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Community Carrying Capacity

A Network Perspective

University of North Carolina, paarlbergl{at}uncw.edu

Danielle M. Varda

University of Colorado

Scholars have explored the idea of the determinants of the size of the nonprofit sector as a linear relationship between supply of resources and the demand for nonprofit services. This in turn has fueled debate about whether there are too many nonprofits for available resources. In this article, we propose that the scarcity (or abundance) of resources does not inherently determine the limits of a community's nonprofit "carrying capacity". Rather, network exchanges between nonprofits and other organizations may exhibit positive synergistic effects that are associated with diverse outcomes. We therefore propose a model of nonprofit carrying capacity that shifts the discussion to the ability of a community to support network exchanges among independent agents.

Key Words: nonprofit organizations • theory • networks • carrying capacity

This version was published on August 1, 2009

Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, Vol. 38, No. 4, 597-613 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/0899764009333829


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