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Improving Evaluation In Nonprofit Organizations: A Study Of How Evaluation Requests For Proposals Are Developed, Responded To, And Fulfilled, Nakia S. Matthews

Dissertations

It is often necessary for nonprofit organizations (NPOs) to formulate a Request for Proposal (RFP) to procure essential contracted services. This is most common when seeking the services of an external evaluator. Since most NPOs do not have internal evaluation staff, developing an appropriate RFP can be quite challenging. With limited literature and resources to guide NPOs on how to prepare RFPs, the process for procuring qualified evaluators can be even more daunting. This lack of resources and supports can lead to insufficient or incomplete RFPs, subsequently narrowing the pool of qualified potential bidders and reducing the extent to which …

Beyond Liabilities: Survival Skills For The Young, Small, And Not-For-Profit, Elizabeth A.M. Searing

Public Management and Policy Dissertations

This dissertation offers insight into the organizational lives of small and new not-for-profits. The first essay used three different estimation strategies to model the role of revenue type in the growth in young and small not-for-profits. We find that increases in the percentage of a not-for-profit’s revenue portfolio going to dues, indirect support, or non-mission income will suppress growth and that there is no “optimal” model across subsectors. The second essay uses over twenty years of panel data to predict which factors indicate the impending recovery of a financially vulnerable small and young nonprofit. Support for hypotheses based in the …

The Relationship Between Toxic Leadership, Organizational Citizenship, And Turnover Behaviors Among San Diego Nonprofit Paid Staff, Melanie J. Hitchcock

Dissertations

Toxic leadership is associated with a number of negative consequences to the long-term health and welfare of people in organizations. Destructive leader styles redirect employee efforts from mission accomplishment to self-protection and survival behaviors, undermining the organization. Increased demand and decreased funding are characteristic of the nonprofit sector. Therefore, successful nonprofit organizations tend to rely on creativity and innovation to ensure their communities are appropriately and sufficiently sustained. Supportive, not toxic, leadership helps foster organizational environments that encourage prudent risk-taking and innovation.

This concurrent mixed methods study explored the relationship between toxic leadership and organizational citizenship and turnover behaviors among …

Nonprofit Leadership: A Study Of Governance Changes Over Time, Daisha M. Merritt

Dissertations, 2014-2019

This is a leadership study understood through board governance in nonprofit organizations. The study sought to discover if there were indicators of coercive institutional isomorphism occurring in human service nonprofit organizations in the United States. IRS 990 tax forms were compiled from 2008- 2012 to determine if there were increasing levels of reported governance practices. Methodology included factor analysis, comparison of means, trend analysis, and regression models. Results indicated that there is an overall trend of increasing reported practices of governance in human service nonprofit organizations. Board size is the most significant indicator associated with changes in reported governance practices. …

Policing Charities: A Genealogy Of The American Nonprofit In The Context Of Neoliberalism, Jaclyn Carroll

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

This project offers a critical rhetorical history of “the nonprofit” over the last 50 years of American political discourses. The author explicates the value of genealogy and rhetorical history as methodologies in critical communication studies. She then examines three discursive junctures. Beginning with Ronald Reagan’s public addresses and his deployment of the neoliberal epideictic, the author traces different rhetorical treatments of “the nonprofit.” The author then examines the emergence of nonprofit watchdogging agencies in the 1990s, and discourses of surveillance and resistance that developed at this time. Particular attention is paid to the discursive shifts surrounding September 11, 2001.

The …

Growing The Mission: Nonprofit Organizations Conducting Food-Growing Activities In The Twin Cities Of Minnesota, Marcos Stoltzfus

School of Business Student Theses and Dissertations

Growing food has become an increasingly common activity for nonprofit organizations, and doing so offers many opportunities to confer benefits to individuals and communities. Through a qualitative methodology, this research project uses a grounded theory approach to explore the challenges, opportunities, and issues faced by nonprofits in the Twin Cities that conduct food-growing activities as part of their mission. The study found three main categories of themes relevant to this sub-sector: Food Philosophy and mission prioritization, business model and economic concerns, and integrated program design characteristics. These factors are discussed from a nonprofit management lens, and implications for leaders are …

Differences Between For-Profit And Nonprofit Hospitals: Perceived Quality And Access, Michael Ray Eiland

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Despite a large body of literature addressing the issue, questions remain about whether nonprofit hospitals provide more community benefit than do for-profit hospitals. This lack of information impacts governments, hospitals, and the healthcare industry, as stakeholders attempt to generate requirements to which hospitals should adhere to maintain nonprofit status, and thus tax exemption. This study addressed this lack of information by examining U.S. hospitals through the lens of stewardship theory to determine whether nonprofits are better stewards of the public good than for-profits, and thus likely to provide higher quality and access. The study applied logistic regression to Centers for …

Turnover Intentions Of Nonprofit Fundraising Professionals: The Roles Of Perceived Fit, Exchange Relationships, And Job Satisfaction, Abbi L. Haggerty

Theses and Dissertations

This study explores the turnover intentions of fundraisers employed by 501(c)(3) public charities in the United States. Specifically, the study considers the effects of the following variables on fundraisers’ intentions to leave their current position (in the short-term and long-term) and/or the profession of fundraising: perceptions of fit with organization and job; exchange relationships between employees and their organization and supervisor; overall job satisfaction; culture of philanthropy; salary; age; and organizational size. Through a secondary analysis of a national data set, multiple regression analysis identifies the variables that are statistically significant predictors of turnover intentions.

Perceived person-organization fit, job satisfaction, …

Organizational Effectiveness Frameworks In Public Health Nonprofit Systems: A Case Study, Morgan Floyd

Theses and Dissertations--Public Health (M.P.H. & Dr.P.H.)

Problem: Nonprofits, especially in public health, have become more and more prevalent in recent years. With that increase in support, come greater awareness from stakeholders evaluate nonprofits as effective and impactful on the communities they serve. Frameworks of Organization Effectiveness allow investigators to predict how effective an organization might be in their work. The aims of this study were to identify key Organizational Effectiveness frameworks that could be used to evaluate Nonprofits and use them in practice. Therefore, individuals wishing to become involved with effective nonprofits will be empowered to make good investments of volunteer time and donations

Method: This …

Organizational Strategies For Addressing Disparities Among Marginalized Older Adults, Jennifer L. Martin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

As the United States older adult population expands, it is also becoming more diverse in terms of race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation (U.S. Census Bureau, 2010). This increased diversity necessitates that social workers research issues of cultural competency at the organizational level to ensure that community based organizations are able to meet the unique needs of a heterogeneous population of American elders. This qualitative study utilized a modified grounded theory approach to conduct individual interviews and focus groups with over 25 community based organizations serving diverse elders. This study also included analysis of over 100 agency documents, such as mission …

A Study Of Factors That Influence Partnerships Between Universities And Nonprofit Organizations, Vicki L. Jozefowicz

Online Theses and Dissertations

This study examined factors that influence partnerships between universities and nonprofit organizations. Specifically, the study examined how nonprofit leaders characterize “effective” University-Nonprofit Partnerships; strategies that nonprofit leaders have employed to develop effective relationships with universities; and barriers that nonprofit-leaders perceive as inhibiting these partnerships. The study utilized qualitative analyses to learn strategies that have contributed to effective University-Nonprofit Partnerships, to recognize barriers to these partnerships, and to identify strategies for overcoming the barriers. The study examined the experiences of seven nonprofit leaders who had worked in partnership with universities.

The results of this study show evidence that while University-Nonprofit Partnerships …

Engaging The Nonprofits In Louisville Housing Market For Low-Income Households, Joshua Omoniyi Odetunde

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Nonprofit organizations often work in partnership with government agencies to empower low income people in the housing market through government subsidized mortgage loans. In spite of this assistance, homelessness and substandard housing is pervasive among low income households because this population primarily relies on the rental housing market, leaving a gap in practice and knowledge related to how nonprofits provide assistance to the overwhelming majority of low income consumers in need of housing. The purpose of this case study was to use social justice theory to explore how the nonprofit sector, as an economic force, provides assistance to and empowers …