Non-profit organizations (NPOs) occupy a crucial place in society. This article studies the determinants of their managerial adaptations in relation to societal orientation, such as a focus on partners, an adaptation of relationships with volunteers, preventing neglect of the beneficiaries and members, and finally a redesign of internal organization. The survey of French NPOs 1 year after Covid-19 shows that boards have often lost their collective effectiveness and that the four adaptations associated with societal orientation were specifically explained by the access to key resources. The results demonstrate the importance of human resource dependency management and inform the decision-making process during the crisis. The contributions focus on the determinants of societal orientation, on the necessary individual and collective mobilization of human resources in non-profit governance and on the importance of a complex and paradoxical approach to decision-making. The original theoretical approach (the stakeholder resource-based theory) also offers perspectives for NPOs, in times of crisis but also in more stable circumstances.

This article illustrates how qualitative and network evidence complement one another for obtaining a deeper understanding of meso-level social orders theorized as strategic action fields. Making use of network data based on Twitter follower relationships and building on a previous qualitative study on the food charities active in Greater Manchester, we show how network-analytic formalizations of even apparently unimportant digital connections—Twitter ‘follows’—can provide meaningful insights into the functioning of strategic action fields. Focusing on this local charitable food provision field, the article makes a number of broader empirical and methodological contributions potentially relevant to the study of non-profits and other multi-organizational fields. The results of the network analyses mostly confirm the findings obtained using qualitative data, but also point to potential contradictions and puzzles that may indicate further lines of inquiry. In the discussion, we highlight the strengths and limitations of this approach and suggest how researchers could use easily available digital network data at different phases of their field investigations.

This paper presents an analysis of the relationships between intergenerational transmission of philanthropic values and prosocial behavior in three areas: monetary donation of money, volunteering, and civic engagement. Using a multivariable analysis for each area, while controlling for socio-demographic and social environment variables, this study found that the main intergenerational transmission variables are the family as the nuclear unit, the parents as role models, and discourse in the parents’ home. Together these create a family environment that supports philanthropic values of donating money and volunteering and at the same time engaging in civic activities. The relationships between the three areas reflecting prosocial behavior are complementary rather than substitutional. Explanations of these relationships are provided and discussed.

Contemporary governance increasingly emphasizes cross-sector collaboration to address complex societal challenges. This article examines how state strategies approach cross-sector collaborations involving the third sector, and delves into the interplay of authoritative, competitive, and collaborative governance strategies within these policies. Motivated by concerns about child poverty and social exclusion, the Declaration on Leisure Activities exemplifies Norway's reliance on partnerships between government, municipalities, and third sector organizations in the leisure and culture policy field. Employing a qualitative document analysis, the study reveals both potentials and paradoxes inherent in these approaches, offering valuable insights for designing effective cross-sector policies and navigating the complexities of cross-sector collaboration.

Although co-production between the government and society can improve service outcomes, the two parties may lack the willingness and the capacity to cooperate. Can nonprofit organizations play an active role in facilitating government–citizen co-production? If so, how? The role of nonprofits in social services co-production has received increasing attention, but studies on developing countries are limited. Therefore, this study conducts an in-depth case study of a rural social work institute in Z village, Beijing, China. Using on-site observations, semi-structured interviews, and secondhand materials, we found that social workers adopted four strategies to engage community officials and rural residents in service co-production. They established trustworthy relationships, facilitated effective communication, fostered shared motivation, and built co-productive capacity. The results showed that nonprofit organizations use third-party roles and professional skills to shape government-citizen interactions through service co-production. These findings can improve rural service provision in developing countries.

This paper examines how far a post-event volunteering legacy is facilitated by event organising committees leveraging existing volunteering infrastructure in host communities. The paper uses the lens of regulatory capitalism to examine how the organising committees of the Sydney 2000 and London 2012 Olympic Games engaged with the third sector, and specifically the volunteering infrastructure of the host nations, in the planning, delivery and post-event phases to create a volunteering legacy for the host community. The two case studies involved 27 in-depth interviews with key stakeholders representing the organising committees and the volunteering infrastructure in the host cities. While the Sydney Olympics had no specific remit for legacy planning, the third sector led legacy efforts in Australia. At the London Olympics, there was a failure to engage with the third sector, which limited government-led legacy planning and implementation. In the latter case, the framework of regulatory capitalism prioritised contracts with the private sector over meaningful engagement with the third sector.

Building on social exchange theory and self-determination theory, this paper studies how commitment to social responsibility in nonprofit organizations (NPOs) affects their employees. Social responsibility concerns NPOs’ voluntary engagement into ethical behaviour extending beyond the narrow mandate of their social mission and legal responsibilities. Given the prosocial motivation of nonprofit employees, it is argued that contributing to the well-being of stakeholders beyond the social mission by engaging in social responsibility may result in favourable employee outcomes. The results of our study, using a sample of 1335 employees of healthcare NPOs in Flanders, confirm that social responsibility positively relates to employees’ organizational citizenship behaviour (OCB) as commitment to social responsibility enhances perceptions of organizational support and social impact potential among nonprofit employees. The results further indicate that the consistent display of integrity and moral values by leaders by demonstrating leadership integrity positively influences the relationship between social responsibility and OCB.

This study aimed to measure the sociodemographic, economic, physical, psychological, and social characteristics of volunteers and the salient factors of their motivations for voluntary participation. The study employed a cross-sectional design and convenience sampling. Data were collected from 1046 volunteers working in eight non-governmental organizations in the field of child welfare. Specifically, a scale with ten factors of volunteer motivation was used to predict volunteer motivation within structural equation modeling. Questions were also asked to understand the relationship between volunteers' sociodemographic, economic, physical, psychological, and social characteristics and volunteering. The results show that the primary factors of recognition, reactivity, and understanding have the most significant positive effects on volunteer motivation, while social interaction has the least significant effect. Additionally, the diverse characteristics of volunteers were found to be an important source of motivation for them to volunteer. In conclusion, this research extends the existing literature and shed light on the main motivational processes that shape volunteering participation, considering the different characteristics of volunteers. Thus, understanding motivational factors can help to increase volunteer participation in Turkey.

This study examines how virtual spaces facilitated by NPOs are becoming catalysts for personal growth and collective strength. The primary finding indicates that social interaction among peers in an online support group tends to foster personal growth and development. This result is based on a grounded theory analysis of interview data from an online peer group and an interpretation of the data using symbolic interactionism. The study showcases how engagement in these spaces can lead to meaningful outreach and support for vulnerable populations, particularly single mothers. This research contributes to the understanding of collective behavior and its impact on individuals within a virtual group, shedding light on the dynamics of online support communities.

The social enterprise model, which is characterized by economic, social, and governance dimensions, has become a key aspect of modern welfare states in Europe. Despite its potential to increase revenue diversification for nonprofits, particularly through commercial income, its effects in the context of Mediterranean countries within the European Union are untested. This study aims to examine the adoption of the social enterprise model by Mediterranean nonprofits. The results suggest that organizations with high levels of diversification through commercial income exhibit some characteristics of the social enterprise model, and this behavior is influenced by factors such as the type of promoter, user, organizational aims, and activities.

Virtual reality (VR) can boost charitable attitudes and behavior. In an experiment with 100 participants viewing the content in VR vs. desktop computer, the VR group exhibited significantly higher levels of spatial presence (MD = 1.24, p < .001), attention allocation (MD = . 58, p < .001), spatial situation model building (MD = .47, p = .01), and empathy (MD = .46, p = .049). Donation behavior did not differ between the two groups (p = .36). Both computer and VR viewers shared similar emotions, but VR users felt greater immersion and emotional intensity, perceiving themselves as active participants, while computer viewers took a more passive role. This study generated insights for nonprofits considering VR in their marketing strategies, shedding light on the potential of VR storytelling and its effects on charitable giving.

Religious aid and development charities are quite numerous in the USA. However, it is unclear what the long-run economic and cultural impacts of religious philanthropy are within the recipient nation’s affiliated population. To begin answering this question, this study employs descriptive methods by examining educational outcomes among Protestants in South Korea, following a 50-year effort by Protestant missionaries to establish formalized schools throughout the Korean Peninsula. Using modern data, the study finds a persistent, positive relationship between identifying as a Protestant and years of education across two datasets following South Koreans in different age cohorts. This relationship holds over the creation of the highly centralized South Korean education system, and the average years of education doubling over age cohorts in the sample. In addition to finding higher levels of education, the study finds that Korean Protestants are more likely to hold office or professional jobs but do not earn higher household incomes. Further indicating persistence, the study finds a cultural tie between current Korean Protestants and missionary aid based on the nation to which Korean Protestants feel closest to. Much of the observed economic relationship can be explained through religious attendance; however, the cultural missionary tie appears to be driven by Protestant affiliation.

The literature has underexplored the profound impact of organizational socialization tactics on new volunteer outcomes. This study used social identification and social information processing theories to comprehensively investigate how organizational socialization tactics significantly affected volunteer outcomes and the underlying mediating mechanism. Two comprehensive studies (a scenario experiment and a large sample analysis) revealed that volunteer organizational socialization tactics not only positively influenced volunteer performance and volunteer hours but also exerted a notable negative impact on volunteer turnover intention through the mediating mechanism of organizational identification. Organizational reputation effectively moderated this relationship; specifically, the more commendable the volunteer organization's reputation, the more robust the positive effect of volunteer organizational socialization tactics on volunteer organizational identification, subsequently influencing volunteer outcomes. This study subsequently advanced a moderated mediation model to examine the multifaceted effects of organizational socialization tactics on volunteer outcomes. The results advocate for the proactive implementation of organizational socialization tactics for new volunteers and the continuous enhancement of volunteer organizations' brand reputations.

Previous literature has indicated that finding “fit” volunteers is critical, but overqualification, a mismatch in which abilities far exceed volunteer requirements, remains widespread. A mediated model was established based on relative deprivation theory to reveal the influence of overqualification on volunteer service outcomes through the mediating role of emotional labor. We used two research methods to test our hypotheses. Study 1 administered a 3-wave questionnaire survey to 1625 volunteers, and Study 2 included an experimental survey with 150 participants. Both studies showed that overqualification is common among college student volunteers (the compulsory volunteer group), which harms volunteer outcomes by increasing surface acting and reducing deep acting—volunteers’ overqualification reduced volunteer performance and increased burnout and turnover.

This study applies a hierarchical clustering approach to identify social enterprise models that have appeared in a setting of public sector-led incubation. Within such a context, a high degree of conformity ought to be apparent due to the coercive isomorphic pressures associated with public sector patronage. We nominate South Korea for our analysis, given that the rising number of social enterprises in the country is closely related to a regulatory intervention. Based on an analysis of 468 social enterprises, we find, contrary to expectations, that distinct clusters of government-certified social enterprises have emerged, namely social utility niche, job outsourcing, market opportunity, and integrated balanced models. We typologize these models according to their strategic orientation, mission focus, and institutional alignment. In doing so, we contribute to social enterprise research by illustrating how organizational pluralism may manifest when the growth of a population of social enterprises is directly linked to public sector intervention and regulation.

The article examines how nonprofit organization staff navigate organizational mission as they encounter complex systems problems outside their area of expertise, focusing on environmental organizations encountering homelessness in river watersheds. Drawing on surveys from seventy-three individuals from forty-three organizations and interviews with seventeen nonprofit staff, I find that staff who demonstrate systems thinking are more likely to describe integrating complex systems problems into their mission and activities in meaningful ways. Not interacting with systems issues due to lack of skill is most often explained with language of mission adherence and avoiding mission drift.

The following study examined advocacy strategies of human rights CSOs in Colombia; how they defended and expanded civic space for vulnerable populations, managed risk and characterized their relationships with INGOs. Twenty-six organizational leaders were interviewed. Results indicate that when under pressure, CSOs mitigate their mission, focus on culturally expressive activities, and avoid regions or topics. Proactive strategies used to advance the mission ranged from influencing policy incrementally through inside channels; ‘cloaking’—dissimulating the confrontative nature of activities and framing them as apolitical; joining coalitions for protection, legitimacy, and influence; appealing to national and international courts, and the media; and appealing to transnational networks for support. Human rights INGOs enabled CSOs to be more assertive in their advocacy by extending a variety of resources, including funding, legitimacy, global visibility, and some degree of physical protection. The study contributes to our understanding of how human rights CSOs advance democracy in hybrid regimes.

Applying the concepts of organizational field, capital, and habitus by Pierre Bourdieu, this study critically examines the (re)configuring of relations between grassroots and mainstream organizations during the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, we examined refugee-led organizations (RLOs), via fieldwork and interviews, in one US city from the summer of 2020 during the peak of the pandemic through 2022. We argue for conceptualizing the pandemic as an “external shock” that allowed the (re)valuing of forms of capital and means for disrupting the stability and durability—habitus—of the power-laden organizational field. In a post-pandemic new normal, however, positioning within their organizational field remains a contested, ongoing struggle for grassroots organizations.

Existing literature has focused on the influence of organizational settings on volunteers’ intention to remain but failed to explore the effects of external feedback. From an integrated perspective of task design and feedback, this study, based on the affective events theory, explored the influencing mechanism of illegitimate tasks, recipients’ feedback, and emotional exhaustion on volunteers’ intention to remain. This study collected 649 cases from poverty alleviation volunteers. Results showed that illegitimate tasks have had a negative impact on their intention to remain with emotional exhaustion taking a certain mediating effect. It has also been noted that the moderating effect of recipients’ feedback is significant, which can alleviate the negative impact of emotional exhaustion on the intention to remain. This study indicated the positive effects of positive and negative feedback, enriched the research on the influencing factors of volunteers’ intention to remain, and provided suggestions for organizations to retain volunteers from an integrated perspective of task design and feedback.

The presence of an elite group in civil society elicits a discursive friction between the long-standing normative understanding of civil society, acting as a check on government overreach and autocratic tendencies, and elite theories. Robert Michels’s iron law of oligarchy posits that as individuals rise in the ranks to become organizational leaders, they begin to take on elite attributes, and their priorities align with those of other elites and away from those of their constituents. Michels’s argument echoes with today’s populist anti-elitist rhetoric and the way populism rejects any intermediary bodies between the people and the political leaders, including interest organizations in civil society. As an attempt to empirically probe this theoretical tension, this paper explores satisfaction with the way democracy is working among the top-level leaders of the most well-resourced national-level civil society organizations in Sweden and in the UK, drawing on a survey study conducted in 2020–21.