SPAC merger announcement returns and subsequent performance

Special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) are created to raise capital and then find non-listed operating companies with which to merge. While most of the extant research has focused on SPAC initial public offerings, we study what happens when SPACs announce business combinations. Our analysis of 236 ‘deSPACs’ completed between January 2012 and June 2021 in the United States documents an average short-term announcement return of +7.4% and a 1-year abnormal return of −14.1% (−18.0% over 2 years) for public investors beginning from the merger announcement. Short-term returns decrease with longer times from initial public offering until announcement.     

The state-of-the-art and future research directions in bequest fundraising by nonprofit organizations: A systematic literature review

The topic of fundraising is garnering increased attention from nonprofit practitioners due to the worldwide growth of the nonprofit sector and the subsequent competition for private funds. Despite this surge, academic literature on fundraising and bequest fundraising, in particular, has remained mainly limited to narrow aspects of the discipline. Based on a systematic review of literature published over the past 25 years, we synthesize various research perspectives into a comprehensive framework of studies linking the different issues highlighted by the authors. The purpose of this article is to consolidate the state of academic research on bequest fundraising by not-for-profit organizations. The literature review underscores how research efforts have not paid much attention to bequest fundraising from the NPO's perspective, although as it has become an increasingly important source of income for charitable organizations. The majority of studies focus on the Donor's perspective, striving to understand what drives the desire to leave a charitable bequest. The findings of the SLR show a gap in the knowledge of NPOs' internal mechanisms concerning the particular topic of charitable bequests; from these insights, the future research directions are proposed.