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Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons™
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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
Teaching Spatial Data Analysis: A Case Study With Recommendations, Duncan J. Mayer, Robert L. Fischer
Teaching Spatial Data Analysis: A Case Study With Recommendations, Duncan J. Mayer, Robert L. Fischer
Faculty Scholarship
Learning from data is a valuable skill for nonprofit professionals and researchers. Often, data have a spatial component, and data relevant to the nonprofit sector are no exception. Understanding spatial aspects of the nonprofit sector may provide immense value to social entrepreneurs, funders, and policy makers, by guiding programmatic decisions, facilitating resource allocation, and development policy. As a result, spatial thinking has become an essential component of critical thinking and decision making among nonprofit professionals. The goal of this case study is to support and encourage instruction of spatial data analysis and spatial thinking in nonprofit studies. The case study …
Exploring Niche Alteration In Nonprofit Organizations, Duncan J. Mayer, Robert L. Fischer
Exploring Niche Alteration In Nonprofit Organizations, Duncan J. Mayer, Robert L. Fischer
Faculty Scholarship
The organizational niche is a concept integral to organizational ecology, reflecting an organization’s mission, expertise, capacity, and resource requirements. The choice of niche is crucial to the viability of the organization; however, the reasons organizations alter their niche are poorly understood. We hypothesize that nonprofit organizations alter their niche to reduce environmental pressure and gain access to resources. The results indicate that niche alteration predicts increases in total revenue with average increases in revenue from program services and contributions (depending on the measure). Additionally, nonprofits that are younger, larger, and have more concentrated revenue, are more likely to alter their …
Merging Ahead, Increase Speed: A Pilot Of Funder-Driven Nonprofit Restructuring, Robert L. Fischer, Claudia J. Coulton
Merging Ahead, Increase Speed: A Pilot Of Funder-Driven Nonprofit Restructuring, Robert L. Fischer, Claudia J. Coulton
Faculty Scholarship
Nonprofit agencies face increasing competition for scarce funding resources. Many agencies are considering ways to restructure themselves, often via mergers and acquisitions, as a way to become more effective and competitive. This case study examines a pilot initiative in Cleveland, Ohio, in which philanthropic funders invited and supported nonprofits in the pursuit of significant restructuring efforts. Health and human service nonprofits were recruited into a three-phase facilitated pilot that assisted the agency executive directors and boards in determining what type of restructuring was feasible and desirable. Overall, 75 nonprofits participated in some part of the pilot, 17 of which formally …
Using Data To Build Community: Exploring One Model Of Geographically Specific Data Use In The Non-Profit Sector, Robert L. Fischer
Using Data To Build Community: Exploring One Model Of Geographically Specific Data Use In The Non-Profit Sector, Robert L. Fischer
Faculty Scholarship
Non-profit organizations strive to identify and build community in a variety of ways. A new development to assist non-profit organizations with this critical task is the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) that incorporate data assembled from area non-profit organizations. In this article, we investigate the reasons why non-profit organizations adopt these systems, their inclusion of various stakeholders in site launch, and the challenges for sustaining GIS use. Based on in-depth interviews conducted with sites that have adopted a prominent GIS application – the Urban Institute's Community Platform – we find that although non-profits may implement GIS with the expressed …
Exploring The Revenue Mix Of Nonprofit Organizations: Does It Relate To Publicness?, Robert L. Fischer
Exploring The Revenue Mix Of Nonprofit Organizations: Does It Relate To Publicness?, Robert L. Fischer
Faculty Scholarship
Nonprofits receive funding from multiple revenue sources, including private contributions and earned program revenues. In this article, we hypothesize that the composition of revenues is a result of the nature of services provided—specifically whether services are public, private, or mixed in the nature of their benefits. Using subfields from three major fields in the National Taxonomy of Exempt Entities (NTEE), this study divides nonprofits according to service type and estimates the impact of service character on particular revenue streams and overall revenue diversification. Generally, we find that the proportion of revenues generated by earned program revenues is lowest for the …