What factors make it more likely that political associations will engage in community service provision? This article examines the service provision activities of minority-identified political associations in the Middle East prior to the Arab Spring, giving an important view of associational activity during the period leading up to substantial political change in the region. Drawing from two distinct bodies of literature—on nonprofit organizations and on political violence—the paper analyzes organizational level data for more than 100 minority-identified, politically oriented voluntary associations in the Middle East and North Africa during the period from 1980 to 2004. We find that the likelihood of political associations also providing community services aligns more closely to variables found in the political violence literature than the literature on nonprofit organizations, making an important case for more cross-disciplinary analysis when examining associational life in the Middle East and North Africa.

Over the past 20 years, the issue of performance measurement in Social Enterprises (SEs) has gained increasing relevance among researchers and practitioners. From an academic perspective, there has been an explosion in methodologies and tools for assessing social performance and impact, but with little systematic analysis and comparison across different approaches. From a practitioner perspective, SEs need to start measuring their performances in a systemic way, in order to support decision making and ensure accountability towards their stakeholders. In this context, this paper aims to contribute to the state of the art literature by developing an approach that could be applied to/by SEs to measure their results with respect to social, environmental and economic impacts. The proposed approach consists of a “general” PMS model for SEs—i.e., the performance dimensions that should be measured—and a stepwise method to be used by SEs to develop their own PMS. For sake of clarification, the proposed approach is applied to the case of an Italian SE competing in the energy sector to develop a set of key performance indicators.

In this article we discuss the extent to which service-delivering nonprofit organizations (NPOs) are committed to fulfill an expressive advocacy role, and we look at the advocacy strategies these organizations adopt. Furthermore, we question whether a close relationship with government compromises the NPOs’ willingness to perform these advocacy activities. Based on a large-N sample of more than 250 NPOs in the Flemish welfare sector, our research shows that the overall commitment to an advocacy role was rather low. Rather than focusing on a role as adversary of government, NPOs seek to adopt “softer” strategies such as the use of insider contacts with policy makers, the participation in umbrella organizations or building coalitions with other NPOs. Finally, we found mixed evidences concerning our initial hypotheses. Most importantly, as the dominant source of public income did not stifle the NPOs’ commitment to advocate, we found little support for a resource dependence framework.

In nonprofit organizations, hybrid activities that straddle both paid work and volunteering have been documented. However, conceptualization of these hybrid activities is missing. This article conceptualizes one kind hybrid activity—“staff volunteering” (SV) in which self-selected, paid nonprofit employees, motivated by volunteerism, willingly volunteer to perform work that is perceived to be unpaid by the employee. SV enriches our understanding of volunteerism and the nature of nonprofit work by conceptualizing the phenomenon of paid SV at work. SV informs nonprofit managers about the staff’s work motivation and both the benefits and dangers of relying on SV. The conceptualization also provokes us to rethink the role and status of NPOs within the framework of the New Public Management.

This paper examines a recent effort to reform the laws on outsourcing to nonprofit organizations in the Central Asian country of Kyrgyzstan. To do so, it first examines Kyrgyzstan’s pattern of outsourcing during the era of Soviet control of the country. It then examines early post-Soviet efforts to establish an effective system of outsourcing to nonprofits and the difficulties that these early efforts encountered. Finally, it looks in more detail at a major effort to reform this system undertaken during 2014 and 2015 and draws some significant lessons for the redesign of contracting and outsourcing provisions that are relevant not only for former Soviet countries but more generally as well.

Nonprofit sports clubs generate revenue from a variety of sources. One of the main income categories is donations. Previous research only analyzed the amount of money generated through donations, but not the influencing factors. The purpose of this study is to investigate determinants of donations for nonprofit sports clubs. The study is based on the public goods theory (Weisbrod in “The economics of nonprofit institutions.” “Studies in structure and policy.” Oxford University Press, New York, pp 21–44, 1986) and the contract failure theory (Hansmann in Yale Law J 89(5):835–902, 1980) and makes use of an unbalanced panel data set from a nationwide online survey of nonprofit sports clubs in Germany (n = 41,343). The results show that particularly the provision of elite sport and the promotion of young talents positively influence the reception of donations. Moreover, sports clubs caring for social aspects, companionship, and conviviality as core values are able to generate higher revenues from donations. The same applies to clubs employing paid staff. Contrary, a commercial orientation was found to have a negative effect.

Missing Minorities (MIMI) is a research project initiated by the European Blood Alliance that aims to develop new strategies to recruit blood donors from minority groups. This paper contributes to this larger project by analyzing data of the German Socio-Economic Panel study 2011 that questioned over 20,000 respondents about their blood donation behavior. Within this sample, the authors identify 1,726 potential blood donors from various migrant groups. Applying logistic regression analysis, the authors analyze differences between blood donors and non-donors with migration background. The results show that non-donors trust other people significantly less, use the internet less often, and have a significantly lower reading ability in German. Based on these findings, the authors discuss the current practices in minority blood donor recruitment as found in the MIMI project. Furthermore, promising recruitment tactics for blood donation managers and areas for further research are derived.

NPOs and their funders are increasingly drawn to the Social Return on Investment (SROI) method to evaluate the social impact of programs, organizations, or organization networks. While many claims about the benefits of SROI have been expressed, various points of criticism have also been raised. On the basis of both current research and our own experience in conducting SROI analyses, we develop a comprehensive assessment of this method, which is structured along two dimensions: the observer’s paradigmatic perspective, on the one hand, and positive or negative valuation, on the other. We identify two major merits: SROI analysis can provide legitimacy to NPOs or their funders, and it can assist in allocating resources efficiently and effectively. We identify limitations from three perspectives: From an interpretative-sociological perspective, criticism of commensuration and utilitarianism calls the method as a whole into question. From a technical-instrumental perspective, there are a number of difficulties that could, however, be overcome as the method matures. From an intermediary perspective, a number of limitations become apparent that, while inherent to SROI analysis, are no reason for abandoning it, as long as they are thoroughly understood. We conclude by providing suggestions for the responsible use of SROI analysis.

This article compares trust, political activeness, and associational participation of lower secondary students in 22 countries all over the world representing different political and welfare regimes. The analyses are based on the ICCS 2009 survey. Comparison between the countries shows that the level of trust and political activeness/level of association participation of 8th graders correlate negatively with each other whereas in adult populations the correlation is positive. The level of political and associational activeness was highest in the Dominican Republic, Thailand and Paraguay, and the lowest in Finland, Taiwan, Sweden, and Denmark. Moreover, young people in the Nordic countries are less interested in political and societal issues even though the level of their civic knowledge is highest of all the countries. Nordic 8th graders have a very high level of trust in other people and in institutions. Differences in the level and type of welfare state (especially the level of children’s welfare and their educational rights) are probably the most important social factors in the explanation of national differences. High level of child welfare tends to increase the level of 8th graders’ trust but decrease their association activeness. Bourdieu’s theoretical repertoire (especially the concept of the causality of the probable) was adopted in the interpretation of the differences in trust and political cum associational activeness between countries included in the analysis.

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.

Research on volunteering has emphasized the positive role played by individual religiosity on this type of civic engagement. There are fewer studies on the relation between contextual religiosity and volunteer work. Several of them have concluded that the higher the macro-contextual religiosity, the higher the propensity to get involved in volunteering. Thereby, researchers might be inclined to conclude that secularization is a threat to this social participation. This article shows that such a conclusion is unfounded. From a data set including the 27 countries of the European Union and using a multilevel analysis to control for the compositional effects of the national sample, we obtain a negative correlation between macro-contextual religiosity and volunteering. From these results, we suggest that the relationship between volunteering and contextual religiosity cannot be considered as deterministic but it has to be comprehended in a more global cultural context.

This research builds our understanding of emerging corporate and private Indian foundations through the lens of their founders—India’s new generation of high-net-worth business leaders. Based on over 45 interviews and drawing on existing literature, it explores the background of these individuals, their unique position as “hyperagents,” and the Indian context that shapes their foundations. Findings suggest that these philanthropists prefer operational foundation models, politically and socially “safe” sectors, carry over business tendencies, pursue social change through a driver or catalyst role, and hold preference for control at the cost of coordination between actors. These approaches are logical given the context but are not the ideal end-goal, rather a step toward advancing HNWI philanthropy in the country. This work will be of interest to those looking to engage with Indian philanthropists and foundations, and given the limited existing scholarship on Indian philanthropy, it contributes to the development of India-specific theories.

International nongovernmental organizations (INGOs) are frequently criticized for failing to adequately represent or engage with grassroots stakeholders. Yet most explanations of this shortcoming have focused on factors external to the organizations, e.g., economic pressures that privilege donor interests. What has been largely lacking is an examination of the role of internal INGO characteristics. We address this by examining INGOs’ legitimacy standards: how INGOs understand themselves to be doing the right thing and seek to convey that righteousness to others. Drawing on the literature from business ethics and organizational behavior, we show that organizations’ self-selected standards of legitimacy are key drivers of behavior. Using an analysis of 57 American INGO websites, we identify 11 legitimacy types and examine their usage. We find that while most INGOs make a series of technical legitimacy claims that seem designed to attract donors, they simultaneously employ additional legitimacy standards that do not seem to be externally dictated. These additional standards generally prioritize adherence to a cause rather than stakeholder input. The findings suggest that challenges to INGO representivity or responsiveness result not only from external pressures, but also from INGOs’ own choice of values.

Much attention has recently been paid to comparative work in the public and private sectors looking at work values, motivations, and the impact of government reform movements in organizations. Several studies have compared the public and private sectors in the dimension of values; but none have questioned the popular assumption that nonprofit and public managers share the same or a similar set of values or the value expectations they have for each other. This paper reports on the results of an empirical survey of public and nonprofit managers that compares their individual democratic, ethical, and professional values. In brief, the results lend strong support to the assumption that nonprofit employees share the same value set as their public sector counterparts; but their value sets do have statistically significant differences in the perceived level of importance of altruism, generosity, and individualism.

Why do some nonprofits signal their respect for accountability via unilateral website disclosures? We develop an Accountability Index to examine the websites of 200 U.S. nonprofits ranked in the Chronicle of Philanthropy’s 2010 “Philanthropy 400.” Our intuition is that nonprofits recognize that the “nondistributional constraint” by itself may not generate sufficient trust. We expect nonprofits’ incentives for website disclosures will be shaped by their organizational and sectoral characteristics. Our analyses suggest that nonprofits appearing frequently in newspapers disclose more accountability information while nonprofits larger in size disclose less. Religion-related nonprofits tend to disclose less information, suggesting that religious bonding enhances trust and reduces incentives for self-disclosure. Nonprofits in the health sector disclose less information, arguably because governmental regulations in which they are embedded reduce marginal benefits from voluntary disclosures. Education nonprofits, on the other hand, tend to disclose more accountability information perhaps because they supply credence goods.

Drawing on the institutional sociology framework of coercive isomorphism, the study explores the effects of upward hierarchical accountability on the program outcomes of NGOs in Bangladesh. The study uses a qualitative case study method involving two NGOs. The findings from the case studies suggest that NGOs which depend on foreign funding spend more time and resources in fulfilling their upward hierarchical accountabilities compared to NGOs which are funded from their own sources. As a result, the accountability obligations of foreign-funded NGOs are not met as effectively as NGOs which are funded from their own sources.

Scholars have long been interested in what influences philanthropic behavior. However, little is known about the effects of length of residency on charitable gifts to local and non-local organizations. Using 2010 survey data from 470 older individuals, we examine whether donors’ geographic relocations influence philanthropic behavior and whether these moves are a bigger challenge for some types of nonprofits than others. We find variations in giving to specific types of nonprofits based on residency duration. The giving patterns we uncover add depth to our understanding of philanthropic behavior and inform nonprofit managers seeking to better understand older adults’ giving to local and non-local religious, human services, arts, and education nonprofits.

The implementation of policies that have sought to involve immigrant associations in the development of their countries of origin, under the name of co-development, was a novelty in Spain during the last decade. This new model of development cooperation carried out by the migrants themselves has not only generated new opportunities for its associations, but also significant risks, especially in the field of decentralized cooperation driven by autonomous communities. In this article, we present the specific case of the Valencian Community, where the co-development reached a considerable degree of implementation between 2006 and 2012. Through the analysis of Valencian co-development policies, it is possible to see how immigrant associations have actually occupied a secondary place in the new cooperation schemes against the NGO Development, while many have abandoned their protest to focus on projects and proposals for welfare activities.

This history of charitable collections in the East German dictatorship (the Protestant organized Bread for the World and the student-led Initiative: Hope for Nicaragua) analyzes the relationship between philanthropy, civil society, and democratic action. These collections, widely unknown outside of the former German Democratic Republic, indicate that independent associations could form to organize philanthropic collections for international causes in this dictatorship. These groups provided the basis for actions outside of state control by engaging East Germans in support of human rights and individual need internationally. As such, my work shows that philanthropy can both exist within a dictatorship and encourage democratic action.