nonprofit Organizations: A Bibliometric Analysis

The nonprofit organizations rely on volunteers as key human resources. Recent literature emphasizes effective volunteer management to enhance the utilization of volunteers. At present, empirical knowledge on the subject exists in fragments causing difficulties in analyzing its growth. There is a need to evaluate its vast literature using a statistically rigorous method. The study aims to identify the internal structures and hidden inferences on volunteer management in nonprofit organizations using bibliometric data. The study collected 1,605 related journal articles indexed by Scopus from 1956 to 2022. The VOSviewer software was utilized to analyze the data. The results revealed diachronic growth in the area and identified its leading contributors. International collaboration and high-frequency keywords are also illustrated. The results are discussed in terms of article representations, area maturity, impacts of external environment, and emerging opportunities. The study provides insights into the state of knowledge surrounding volunteer management in nonprofit organizations.

How to Stop Worrying About What Other People Think of You at Work

This article discusses the negative impacts of worrying excessively about others' perceptions at work and provides strategies for overcoming people-pleasing tendencies through cultivating self-awareness, acceptance, and focusing on valuable outputs rather than impressions management or competitive comparisons. Constantly seeking approval and validation can be mentally and emotionally draining as well as hinder productivity and creativity, as research shows this stems from a lack of self-worth conditioned from childhood, particularly for women socialized to prioritize others. The article recommends developing self-awareness of intrinsic values and communication techniques like learning to say no comfortably, speaking concisely with purpose, and welcoming feedback graciously. Real-world case studies across industries illustrate applying these, such as a nonprofit director focusing meetings on solutions rather than disclaimers, a healthcare account manager prioritizing metrics over expectations, and an engineering lead openly discussing decisions while welcoming different perspectives. Overcoming ingrained people-pleasing allows professionals to feel empowered contributing their best work through self-development and outcome-driven mindsets.

Book Review: Organizing Logics, Nonprofit Management and Change

Book Review: Organizing Logics, Nonprofit Management and Change

Institutional pressures and the prevalence of nonprofit sector support organizations

AbstractThis study focuses on the prevalence of nonprofit sector support organizations (NSSOs)—a form of nonprofit organization (NPO) devoted to providing services and resources to support grassroots development. Contrary to previous studies that emphasize the importance of institutions in shaping the NPO population through their effect on citizens and nonprofit managers, this study links three institutional pressures—coercive, mimetic, and normative pressures—to the decisions of public agencies to establish NSSOs. This study examines this claim using a newly constructed dataset of NSSOs across 330 Chinese cities between 2012 and 2021 (N = 2385). The results indicate that cities with greater pressure from provincial governments, neighboring cities, and professional associations are more likely to promote the establishment of NSSOs. This study advances the understanding of the impact of institutions on the dynamics of the NPO population by demonstrating their effect on public agencies.

Does Revenue Diversification Really Improve Mission Performance? Evidence from a Sample of Human Service Nonprofits

While our understanding of the relationships between revenue diversification and nonprofit financial health has deepened over the past three decades, little is known about the association between revenue diversification and nonprofit mission performance. Moreover, there is an ongoing debate as to whether revenue diversification hinders or improves nonprofit performance. Some expect performance improvement from diversification strategies, while others contend that concentration strategies drive performance. This study aims to fill this research gap by investigating the effect of revenue diversification on nonprofit managers’ perceived mission performance. Using data from a sample of Taiwan’s human service nonprofits collected in 2020, we estimate relationships with regressions, employing a more detailed measure of organizational performance and various revenue diversification measurements. The results suggest that revenue diversification is positively associated with nonprofit managers’ perceived mission performance. This study further discusses theoretical contributions to the literature and practical implications for human service nonprofit organizations.

Nonprofit Management’s Perceptions of Unions in Government-Funded Child Welfare Agencies: Can They Help Raise Wages in This Triangular Relationship?

ABSTRACT This study explores the potential of unions as a solution for addressing chronic low compensation in government-funded nonprofit human services organizations. We used the primary child welfare agencies in New York as a collective case to study nonprofit management’s views on the role labor unions can play in addressing these issues. Our in-depth interviews with 15 nonprofit leaders reveal several findings: 1) Existing unions were relatively weak and had achieved limited gains for workers, which in turn demotivated workers to unionize; and 2) Most leaders doubted that unions can help in this matter because government, as opposed to nonprofits, controls prices. Some leaders, however, expressed a belief that a larger-scale worker unionization could provide nonprofit management with more leverage to ensure the government pays adequate contracts. We also discuss the theoretical and practical implications of the role unions can play in helping improve worker compensation in nonprofit-union-government funder triangular relationships.

Preparing future nonprofit social enterprise leaders: a research-based instructional needs analysis

ABSTRACT Nonprofit social enterprises (NSEs) have the potential to alleviate social issues significantly through entrepreneurial means. However, their unique mission and challenges require a distinct type of leadership compared to traditional nonprofit organizations. This leadership model must integrate social work and business management competencies. Unfortunately, research suggests that finding leaders with this combination of competencies can be challenging for NSEs. This raises the question of whether master’s degree programs in public administration (MPA) and nonprofit management (MNM) adequately equip students with the necessary competencies to lead NSEs. In response to this question, researchers surveyed MPA and MNM faculty using a 14-item online questionnaire. The results indicate that there are significant gaps in the current curriculum, with neither program placing strong emphasis on NSE leadership competencies. However, MNM programs cover some of these competencies more extensively than MPA programs. The findings suggest curricular and pedagogical improvement opportunities in public and private universities’ MPA and MNM programs.

Nonprofit commercialization: What shapes the perceptions of top managers?

AbstractBusiness‐like thinking among NPOs and scholars has stimulated growing but contested views on what constitutes commercialization and what drives its adoption. Unfortunately, empirical efforts have largely neglected the perspective of nonprofit managers who play pivotal roles in commercialization decisions. To stem this knowledge gap, this study applies a mixed methods on a case study from Cameroon to elicit top nonprofit managers' perceptions to commercialization. Almost 90% of all top managers demonstrate sound theoretical knowledge of nonprofit commercialization. Overall, 65% perceived commercialization positively, and 40% were already engaged in commercial activities. Binary logistic regression results indicated positive and statistically significant relationships between organizational capacity variables (intervention sector, for‐profit management strategy, and assets), and managers' perceptions of nonprofit commercialization (p < 0.05), questioning the resource‐dependency theory. The implications of conceptual ordering, theoretical diversity and contextualizing research on nonprofit managers' commercialization perceptions are discussed, particularly the need to include managerial perception as a key variable in the nonprofit commercialization equation in developing countries, and reconciling theoretical contestations with contextual reality.

From LiLLes to lilies: an autoethnography of coming out and coming in to a later in life queer eco-spiritual identity

ABSTRACT Most of my life I both pressed against social constructions of gender and sexuality and tried to fit within those same social constructions. After being married for twenty-six years as a cis-gender woman in a heterosexual relationship, raising three children, and serving as a pastor and faith-based nonprofit director in a conservative religious tradition and community, I leaned into and authentically claimed my sexual identity as a queer lesbian womxn. When I decided to pursue a PhD and research the intersections of gender, sexuality, spirituality, and religion, I discovered a large community of later in life lesbian womxn with stories like mine where I could belong. My spiritual journey into an authentic gender and sexual identity has also been a journey into belonging with the more than human world. Using a framework of queer ecofeminism and the method of critical autoethnography to engage my coming out later in life narrative offers the opportunity to explore how individual intersectional experiences of gender and sexuality can inform and impact collective social justice and environmental justice efforts in the work to dismantle oppressive binary systems.

Navigating the complexities of altruistic helping in nonprofit organizations: an analysis of benefits, burdens and managerial challenges

ABSTRACT We investigate how individuals cope with side effects of altruistic behaviour at work, i.e. genuine helping behaviour which is not part of any job description, and what role the organizational context plays in these dynamics. Employing simultaneous dyadic interviews, we show how employees of non-profit organizations cope with undesired effects of altruistic help. Our data provides evidence of unintended outcomes for the individual which manifest in increased perceptions of emotional tension, problems with own work, and exploitation. We shed light on the involved mechanisms by analysing the psycho-emotional coping processes associated with helping behaviour. Implications for non-profit managers are discussed.

Nonprofit talent recruitment: An online experiment on new ways of working and leadership development opportunities

AbstractRecruiting talented employees is challenging for nonprofit organizations. This study examines the effects of two possible human resource recruitment practices—offering new ways of working and leadership development opportunities—on the intention of talent to apply for a position at a nonprofit organization. Building on the self‐determination theory, the authors conducted an online survey experiment (n = 389) with aspiring employees in Germany. The results show that, of the offered practices, only “new ways of working” significantly increase individuals' intention to apply. Regarding work sector preferences, nonprofits are in a war for talent, as only 13.6% prefer the nonprofit sector, with most participants (47.8%) preferring to find a job with a for‐profit company or in the public sector (38.6%). As a key nonprofit management implication, recruiters should develop and implement new ways of working to attract talented employees to the nonprofit sector.

Some Good News, More Bad News: Two Decades of the Gender Pay Gap for Nonprofit Directors and Chief Financial Officers

This research examines differences in the compensation of male and female executive directors and chief financial officers in nonprofit organizations. We utilize executive transition periods within organizations as an empirical strategy for isolating how gender impacts the salaries of two people who occupy the same role in the same organization. Two waves of IRS 990 compensation data are used to assess compensation practices over the past two decades. The good news includes an overall increase in the number of women holding executive positions and indications that the discriminatory component of pay (discrepancies for two people holding the same position within the same organization) is relatively small and may be decreasing. This good news, however, is accompanied by bad news: large cross-sectional gaps in pay that result from an over-representation of male executives in the largest nonprofits and those in industries with the highest executive pay.

Exploring the impact of inclusive leadership on proactive work behavior in nonprofit organization: The mediating role of the relational psychological contract

AbstractThe study aims to provide empirical evidence to explain the relationship between inclusive leadership and proactive work behavior through the mediating role of the relational psychological contract in nonprofit organizations (NPOs). The data were collected from 6751 employees employed at one of the largest NPOs in Poland. The data collection was done through the Computer‐Assisted Web Interview technique. The quantitative results obtained were analyzed by structural equation modeling based on partial least squares regression. The study outlined the mechanisms through which inclusive leadership impacts employees' proactive work behavior. The evidence of a direct and positive relationship between the variables studied was intended to illuminate the role of inclusive leadership and the relational nature of the psychological contract in building proactive work behavior. In addition to the direct effects, the results of the current study add to existing evidence on the mediating role of the relational psychological contract linking inclusive leadership and proactive work behavior. Our research findings make a valuable contribution to the field of inclusive leadership and its influence on proactive work behavior among employees in the nonprofit sector. The study establishes direct and indirect connections through effective mechanisms. Its theoretical contribution refers to the approach in which a relational psychological contract has been adopted as the mediating variable in the relationship between inclusive leadership and proactive work behavior in the nonprofit sector. Moreover, the study provides managers of NPOs with important insights into how inclusive leadership can effectively motivate employees to engage in proactive work behaviors. It demonstrates that the push for diversity necessitates explicit supervisory attention in order to foster an inclusive environment in which the potential benefits of diversity can be realized.

A conditional crowd out/in model of government funding on giving of money and time: evidence from social service organizations in China

Existing literature has studied the impact of government funding on donations to nonprofits, proposing and testing different theoretical models, including crowd-out, crowd-in, and inverted U-shaped models. However, there is no consensus regarding whether or under what conditions government funding crowds out or crowds in donations to nonprofits, and little is known regarding whether and how government funding influences time donations. Existing evidence focuses on Western contexts and may not be applicable to non-Western contexts. This study used a random sample of Chinese social service organizations and proposed a more nuanced and complex conditional crowd-out/in model of government funding on donations to nonprofits, extending the testing to both financial and time donations in China. The results from extended regression models with instrumental variables indicate that government funding levels crowd out money donations, while dependence on government funding has an inverted U-shaped effect on money donations. Both the level of and dependence on government funding have curvilinear crowding-out effects on time donations. More importantly, the level of and dependence on government funding have significant interactive effects on both money and time donations. These novel findings make significant theoretical contributions to the literature and have important practical implications for policymakers and nonprofit managers.

Loosely Defined Partnerships: A Case Study of Three Refugee-Serving Nonprofit Organizations

This article uses a case study approach to explore how U.S.-based nonprofit organizations collaborate to serve immigrants and refugees and identifies characteristics that are essential to successful partnerships. While other studies have documented the challenges immigrants and refugees face in relocating to a new community and the ways community-based organizations help them through the integration process, this project brings together migration studies and nonprofit management studies to interrogate the concept of partnerships based on the lived experiences of organization staff. Partnerships are essential to providing programs and services, and this project seeks to explore the tension inherent in partnering with other organizations that have similar missions and goals. This project captures the stories of three refugee-serving nonprofit organizations in a midsouth city. Utilizing in-depth interviews to analyze the interorganizational collaborations that the three organizations have formed to provide holistic support to immigrants and refugees, the findings here suggest that partnerships are essential but often fraught. These organizations, like many nonprofits, face limited capacity and form community partnerships to alleviate these limitations. As defined by improving an organization’s ability to fulfill its core missions, successful partnerships rely on relational embeddedness and a shared mission. Findings demonstrate the necessity and benefit of a network of partnerships to meet the needs of this unique population.

“Age as a determinant of new donor acquisition and year‐on‐year retention in the university healthcare fundraising context”

AbstractScholars and practitioners have long viewed an individual's age to be a key predictor of giving outcomes. Specifically, older individuals are expected to be more philanthropic than younger individuals are. Utilizing a ten‐year dataset from a Research One university in the United States, donation histories to health areas of the campus are matched with patient visit records from the university's affiliated hospitals and clinics system to empirically examine this accepted wisdom. The initial findings confirm basic expectations around donor acquisition as older prospects are acquired at higher rates than younger prospects. However, once the organization acquires and solicits donors, age's associative impact on retention rate becomes flat to negative, which indicates support for the alternative view that many younger donor prospects may have capacity and willingness to give. The role of giving purpose is also compared and contrasted among younger and older donor prospects, showing that managers of nonprofits can strategically solicit each population uniquely with targeted approaches to drive higher total fundraising success. The key results are discussed and both implications for theory and practice are derived in the process.