Business Commons^™

Resilience And Survival: Executive Careers In Major California Nonprofit Organizations, Cathie J. Witty

Institute for Nonprofit Organization Management

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:

Despite the increasing social involvement of nonprofit organizations in public activity, we really know very little about the education, values and career patterns of the executives who manage this nonprofit sector.

This study begins to address these issues through interviews with fifty executive directors of large California nonprofit organizations. Four types of nonprofit organizations were included in the study. Human service agencies [20] and arts organizations [17] comprise the bulk of the organizations, with foundations [10] and scientific research facilities and museums [3] completing the sample.

The study explores the personal dimensions of mobility, career choices, education and …

Organizational And Management Characteristics Of Peace Groups, Mary Anna Culleton Colwell

Institute for Nonprofit Organization Management

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:

The contemporary American peace movement is a mixture of many small and a few large organizations pursuing a wide range of goals. There has been almost no organizational research focused on these peace movement organizations (PMOs) or detailed studies of the goals, values, and activities of a large sample of PMOs.

The activity of these varied PMOs has had limited impact on public policy. Some authors cite the strength of external forces or the conservative American political culture as the key factors in this relative lack of success. There are few facts with which to evaluate these or …

Workplace Giving: Employee Attitudes, Perceptions And Behavior, Cathie J. Witty, Jacqueline Urla

Institute for Nonprofit Organization Management

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:

The W. Alexander Gerbode Foundation funded this study of employee attitudes about charitable fundraising and giving in the workplace by the Institute for Nonprofit Organization Management at the University of San Francisco. This study is significant for several reasons. First, while the overall charitable behavior of Americans has been documented in several recent national surveys, the changing workplace fundraising scene remains largely unexplored. Second, the San Francisco Bay Area is an ideal laboratory for a study of workplace giving that analyzes ethnic differences along with other variables related to charitable attitudes and behavior since the Bay Area has …

A Study Of Nonprofit Boards Of Directors From The Chief Executive Officer's Point Of View, Kathleen Brown Fletcher

Institute for Nonprofit Organization Management

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:

Little has been written to help executive directors of nonprofit organizations with one of the most important parts of their job: working with their Board of Directors. Previous studies show that board-related behaviors are responsible for the difference between effective executives and their less effective peers and that neither academic nor professional literature adequately addresses the board/executive relationship. Behavioral definitions of a "good board" can be found in books written for board members, but no definition could be found that reflected executives' opinions on what behaviors they value most in the boards with which they must work.

This …