Cross-Sectoral Comparison of Values Influencing Strategy

This article reports the findings of research into four case organizations from the public and nonprofit sectors. The findings build on international theory about strategic management, and argue that values influence strategy formulation. Chaffee's models of strategy are provided as a useful tool in differentiating the value-base which informs the strategic posture of an organization. Expressive values are more evident in nonprofit strategy formulation which aligns with Chaffee's interpretive approach to strategy. Instrumental values appear more in public organizations which align more with Chaffee's adaptive approach to strategy.     

国外非营利组织监督机制研究综述

非营利组织蓬勃兴起,在社会、政治和经济中发挥着重要作用,但是一系列财务丑闻却严重损害了非营利组织的公信力,因此应着力探索和构建非营利组织监督机制,以引导其健康快速发展。我国非营利组织发展起步较晚,关于非营利组织监督机制的理论研究尚不健全,实证研究尤其匮乏。通过对非营利组织的内部监督、信息披露以及外部监督这三个方面的国外文献进行综述发现,监督机制对改善非营利组织治理结构、提高组织绩效、维护行业公信力具有一定效果,这对我国非营利组织监督机制的建构具有一定借鉴意义。     

Online donation behavior in nonprofit organizations: The role of congruent processing styles

With the advent of technology, donors are increasingly donating via online channels. This shift deems it necessary for nonprofit organizations to better understand the online donor behavior. As such, the purpose of this paper is twofold. First, we investigate if nonprofit organizations are perceived differently in terms of their cognitive and affective natures. Then, we examine how different consumer processing styles, i.e. cognitive and affective, interact with consumer perceptions of nonprofit cognitive/affective orientations in influencing their donation intentions. Our results indicate that consumers with a high need for cognition are more willing to donate to predominantly cognitive nonprofit organizations, while those with high need for emotion are more willing to donate to predominantly affective nonprofit organizations. Based on these results, we suggest that nonprofit organizations can garner more donations if they request funds from donors whose processing styles are congruent with the organization. Additional recommendations for future research are provided.     

Managing ambiguity: merger activity in the nonprofit housing sector

Merger behaviour in the nonprofit sector has been relatively neglected, yet has considerable marketing implications. This paper draws on a range of sources to explore the nature of merger activity in the nonprofit housing industry. It locates mergers within debates about inter-organisational strategies, and explores the context, extent, motivations for and regulation of mergers in the housing industry. While there are many similarities in environmental stimuli to and processes of negotiating mergers between the profit-distributing and nonprofit sectors, there are some distinctive features. This research explores the ambiguous nature of the merger activity among housing organisations. This ambiguity infects the terminology and record-keeping systems and helps to explain a significant gap between rhetoric and activity. Such ambiguity may be more than a negotiating strategy. It may represent the attempt to manage conflicting pressures to market nonprofit organisations as ‘sensitively serving the needs of society’ by on the one hand being competitive and efficient while on the other remaining value based and locally accountable. Copyright © 1999 Henry Stewart Publications     

非营利组织财务治理的经济理论分析

依据相关的经济理论提出的非营利组织财务治理的理论框架，用以弥补将这种组织形式简单地假设为一种典型的生产函数的缺陷，从而为我国如何推进事业单位管理体制改革、对非营利组织进行高效管理提供参考。     

Crowded but not crowded out: Comparing the solicitation strategies and outcomes of nonprofits' and individual's GoFundMe campaigns

There is a great deal of need in this world, and some are taking their plights directly to the public for help rather than approaching nonprofit organizations. This content analysis of GoFundMe solicitations compared a range of requests (n = 303) to document how similar the solicitation strategies of crowdfunding campaigns run by individuals are to those from nonprofit organizations. Results from this investigation helped address the uncertainties of the disintermediation of the nonprofit sector. Though disintermediation is real and actively taking place, results indicate that nonprofit organizations are in a healthy position to survive the disruption of crowdfunding while adapting, adopting and improving crowdfunding behaviors.     

Market orientation and marketing in nonprofit organizations. Indications for fundraising from Victoria

The effectiveness of a market orientation has been established in other parts of the world. Using a modified replication study of 401 nonprofit organizations from Victoria, this research took some initial steps to assess fundraising and marketing activities. Studies in Australia have usually focused on only one part of the Third Sector. This study takes a different view and uses a criteria sampling method to survey all 11 sections named by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The self‐reported data of fundraising activities showed that there were several choices available to all nonprofit organizations that can lead to an improvement in organizational performance. Results suggest that should nonprofit organizations have knowledge generating systems that evaluate their performance, this will improve outcomes for them. Even though organizational size is strongly linked to fundraising performance, there are key drivers that can aid even small organizations in their efforts. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Exploring individual predictors of variation in public awareness of expressive and instrumental nonprofit brands

Expressive and instrumental functions provide a way to classify activities that take place in the nonprofit sector. These functions also provide a way to better understand individual's philanthropic involvement with certain types of nonprofit organizations. Despite the usefulness of these classifications, only a few studies have explored demographic, social, and ideological differences in individuals' philanthropic involvement along expressive and instrumental dimensions; and, no studies have explored differences in public awareness of nonprofits along these dimensions. Such awareness, though, could likely be an important precursor to an individual's philanthropic involvement. Thus, the purpose of this study is to explore whether variables known to be associated with variation in philanthropic involvement are also associated with variation in awareness of, what we categorize as, expressive and instrumental nonprofit brands. Using data from a survey of public awareness of, and attitudes toward, nonprofit organizations in San Diego County (n = 1002), our findings show that individuals are more aware of instrumental nonprofit brands than they are of expressive nonprofit brands. However, there are important individual differences to consider. We discuss the theoretical relevance of our findings and offer several practical recommendations for nonprofit administrators.     

Nonprofit organizations,institutional economics,and systems thinking

The present paper applies the logic of John Kenneth Gailbraith's institutional economics analysis of corporate power to inquiring into the societal role of the nonprofit sector. Building on Galbraith's insight that corporations cause subtle but pervasive societal imbalances, the paper locates the role of nonprofit organizations in compensating for these imbalances, thus showing corporations and nonprofit organizations to be mutually complementary rather than antagonistic actors. This argument is supported by Niklas Luhmann's vision of the precarious relationship between the complexity and sustainability of social systems as well as by Kenneth Boulding's analysis of the farmer and labor movement. Luhmann's and Boulding's perspectives show profit-seeking corporations to be social systems developing high technological complexity at the cost of sacrificing their societal sustainability, while the improvement of the latter constitutes the rationale of many nonprofit organizations. The same systems-theoretic logic suggests, however, that nonprofit organizations may tend to underestimate the technological complexity of implementing their mission-related activities, thereby undermining their own effectiveness.     

A Buddhist perspective on death: An ethnographic study and implications for nonprofit marketing in grief support and terminal illness

The liminal state associated with terminal illness and death of a loved one is characterized by a marginalized experience, often accompanied by immense grief, confusion, isolation, and in cases identity crisis. There exists a range of issues that make marketing to these groups very different from marketing to non‐sensitive segments. This paper adds to the literature on marketing to sensitive groups by exploring the concept of death and implications for nonprofit organizations in grief support and terminal illness, with an ethnographic study of one of the world's largest Nichiren Buddhist organizations. It shows that Buddhist concepts of death can play a compassionate role for nonprofit organizations in countering the delusory fear and hopelessness of death for families and patients coping with bereavement and imminent death.     

非营利组织财务制度问题及构建对策研究

当前,我国非营利组织已暴露出许多财务问题,致使社会公益事业在某种程度上陷入了信任危机。在此现实背景下,本文依据新制度经济学,对我国非营利组织财务制度进行探讨,并提出相应的构建对策。非营利组织财务制度是用于规范组织财务活动、处理组织财务关系的一套行为规则。尽管我国非营利组织财务制度历经变迁,但依然难以有效指导和规范非营利组织财务活动。随着我国非营利组织数量和规模的持续增长,亟待从法律和财务规章层面构建相应的非营利组织财务制度。     

民间非营利组织财务管理问题浅议

本文针对当前民间非营利组织财务管理存在的问题,提出完善法律法规、加强监督力度、提高财务信息披露等对策,进而在一定程度上增加民间非营利组织运作的公开性和透明度,促进组织的良性发展。     

Understanding public awareness of nonprofit organizations: exploring the awareness–confidence relationship

• Public confidence has often been viewed as a critical indicator of legitimacy within the nonprofit sector. Indeed, confidence is believed to be among one of the sector's most important commodities. Surveys, however, have shown that the public does not always have much confidence in the performance of nonprofit organizations. Although this lack of confidence is certainly concerning, few studies have assessed whether the public actually has any awareness of what nonprofit organizations are, and no studies have examined the personal characteristics associated with more (or less) nonprofit awareness. Thus, by using individual‐level data from a survey of public attitudes toward nonprofits in San Diego County (n = 1002), the purpose of this study was to explore how individual characteristics relate to nonprofit awareness and to examine the extent to which awareness of the sector influences confidence in the performance of nonprofit organizations. The findings from the study indicate that nonprofit awareness varies by several individual‐level characteristics—with many of those likely to be the most dependent on nonprofit services being the least aware of the sector. The findings also indicate that awareness of the sector is the most significant predictor of confidence in the performance of nonprofits.

Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The impact of housing rehabilitation on local neighborhoods: the case of small community development organizations

Across the nation, nonprofit organizations located in poor and declining neighborhoods are promoting homeownership in the hopes that their efforts will stave off decline and contribute to neighborhood stability. A common homeownership strategy among nonprofits is to acquire boarded-up or deteriorated homes at a low price, rehabilitate them, and then sell them at an affordable price. As these programs continue, nonprofit organizations want to show quantitatively that neighborhood revitalization works—that the funds devoted to an area stabilize neighborhoods or, even more, that they initiate a surge of continued upward progress. But, unlike their larger counterparts, smaller community development organizations are usually at a disadvantage in undertaking such an evaluation. This study will help illustrate what might be done. It focuses on the case of St. Joseph's Carpenter Society (SJCS) in Camden, New Jersey and assesses the quantitative impact that SJCS has on its target neighborhoods. A three-tiered approach is adopted that ranges from a target and comparison area analysis, to regression analysis of SJCS's impact on local housing prices, and finally to an examination of the relative market performance of SJCS's houses. All told, the analysis suggests that SJCS's rehabilitation and homeownership education activities appear to have a positive influence on the neighborhoods in its target area.     

How to achieve integration on the human side of the merger

Blake and Mouton use an actual case of a successful merger to show how their Interface Conflict-Solving Model, based on behavioral science principles, can be used to achieve integration. The authors outline the history of the two organizations, give illustrations of the kinds of changes that were necessary to more from the actual state of affairs within each organization to the conditions needed for synergy, and explain how the merging organizations collaborated to develop a model for the interface. The merger is evaluated from the perspective of what happened during the two years following the merger. Blake and Mouton also elaborate on the dynamics of group behavior that they took into consideration in designing the Interface Conflict-Solving Model: the effects of group members' shared history; the natural tensions that typically exist between groups that have a functional relationship and misperceptions and distortions that arise as a result of these tensions; and win-lose competitiveness instead of a win-win mentality as a shared expectation. Finally, the authors show how shared participation can overcome inappropriate and debilitating competition.     

Improving the effectiveness of prosocial advertising campaigns: Message strategies to increase support from less empathic individuals

Individuals with low levels of trait empathy are hesitant when it comes to helping people in need. This makes it difficult for nonprofit organizations to gain their support for prosocial advertising campaigns. An experimental study among 214 Swiss students examines what message strategies nonprofit organizations should use to increase support from less empathic people. We investigate the effects of depicting daily life situations where people in need are happy versus sad (visual message strategies) and the effects of presenting statistical versus anecdotal evidence (verbal message strategies). The results show that less empathic individuals hold more favorable attitudes toward prosocial advertising campaigns when exposed to sad daily life images and anecdotal evidence. Moreover, attitudes mediate message effects on less empathic individuals' intentions to comply with a prosocial advocacy. Overall, the study suggests that nonprofit organizations should prefer sad over happy daily life images and anecdotal over statistical evidence in prosocial advertising campaigns.     

Network Connections and Competitively Awarded Funding: The impacts of board network structures and status interlocks on nonprofit organizations’ foundation grant acquisition

This analysis investigates whether nonprofit board connections with other nonprofit organizations and foundations explain organizational performance in earning foundation grants. Using a sample of 402 nonprofits and sixty-eight foundations in a single metropolitan area, we find that greater connectedness and status interlocks significantly influence organizations’ ability to acquire resources. Network effects are partially mediated by the number of past grants received and a nonprofit’s financial characteristics, including organizational size, fundraising expenses, and financial health. These findings, while supporting the role of networks in resource attainment, point to the complex and mutual relationships between organizational characteristics, network characteristics, and organizational performance.     

非营利精神塑造探析

非营利精神,影响着非营利组织的价值取向和行为方式,它的产生基于一定的文化基础。我国非营利组织中非营利精神的重塑影响着这些组织今后的发展,而精神的重塑又应当考虑宗旨、动机、愿景、影响、品牌等综合因素。     

Website development by nonprofit organizations in an emerging market: a case study of Thai websites

• Nonprofit organizations are pertinent players in making the world a better place. Their websites aid in fulfilling their socially beneficial missions by being a platform to present themselves, to interact with stakeholders around the world, and to perform e‐transactions to raise funds. This interdisciplinary research explores nonprofit websites in Thailand, an emerging market, to determine their progress through an adapted e‐business stage model. A manual website decoding process was used to determine the development of websites, within the sector. On average, almost three‐quarters of the websites offered interactivity and just less than half conducted online transactions, but internationally connected organizations in Thailand were significantly more likely to do so. The findings suggest that while nonprofit websites in Thailand are progressing, there is significant lag between local Thai websites and those that have international connections. While the model successfully provided new data for understanding nonprofit websites in less developed markets, it may need to be modified in future studies.

Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.