Nonprofit Administration and Management Commons^™

Lost Causal: Debunking Myths About Causal Analysis In Philanthropy – With 2024 Prologue, Jewlya Lynn, Sarah Stachowiak, Julia Coffman

The Foundation Review

Editor’s Note: This article, first published in print and online in 2022, has been republished by The Foundation Review with minor updates.

What if philanthropic evaluations told us that changes in the world had occurred, as well as how and why they occurred, including whether what foundations funded and grantees did contributed to those changes? What if evaluations made change pathways more visible, tested hypotheses and assumptions, and generated new insights based on what happened in the “black box” of systems change strategies? This type of learning comes from causal analysis — inquiry that explores cause-and-effect relationships.

Yet currently in …

Raising The Bar — Integrating Cultural Competence And Equity: Equitable Evaluation – With 2024 Prologue, Jara Dean-Coffey, Jill Casey, Leon D. Caldwell

The Foundation Review

Editor’s Note: This article, first published in print and online in 2014, has been republished by The Foundation Review with minor updates.

Whether implicit or explicit, social justice and human rights are part of the mission of many philanthropies. Evaluation produced, sponsored, or consumed by these philanthropies that doesn’t pay attention to the imperatives of cultural competency may be inconsistent with their missions.

The American Evaluation Association’s Statement on Cultural Competence provides those who produce, sponsor, and use evaluation an opportunity to examine and align their practices and policies within a context of racial and cultural equity and inclusion. The …

Emergent Learning: A Framework For Whole-System Strategy, Learning, And Adaptation – With 2024 Prologue, Marilyn J. Darling, Jillaine S. Smith, James E. M. Stiles, Heidi Sparkes Guber

The Foundation Review

Editor’s Note: This article, first published in print and online in 2016, has been republished by The Foundation Review with minor updates.

The field of philanthropy is exploring what it takes to achieve impact in complex environments. The terms “adaptive” and “emergent” are beginning to be used, often interchangeably, to describe strategies by which funders can tackle complexity. This article proposes distinguishing between the two and explores more deeply how the research into complexity can inform philanthropic practice.

While approaches like systems mapping, scenario planning, and appreciative inquiry have been put forward as useful approaches to expanding perspectives and seeing …

The Soft Stuff Doesn’T Have To Be Hard: Foundation Investments In Grantee Workers Are Necessary, Valuable, And Measurable – With 2024 Prologue, Rusty M. Stahl

The Foundation Review

Editor’s Note: This article, first published in print and online in 2022, has been republished by The Foundation Review with minor updates.

There is an urgent need for funder investments in the ability of grantee nonprofit organizations to support their staff. Such investments, when done well, can yield significant value for individuals, organizations, and fields of work or movements. Furthermore, the value of these investments can be evaluated and communicated.

This article explores the reasons for and implications of the inadequate response by funders, offers a path forward for designing investments in grantee staff, and documents how funders can capture …

Donor-Advised Funds And Impact Investing: A Practitioner’S View – With 2024 Prologue, Sam Marks

The Foundation Review

Editor’s Note: This article, first published in print and online in 2022, has been republished by The Foundation Review with minor updates.

Any discussion of foundations embracing impact investing must include some discussion of one of the largest — and growing — sources of philanthropic capital: donor-advised funds. These philanthropic accounts allow donors of all sizes to access many of the functions of a private foundation, including the potential to invest for impact. Sponsors of these funds, however, face unique challenges in catalyzing impact investments.

Like the larger institutional foundations that have led the way as mission investors, sponsors must …

Internal Culture, External Impact: How A Changemaking Culture Positions Foundations To Achieve Transformational Change – With 2024 Prologue, Amy Celep, Sara Brenner, Rachel Mosher-Williams

The Foundation Review

Editor’s Note: This article, first published in print and online in 2016, has been republished by The Foundation Review with minor updates.

This article argues that a foundation’s internal culture is critical to achieving large-scale social change, but that efforts to build a changemaking culture too often are left out of strategy conversations.

While there is no one culture that suits every foundation, a particular set of characteristics must be present in those that seek largescale social change: a focus on outcomes, transparency, authenticity, collaboration, racial equity and inclusion, continuous learning, and openness to risk.

This article offers insights into …

Passing In The Dark: Making Visible Philanthropy’S Hidden And Conflicting Mental Models For Systems Change, Jewlya Lynn, Julia Coffman

The Foundation Review

While the need for philanthropy to focus on systems change as a way to scale and sustain impact is now widely accepted, we see the sector largely failing to recognize that there are different mental models for how to change systems. Sometimes the approaches foundations use are based on competing mental models or models that are not a good fit for the systems, problems, strategies, or practices they are using.

We see two mental models for systems change being used in philanthropy: systems dynamics and systems emergence. Strategies that use the systems-dynamics mental model aim at points of high leverage …

Front Matter

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

A Foundation’S Theory Of Philanthropy: What It Is, What It Provides, How To Do It – With 2024 Prologue, Michael Quinn Patton, Nathaniel Foote, James Radner

The Foundation Review

Editor’s Note: This article, first published in print and online in 2015, has been republished by The Foundation Review with minor updates.

This article argues that philanthropic endeavors should be undergirded by a theory of philanthropy. Articulating a theory of philanthropy is a way for a foundation to make explicit what is often only implicit, thereby enabling internal and external actors to pose and resolve significant questions, understand and play important roles more fully and effectively, and improve performance by enhancing alignment across complex systems.

A theory of philanthropy articulates how and why a foundation will use its resources to …

Tfr 16.1 Full Issue

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Orienting Volunteers On Cultural Awareness And Empathy While Working With Refugees, Sangya Dhungana

Critical and Creative Thinking Capstones Collection

It is imperative to recognize that effective volunteer engagement in refugee resettlement hinges upon a deep understanding of cultural dynamics and sensitivities. This paper explores the challenges and complexities of volunteer engagement with refugees, offering insights from the author's experiences, scholarly literature, and theoretical frameworks. The writing highlights the importance of cultural awareness, empathy, and reflective practice in supporting refugees during resettlement while acknowledging the need for ongoing learning and evaluation of volunteer approaches. Relevant concepts and theories from the Critical and Creative Thinking courses are included, integrating perspectives into the author’s analysis of volunteer experiences. Additionally, the paper incorporates …

Unified In Christ, David Morris

Doctor of Ministry Projects and Theses

Statement of the Question/Problem

The United Methodist Church is facing a season of incredible struggle. The modern American United Methodist Church is facing a crisis of Division during this season of disaffiliation and restructuring. Division within church is not a new phenomenon. In fact, it is not new in the Methodist tradition. This repeating cycle of denominational fracture begs the question, “why does division in the church happen, and how can we avoid it in the future?” Currently the United Methodist Church is dividing supposedly over the issue of human sexuality. I would argue these divisions do not solely rely …

Philanthropy In The Helping Profession: An Overview And Introductory Workshop Intended To Support Counselors And Counselors In Training, Matthew Higgins

Educational Specialist, 2020-current

Many new counseling professionals enter the field with a deep understanding of the therapeutic relationship but lack knowledge of the financial realities that sustain counseling services. Traditional training prioritizes building rapport with clients, leaving a gap in understanding the business side of the helping profession. As the demand for therapy increases, particularly in the United States, it's crucial for counselors to explore innovative solutions to sustain the field in the long term. Integrating education on philanthropic support into counselor training offers a creative approach that would fall in line with the ACA Code of Ethics. While more research needs to …

Measuring Inclusive Leadership In Nonprofit Performing Arts Organizations, Thomas Abruzzo

Dissertations

Inclusive leadership is undoubtedly a practice to strive for, and few would argue against the value of leading inclusively. Yet, empirically, little is known about what constitutes effective inclusive leadership, especially in the context of nonprofit performing arts organizations. This sector is a particularly apt place to study and practice inclusive leadership because, in addition to the many benefits it provides, the nonprofit arts sector has problematic roots in terms of privileging a dominant social class by prioritizing certain art forms over others. For example, the popularity of the nonprofit form in the arts sector, when compared to for-profit or …

The Need For Volunteer Engagement, Brittney Portillo

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Although there are a large number of non-profit organizations and volunteer opportunities available, there is a lack of volunteer engagement within organizations making it difficult to complete mission goals. This project was implemented and completed by Community Builders for Monterey County executive director and intern. Community Builders for Monterey County is a 501c(3) non-profit organization that was created to connect volunteers to different non-profit organizations around Monterey County. This project was created with the purpose of assessing potential volunteer needs in a survey style form in order to better understand how to get volunteers more engaged. The project resulted in …

Assessing Undergraduate Nonprofit Management Education Programs: Combining Industry And Student Perspectives, Benjamin Walworth

Marketing Undergraduate Honors Theses

Given the role of the nonprofit sector in the U.S. economy, as well as the growth of nonprofit management education (NME) programs, there is a need to specifically assess undergraduate NME programs. This study addresses the current research gap by examining the undergraduate nonprofit studies minor at the University of Arkansas. An assessment of the minor was conducted by surveying three groups: nonprofit professionals, current students pursuing the nonprofit studies minor, and alumni of the minor. These groups were surveyed to understand why students pursue the minor, what students want or gain from the experience, as well as what skills …

Impact Of Emotional Intelligence On Client Satisfaction In Project Management, Mousami Berawala

Harrisburg University Dissertations and Theses

This study investigates the correlation between emotional intelligence (EI) and client satisfaction in project management. It is guided by the central research question: Is emotional intelligence linked to client satisfaction? To explore this, the research is structured around Practice of EI on Leadership and Junior level and impact on client satisfaction, the impact of varying work environments, including remote, hybrid, office-based, and site-based settings, on project outcomes post-pandemic; differences in EI practices across countries and the effect of diverse work cultures; the comparison of EI application across different fields, with a focus on work-life balance and industry-specific practices in banking, …

The Evolution Of The Nonprofit Sector In Nepal, Charles Harrington, Davis Jones

SC Upstate Research Symposium

The nonprofit sector in Nepal has grown exponentially over the last decade. Significant growth in the areas of education, economic development, health and human services, tourism, and environmental conservation has created a demonstrable need for nonprofit organizational support and development to address these emerging needs. This paper and accompanying oral presentation will address the underlying factors that have driven the growth of the nonprofit sector in Nepal, including, but not limited to the history of national philanthropy and community service, early formulation of the nonprofit sector, development of civil society, non-government organizational proliferation, earthquake response and resilience, the emergence of …

Health And Healthcare: Designing For The Social Determinants Of Health And Blue Zones In North Nashville, Rebecca Tonguis, Honor Thomas, Olivia Hobbs

[Archive] Belmont University Research Symposium (BURS)

Owned by North Nashville’s First Community Church, a now empty site in the Osage-North Fisk neighborhood of North Nashville has been identified as a potential site for a new location of The Store, in addition to a community-centric architectural development based on the social determinants of health and informed by the principles behind Blue Zones, the locations with the highest lifespans in the world. Opened by Brad Paisley and Kimberly Williams-Paisley, The Store is a free grocery store that “allow[s] people to shop for their basic needs in a way that protects dignity and fosters hope”, for which North Nashville …

Latest Research (Summaries) On Charitable Giving, Angie Holzer

Journal of Nonprofit Innovation

No abstract provided.

Charitable Giving: Full Issue, Angie Holzer

Journal of Nonprofit Innovation

No abstract provided.

Endowment Funded Experiential Learning: Facilitating Student Engagement, Elise Lael Kieffer

Journal of Nonprofit Innovation

This article provides background information on the establishment of an endowment that serves specifically to provide experiential learning opportunities for students in and around the university. This case study may serve as a guide for higher education programs in the nonprofit discipline to promote both active philanthropy and learning for students.

This article provides an examination of student reflections following their participation in an endowment funded experiential learning opportunity with a hope of promoting this teaching method in other nonprofit and philanthropic educational programs. The results of this analysis assist in the development of greater understanding into how the experiential …

The Dos And Don'ts Of Charitable Giving, Sumaya Ali, Mandie Carter, Lakell Archer, Erica Jensen, Angie Holzer

Journal of Nonprofit Innovation

No abstract provided.

Nonprofits Should Adopt A User-Centric Change Model To Scale Corporate Environmental Action Faster, Doug Miller

Journal of Nonprofit Innovation

Pollution levels and ecosystem degradation continue to worsen, suggesting the insufficiency of current approaches to reverse these problematic trends. For environmental nonprofits, the current theory of change revolves around developing techno-economic analysis about environmental problems and available solutions, building public awareness around this analysis, and motivating decision makers to set goals. Given present environmental realities and the limited success of their current theory of change, environmental nonprofits should transform how they execute their work, what they produce, and how they coordinate with each other. Instead, nonprofits should begin putting the user—business decision makers as well as policymakers—front and center as …

Russia: Increased Corruption And Deterioration Of Freedom, Is There Hope?, Angie Holzer

Journal of Nonprofit Innovation

Since Vladimir Putin came to power in 2000, Russia has been plagued by widespread political corruption (Warren, 2023; Vasilev & Felton, 2024). This corruption has been characterized by the misuse of public funds, bribery, and extortion. It has also involved the suppression of political dissent and the erosion of democratic institutions. As corruption runs rampant within the Russian government, neighboring countries are also recipients of corrupt efforts to destabilize their governments, erode their democracy and jeopardize the support these neighboring countries can give to the security of Euruope as a whole (Stănescu, 2023). There is an increasing need for the …

The History Of Water Utility Management In Japan And The Recent Introduction Of Public-Private Partnerships: An Analysis Based On The Transaction Cost Concept, Akira Hachisu

Japanese Society and Culture

Japan’s water utility management is facing severe business challenges. During these circumstances, laws and systems are being developed to restructure the waterworks industry. Water utilities, as local public corporations, need to simultaneously pursue public interest and efficiency through public-private partnerships with private operators (public-private partnerships) and wide-area partnerships with neighboring operators.

The management foundations of Japan's water utilities have weakened, because they focus only on the effectiveness of accounting cost reductions. Specifically, the emphasis has been on the effect of reducing public sector finances, such as value for money. Outsourcing has been considered only by comparing accounting costs, such as …

Nonprofit Leader Experiences In Sector-Bending After Lean Six Sigma Training: Tension, Concepts, And Changed Behaviors, Beverly Codallos

Dissertations

Government, business, and nonprofit represent three distinct types of organizations governed by different legal frameworks designed to facilitate collective action (DiMaggio & Anheier, 1990). The emergence of hybrid forms and increasing isomorphic pressures in the nonprofit sector (Bromley & Meyer, 2017; McCambridge, 2014) have challenged the traditional separation of organizational forms. This study explored the phenomenon popularized as sector-bending, “a wide variety of approaches, activities, and relationships that are blurring the distinctions between nonprofit and for-profit organizations, either because they are behaving more similarly, operating in the same realms, or both” (Dees & Anderson, 2003, pg. 16). This qualitative study …

An Overview Of The Nonprofit Sector In Missouri, Ivy Shen

Missouri Policy Journal

This paper examines the key characteristics of nonprofit organizations, analyzes the data obtained from the IRS, provides a snapshot of the nonprofit sector in Missouri, discusses the breakdown of various types of these organizations, compares the nonprofit sectors in Missouri and at the national level, and highlights key statistics of the sector. As of November 2022, Missouri is home to 38,460 nonprofit organizations, out of which 501(c)(3), 501(c)(7), and 501(c)(4) are the most common IRS tax codes. By the NTEE classification system, the top two classifiable categories of Missouri nonprofits are human services and religious congregations. The Missouri nonprofit sector …

Containerization Of Seafarers In The International Shipping Industry: Contemporary Seamanship, Maritime Social Infrastructures, And Mobility Politics Of Global Logistics, Liang Wu

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation discusses the mobility politics of container shipping and argues that technological development, political-economic order, and social infrastructure co-produce one another. Containerization, the use of standardized containers to carry cargo across modes of transportation that is said to have revolutionized and globalized international trade since the late 1950s, has served to expand and extend the power of international coalitions of states and corporations to control the movements of commodities (shipments) and labor (seafarers). The advent and development of containerization was driven by a sociotechnical imaginary and international social contract of seamless shipping and cargo flows. In practice, this liberal, …

Toward Equal Access: A Model For Lay Advocacy Programs Serving People Who Are Deaf Or Hard Of Hearing, Melissa Bell

JADARA

Advocacy programs are prevalent among state government agencies that specialize in serving persons who are deaf or hard of hearing around the United States. The work is crucial to ensuring equal access and equal opportunity, yet the lay advocacy profession is not yet formalized with certification, ethical standards, or training programs for advocates serving this population. Research was conducted to advance efforts to maximize these programs’ effectiveness by compiling components of an ideal model for lay advocacy programs. Directors from state agencies that specialize in serving this population around the country refined the model and described the structure of their …