Public Nonprofit Partnerships Research Articles

Towards a successful free senior high school policy in Ghana: the role of non-profit organisations

This paper seeks to understand the significant challenges of Ghana’s free senior high school (SHS) policy and the roles that non-profit organisations play in addressing them. Findings reveal non-profit interventions such as establishing new school buildings, providing teacher training, addressing inequality issues, equipping graduates with employable skills and evaluating the policy. Such public–non-profit partnerships can help the government achieve its vision of free SHS education for all young Ghanaians.

Collaboration, (Dis)trust and Control in Brazilian Manufactured Public/Non-profit Partnerships

This study seeks to evaluate whether interorganizational trust and interpersonal trust influence the nature of state control in Brazilian public/non-profit partnerships (PNPs) by considering the social organization model with a non-profit partner that did not evolve organically from civil society as an equal and interdependent partner but instead was engineered by the state. We conducted qualitative research on two PNPs and analysed their historical trajectories through participant observation, documentary analysis and semi-structured interviews with the state and non-profit partners as well as other actors involved indirectly in the PNPs. Our findings call into question the assumption of current studies that trust tends to be built over time and reveal that PNPs embedded in state-dominant and low-social-capital contexts are more vulnerable to the effects of interpersonal trust. This vulnerability influences the volatile patterns of the PNPs’ trajectories and leads to strong informal state-partner control as reflected by PNP disruptions and lower levels of interorganizational trust.

Collaborative governance and information technology innovation: public–nonprofit partnerships to build neighborhood information systems

This paper addresses the collaboration and partnership between public and nonprofit organizations under the new governance paradigm in public administration, particularly in building neighborhood information systems (NISs). An NIS is a hybrid application of geographical information system and web technologies that provides demographic, social, and economic information to community stakeholders. The NIS is an innovative information technology (IT) tool to enhance local governance. In developing an NIS, local governments, nonprofits, universities, and foundations must work together. This paper examines what types of partnership models work better for NIS development. The findings of this study suggest that developing an effective NIS requires a collaborative environment and strong managerial leadership. This paper also suggests that IT innovation tools in turn can facilitate collaborative governance.

English

A friends group is a distinct type of nonprofit organization that is created by public agencies or communities in partnerships with public agencies to contribute supplementary financial support, labor, and resources to public institutions. Notable friends groups are associated with libraries and parks. Since the 1980s, the United States has seen a proliferation of friends groups and friends group–like organizations at local, regional, state, and national scales. Friends groups and public–nonprofit partnerships are a ubiquitous nonprofit type, but scholarly research on friends groups remains limited. The purpose of this study is to contribute to this research gap by providing an assessment of friends groups in the United States. In this study, I illuminate friends group organizational development, missions, structures, and best practices. By highlighting friends group characteristics and best practices, I aim to better equip nonprofits, public agencies, communities, and practitioners with a foundational understanding of friends groups and their potential benefits.

"Collaboration, (dis)trust and control in Brazilian manufactured public/non-profit partnerships"

This study seeks to evaluate whether interorganisational and interpersonal trust influences the nature of State control in Brazilian public/non-profit partnerships (PNPs), defined as a type of manu...

Institutional Change and Management of Public–Nonprofit Partnerships

This article focuses attention on the institutional context of cross-sector collaboration and its effects on partnership management. Drawing on fieldwork and 54 interviews from 2011 to 2013, we investigate an innovative public–nonprofit partnership within a local unit of the National Park Service. The collaboration demonstrates the power and potential of public–nonprofit partnerships while revealing tensions that cross-sector activities can provoke in an organizational field. We focus on two ongoing processes of institutional change in the nonprofit sector that shape these dynamics: (a) managerialism and (b) empowered agency. We illustrate these processes and suggest that they alter the context for partnerships in national parks, particularly with respect to capacity and control. We conclude by offering several propositions about institutional change and the broader implications of a shifting context for public–nonprofit partnerships.

Civic Engagement and Advocacy in Public-Nonprofit Partnerships

Research on collaboration demonstrates that successful contracting partnerships can improve the efficiency and effectiveness of public service provision, but how collaboration shapes community relationships and other social dynamics has received comparatively little attention. Building from a case study of an extensive, long-term partnership between a nonprofit and a unit of the national park system, we argue that collaboration can generate both local civic engagement and nonprofit advocacy. We show that, as partners with public agencies, nonprofits sometimes become important brokers that spur community engagement for planning as well as advocacy for projects and park conservation. We also demonstrate that civic engagement and advocacy share many commonalities and can be mutually reinforcing, even though within public administration the two activities tend to be viewed very differently. These findings establish an agenda for additional research on the consequences that arise from the transformation of the welfare state.

PUBLIC–NONPROFIT PARTNERSHIP PERFORMANCE IN A DISASTER CONTEXT: THE CASE OF HAITI

During disasters, partnerships between public and nonprofit organizations are vital to provide fast relief to affected communities. In this article, we develop a process model to support a performance evaluation of such intersectoral partnerships. The model includes input factors, organizational structures, outputs and the long-term outcomes of public–nonprofit partnerships. These factors derive from theory and a systematic literature review of emergency, public, nonprofit, and network research. To adapt the model to a disaster context, we conducted a case study that examines public and nonprofit organizations that partnered during the 2010 Haiti earthquake. The case study results show that communication, trust, and experience are the most important partnership inputs; the most prevalent governance structure of public–nonprofit partnerships is a lead organization network. Time and quality measures should be considered to assess partnership outputs, and community, network, and organizational actor perspectives must be taken into account when evaluating partnership outcomes.

Public—Nonprofit Partnership

This longitudinal study tracks the generation of trust between a public agency and nine community-based nonprofits (CBNs) over a 10-year period. The evolution from active distrust to trust was demonstrated by the generation of ideological consensus and domain consensus achieved through sharing information, integrated responsibilities and authority, and collaborative decision making. Results indicate that public—nonprofit partnerships create a locus for the practice of the New Public Service. CBNs offer public administrators a bridge into disenfranchised communities and a point of engagement where partners join public agency resources and expertise with tacit knowledge of community through a trusted institution.

Public‐Nonprofit Partnerships for Collective Action in Dynamic Contexts of Emergencies

This article seeks to understand the problem of building cooperation among public and nonprofit organizations to achieve public service goals in emergencies. It also examines the factors that contribute to successful public‐nonprofit partnerships (PNP) and what factors inhibit their development. The theoretical framework draws upon the literature on social capital, network theory and organizational collaboration. The article uses the network analysis perspective to assess the relationships among organizations in terms of their strength, direction and density in the rapid evolution of emergency response operations. The theoretical framework is applied to analyse the interorganizational responses to the 11 September 2001 World Trade Center (WTC) terrorist attacks in New York City. Emergency response operations required coordinated action among many actors across multiple jurisdictions under conditions of urgent stress, high demand and tight time constraints. This type of network analysis can constitute a field of substantial interest and importance to democratic societies that are seeking to manage problems of public service delivery in emergencies using innovative means.

Public-Nonprofit Partnerships and North-South Green Finance

Environmental nongovernmental organizations working in partnership with the public and for-profit sectors are increasingly recognized as key players in international environmental politics and finance. This article examines a specific NGO partnership, the National Environmental Fund (NEF), which recently exploded in Latin America under the Enterprise for the Americas Initiative. This innovative institution is expected to increase economic efficiency by reducing transaction costs and fighting opportunism in North-South environmental finance. The article also highlights causes for concern and points to processes of distributional politics at work, alongside processes that may reinforce democracy.