Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly current issue

Thank You Note

2009-04-30

Delegation of Coordination and Outcomes in Cross-Sector Partnerships: The Case of Service Learning Partnerships

Dorado, S., Giles, D. E., Welch, T. C. — 2009-04-30

This article furthers knowledge on cross-sector partnerships. It distinguishes between partnerships that produce predefined outcomes and those that produce co-defined ones. Predefined outcomes are defined by one partner prior to the formation of the partnership and could have been attained easily with alternative partners. Co-defined outcomes are defined by partners in mutual consultation and tailored to the resources and goals of the participants. The article identifies delegation as a factor that crucially defines whether partnerships produce pre- or co-defined outcomes. Delegation occurs when there is a clear-cut division between coordination and participation so that staff members engaged as coordinators are otherwise disengaged from the partnership. Delegated partnerships—those with coordinators engaged only in coordinating duties—are likely to produce predefined outcomes whereas undelegated partnerships are likely to produce co-defined outcomes. The article builds on a grounded theory study of 11 service learning partnerships formed by institutions of higher education and community organizations.

Community Foundation Development and Social Capital

Graddy, E., Wang, L. — 2009-04-30

The recent worldwide growth of community foundations presents new opportunities for community-based social change. Realizing that promise requires that community foundations sustain the charitable support of their communities with increasing competition for these resources, and thus an understanding of the connection between community characteristics and charitable giving is necessary. The authors focus here on the potential role of community social capital. This study develops and empirically explores a model that connects social capital and gifts to community foundations, while controlling for community demographics and the community's exposure to charitable organizations. The authors find that per capita gifts to community foundations increase with the level of social trust in the community. In addition, gifts are affected by the number of years that community foundations have existed in the region, population density, homeownership, and the poverty rate. Implications are developed for community foundations and for our understanding of the different dimensions of social capital.

Sociodemographic and Personality Characteristics of Canadian Donors Contributing to International Charity

Rajan, S. S., Pink, G. H., Dow, W. H. — 2009-04-30

This study aims to establish a sociodemographic and personality profile of Canadians who donate internationally, fills the gap in the literature with regard to individual-level determinants of international giving, and compares these determinants with those of domestic donors. Women, volunteers, and individuals of non-Canadian origin, with higher income, higher education, higher level of religiosity, higher political awareness and participation, and higher frequency of extended family participation were more likely to contribute internationally. Higher education and a higher level of religiosity seem to influence international giving more than they did domestic giving. In terms of the variations in amount of international donations the important determinants are income, education, level of religiosity, and feeling of financial security. These results suggest that international charities should probably target their efforts at more-educated, higher-income and more-religious individuals. The other target donors are volunteers, women, individuals of non-Canadian origin, and politically aware and socially involved individuals.

Corporate Philanthropy in the Canadian Context: From Damage Control to Improving Society

Foster, M. K., Meinhard, A. G., Berger, I. E., Krpan, P. — 2009-04-30

Fourteen in-depth interviews were conducted with decision makers in corporations representing natural resources, finance, retail, technology, food and beverage, and communications to explore the diverse approaches to philanthropy in corporate Canada. The authors focused on gaining insight into the organizational differences among companies that are have integrated corporate philanthropy into their cultures, those where philanthropy is marginal to their main business and those that see philanthropy as a beneficial relationship. They learned that companies that have integrated philanthropy into their operations are quite distinct in both attitudes and behavior from the others. Although companies can change the role of philanthropy within their organization, truly integrating philanthropy into the business of the corporation is not something that can develop and evolve over time; if that vision is not present in the corporate culture from the beginning, it is not likely to develop.

How Tough are Better Business Bureau/Wise Giving Alliance Financial Standards?

Bhattacharya, R., Tinkelman, D. — 2009-04-30

The use of financial efficiency ratios to judge charities' performance is controversial. The authors investigate the stringency of one widely used set of standards by examining reported 2001 data for more than 111,000 organizations. The authors suggest the ability of many organizations to comply inhibits protests against the widespread use of these ratios.

The Wise Giving Alliance adopted stricter standards in 2003, and the authors find that more organizations will be able to meet the new standards. As in the past, the great majority of organizations report compliance. The authors note marked differences in the rates of compliance with both the program spending and fund-raising efficiency standards by sector. Also, organizations with larger special events tend to incur relatively larger costs. The authors question the use of the same ratios for all organizations.

The authors note no evidence of widespread expense allocation manipulation around the critical levels of ratios monitored by the Alliance.

Faith-Based Assumptions About Performance: Does Church Affiliation Matter for Service Quality and Access?

Amirkhanyan, A. A., Hyun Joon Kim, , Lambright, K. T. — 2009-04-30

To date, the common rhetoric and assumptions on the performance of faith-based organizations (FBOs), ironically, appear to be faith based rather than empirically supported: There is a paucity of research evaluating the effectiveness of FBOs that uses sufficiently rigorous methods and multiple measures of organizational performance. This study seeks to inform the debate on the relative effectiveness of FBOs by comparing religiously affiliated and secular nonprofit nursing homes using two distinct but complementary measures of organizational performance: service quality and access for impoverished clients. Using nationally representative panel data on 11,877 church-affiliated and secular nonprofit nursing homes, this study examines the effect of ownership with several regression models. Overall, the findings fail to confirm the assumption that FBOs perform better than secular nonprofit organizations in the context of the nursing home industry. Isomorphic pressures and commercialization trends within the nursing home industry are discussed to help explain these findings.

Welfare Clients' Volunteering as a Means of Empowerment

Cohen, A. — 2009-04-30

The population approaching social services for help is often characterized by poverty, passivity, helplessness, and an external locus of control. This population expects improvement in its situation but develops a dependent relationship with the help agents. The literature shows that volunteer work contributes toward developing empowerment among volunteers, but to date only a relatively small number of welfare clients have been activated as volunteers, serving more as the object of others' volunteer work. This article describes a classic experimental study, checking the connection between welfare clients' volunteering and their individual feeling of empowerment. The main and most significant finding in the study demonstrated that individual feeling of empowerment among clients who engaged in volunteer work was higher than that of clients not engaged in such work. The findings suggest that volunteer work may serve as an effective intervention tool in social work, whose aim is change in welfare clients' feelings of empowerment.

Book Review: Richard Magat Just Another Emperor: The Myths and Realities of Philanthrocapitalism, by Michael Edwards. New York: Demos, 2008. 106 pp. $11.95 (paper). Philanthrocapitalism: How the Rich Can Save the World, by Matthew Bishop and Michael Green. New York: Bloomsbury Press, 2008. 272 pp. $25.95 (cloth)

Magat, R. — 2009-04-30

Book Review: Jocelyn Clare R. Hermoso Hopgood, S. (2006). Keepers of the Flame: Understanding Amnesty International. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. 272 pp., $19.95

Hermoso, J. C. R. — 2009-04-30

Book Review: Ram A. Cnaan Musick, M. A., & Wilson, J. (2008). Volunteers: A Social Profile. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. 663 pp., $39.95

Cnaan, R. A. — 2009-04-30

Book Review: Mel Gill 7 Measures of Success: What Remarkable Associations Do That Others Don't, by The Center for Association Leadership. Washington, DC: American Society of Association Executives, 2006. 138 pp., $29.95. Reviewed by Mel Gill

Gill, M. — 2009-04-30

Book Review: Richard Bush Hunter, A., & Milofsky, C. (2007). Pragmatic Liberalism: Constructing a Civil Society. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. 208 pp., $45.00

Bush, R. — 2009-04-30

Book Review: David C. Hammack Brooks, A. C. (2006). Who Really Cares: The Surprising Truth About Compassionate Conservatism. New York: Basic Books

Hammack, D. C. — 2009-04-30

Book Review: Jessica E. Sowa Forces for Good: The Six Practices of High-Impact Nonprofits, by Leslie R. Crutchfield and Heather McLeod Grant. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2007. 336 pp. $29.95

Sowa, J. E. — 2009-04-30