Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly

This study examines how leadership diversity and representation within nonprofit organizations influence community support. Drawing on a national survey of 1,036 nonprofits in the United States, we tested a structural equation modeling linking board racial diversity, CEO racial and gender representation, staff racial diversity, and private donations. We found that nonprofits with more racially diverse boards were more likely to have racially and gender-representative CEOs, who in turn were linked to greater workforce diversity. However, board diversity did not consistently translate into increased donations, suggesting that diverse governance alone may not enhance community support. Notably, CEO gender representation was positively associated with community support, but no significant mediating effects were found in the relationship between board diversity and community support through CEO representation. These findings highlight the complex dynamics between internal representation and stakeholder support. Nonprofit organizations should strategically align diversity initiatives with mission-driven engagement to realize their full value amid intensifying debates over diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Symphony orchestras (SOs) face financial and legitimacy challenges, from unstable revenue to shifting stakeholder expectations. Grounded in dynamic capabilities theory, we investigate how innovation strengthens nonprofit SOs’ financial sustainability. Using survey data from 131 North American SOs, we test a model where environmental intelligence and external partnerships shape product and process innovation, affecting financial outcomes. Results indicate environmental intelligence alone does not generate innovation but depends on partnerships for resource access and action. Furthermore, process innovation enhances financial outcomes, whereas product innovation yields no immediate return. Necessary condition analysis shows innovation is required for high financial performance. Overall, findings highlight that innovation in mission-driven, resource-constrained settings is deliberate and depends on leadership and partnerships to balance artistic and managerial logics. We contribute to nonprofit and arts management research by clarifying SOs’ innovation pathways, offering practical implications for managers and policymakers to strengthen financial sustainability across the performing arts and nonprofit sector.

Nonprofits and public organizations may benefit from using evaluation data to improve programs and managerial decisions. Guided by organizational learning and institutional theory, this study investigates how partners, coalitions, and technical assistance organizations influence these organizations’ professional use of evaluation data within collaborative networks. Data were collected from 449 organizations embedded in an ego-centric network of partnerships and purpose-oriented coalitions on education reform. Results from the hierarchical linear models demonstrated that the only significant source of learning was organizations’ relationships with peer organizations in the ego-centric partnership network. This effect remained significant even after controlling for all the other factors. We discuss our findings and offer implications on integrating learning efforts at the coalition network and ego-centric network levels when motivating nonprofits and public organizations to conduct performance evaluations. (128 words)

This article contributes to the theory of volunteering by examining dropouts. It uses its own data material (59 narrative interviews, 10 group discussions) from charities, sports clubs, church communities, and environmental initiatives in Germany. By comparing narrative styles, it shows at least two specific ways of presenting volunteering practice. First, the (former) volunteers produce different narratives depending on their area of action. In doing so, they position themselves in specific fields of tension. Second, they report on their experiences in collective work processes: cooperation, the avoidance of alienation, and the justification of working time structure the narratives and in turn refer to tense contexts as well. Accordingly, the article theorizes volunteering as a multidimensional endeavor. It distinguishes an area-specific dimension from a work-specific dimension. Both dimensions of the experience are relevant for the dynamics of volunteering. The article recommends paying more attention to this complex, multidimensional practice in particular.

Despite the importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) practices and policies, some public service organizations do not have them. Discourse surrounding DEI has pressured many organizations to remove DEI policies given their resource dependence and stakeholder expectations. During 2024, we used Qualtrics to survey nonprofit organizations in North Carolina with budgets over $1 million (n = 111) to examine their DEI policies and consider how stakeholder pressures influence commitment to DEI. Findings reveal that pressure from staff and state government significantly influences organizational commitment to DEI. We also find that perceived amount of negative controversy surrounding DEI within organizations, communities, and the state positively affects commitment to DEI. These findings show that North Carolina’s nonprofits are doubling down on DEI, likely due to belief in their mission, alignment with marginalized communities, and commitment to long-term, systemic change, allowing them to remain steadfast in their DEI efforts despite shifting cultural and political winds.

The way partnerships come to an end may play a critical role in sustaining collaborative achievements and safeguarding trust among partners and stakeholders. Yet the dynamics and challenges of partnership termination, especially planned endings, remain underexplored. This study contributes to expanding theoretical knowledge of partnership life cycle management and uses the ending as a reference point to generate insights relevant to the final and earlier partnering stages, as well as broader partnership management. Based on an in-depth case study of a global nonprofit-public partnership, it develops an inductive process framework depicting the interplay of termination pressures, collaborative end-stage tensions, and response strategies. While shaped by specific contextual factors, this framework helps to reframe the termination stage as a complex, multilevel process rather than a straightforward box-ticking exercise, with important implications for thinking within and across partnership life cycles.

Although some evidence suggests that homemakers may engage more in formal volunteering than employed women, the pattern remains inconclusive, and the influence of time and place is understudied. This study investigates: “How does volunteering behavior of women differ when they are homemaking compared to when they are working, and what role does the residential and cultural context play?” Using Swiss Household Panel data (1999–2023), with a sample of 1517 women, we apply fixed-effects regression models. We find that women are equally likely to volunteer when homemaking as when working, but they contribute more hours. This positive effect is weaker for city-center residents, for those born after 1975 (vs. 1960–1975) and nowadays for recent movers. In conclusion, although homemakers volunteer more hours, this varies with residential and cultural context, and their (re)entry into the labor market is unlikely to substantially affect how many individuals engage in the formal voluntary sector.

This article examines how crisis volunteering, that is, volunteering in response to needs arising during crises and ordinary volunteering that addresses needs independent of crises, relates to prosocial attitudes and negative emotions, using a four-wave longitudinal survey of Danish adults (n = 1,225) from the COVID-19 pandemic. Hitherto, crisis and ordinary volunteering have been studied in different contexts, crisis versus non-crisis settings, barring direct comparison. By comparing both within the same crisis context, this study contributes a clearer analytical comparison. Findings show that both crisis and ordinary volunteers exhibit stronger prosocial attitudes than the population average, but crisis volunteers report heightened negative emotions. Fixed-effects models show that declines in generalized trust correlate with crisis volunteering, while engagement in ordinary volunteering is associated with subsequent increases in solidarity. Despite these differences, a considerable overlap between previous volunteering and both crisis and ordinary volunteering suggests that both partly emerge from a common volunteer culture.

This study systematically analyzes the organizational-level impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on nonprofit organizations. Based on 52 primary studies encompassing over 100 nonprofit organizations across 30 countries, our thematic analysis found that nonprofits have experienced adverse effects, including reduced funding, increased operating costs, and volunteer shortages. However, only 27 of the 52 studies reported a negative impact of COVID-19 on nonprofit organizations. The COVID-19 pandemic also had positive effects on nonprofit organizations, including the development of innovative service delivery models, accelerated digital fundraising, adaptation of communication strategies to keep stakeholders engaged, and increased cross-sector collaboration. These mixed effects underscore the gaps and opportunities in organizational resilience and adaptability, providing critical insights into future response strategies. To strengthen nonprofit organizations’ ability to absorb, respond to, and recover from future crises, we suggest a research framework that integrates external pressures, resource constraints, and adaptive capacities that affect key outcomes.

Individual giving constitutes one of the most significant resources for many nonprofit organisations globally. However, the literature has focused predominantly on the perspectives and experiences of nonprofit organisations in developed countries. To this end individual giving to African civil society organisations (CSOs) and how they leverage this to promote their sustainability is a relatively understudied phenomenon. Drawing on African philanthropy and the African Grantmakers Network framework as an analytical lens and interviews with 37 local CSOs and key informants in Ghana, this article finds that individual giving, including volunteer labour, knowledge and financial resources, constitutes an important resource for promoting the sustainability of CSOs. Yet, individual giving is undervalued relative to external donor funding. Our findings suggest that individual giving is directed towards localised and social justice issues. Nonetheless, the absence of an enabling environment for local philanthropy has the potential to affect individual giving to CSOs.

Arts organizations face intense competition for private support, making effective donor segmentation essential. While attendance frequency is a well-known correlate of giving, little research has quantified the role of event variety—the breadth of engagement across program genres—in shaping donor behavior. Using a 26-year longitudinal dataset from a major multi-genre European arts festival, this study examines whether event variety is a stronger predictor of donor value than attendance frequency and identifies the variety level associated with stronger donor progression. To this end, we extend a latent-class Markov mixture model by incorporating lifetime event variety as a behavioral covariate. Our results show that attending four or more event genres is associated with a higher probability of transitioning into high-value donor states. These findings highlight event variety as a practical metric for donor segmentation and development in arts fundraising.

This article examines factors that influence the action repertoires of youth organizations (YOs) across nine European countries and their roles within the nonprofit and voluntary sector. We insist on the connectedness of various forms of engagement, challenging the traditional divide between volunteering/nonprofit activities and political mobilization. Through a theory-driven analysis, we show how organizational structure and outside support impact YOs’ forms of action. We find cross-national variations and demonstrate that YOs’ access to resources and strategic choices are central in explaining their modes of engagement. Those with substantial institutionalized support (notably funding from state authorities and the EU) are less likely to engage in conflictual activities, whereas those with higher levels of autonomy and grassroots activism are more inclined toward unconventional actions. These results call attention to how funding and formalization can steer civil society toward low-conflict engagement, potentially depoliticizing youth activism. They have broader implications for understanding how structural conditions shape civic agency and the democratic potential of the nonprofit and voluntary sector.

Whether by embezzlement, theft, or other illegal actions, not-for-profit organizations (NFPs) must report significant asset diversions (i.e., fraud) on IRS Form 990. Given the inherent delay in providing annual tax filings, NFPs may choose to voluntarily alert donors to occurrences of fraud in a timelier manner. Prior research has not yet examined the effects of the source or context of such disclosures. In this study, we examine how the source of an NFP’s voluntary fraud disclosure affects donors’ subsequent giving decisions. We find that differently-sourced voluntary fraud disclosures lead to divergent levels of donor backlash depending on a donor’s prior involvement with the organization. Specifically, involved donors respond more favorably to a fraud disclosure made by the board of directors versus one made by management. Our findings have implications for how NFPs can communicate with donors about fraud and potentially minimize post-fraud organizational damage.

This article contributes to the existing donation literature by addressing the knowledge gap in the impact of the symbolic capital of charity endorsers on the intention to donate. It explores the interplay between the symbolic capital of the endorser, donor intentions, and social media self-disclosure in the context of charitable giving via crowdfunding platforms. Drawing on Bourdieu’s theory of capital conversion and social exchange theory, the study examines how the symbolic capital of the endorsers of charitable organizations influences donation behavior. A PLS-SEM analysis of the data obtained via a representative survey of 976 respondents suggests that donors exchange financial capital for symbolic capital of charity endorser to enhance their social recognition (i.e., symbolic capital), a process facilitated by self-disclosure on social media. This study confirms the presence of a generalized social exchange mechanism and highlights the critical roles of symbolic capital and social media in shaping charitable intentions.

As generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) becomes more prevalent across all types of organizations, interest in adopting artificial intelligence (AI) tools by charitable nonprofit organizations, who are given 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status by the internal revenue service (IRS), is worthy of attention, given the potential for increased efficiency and raised ethical concerns in resource-drained economies. Guided by the Technology–Organization–Environment (TOE) framework, this study surveys Florida nonprofit organizations (n = 168) to explore if certain factors, such as the external environment, innovative culture, and leadership, influence decisions to adopt GenAI tools in nonprofit organizations. We supplement our survey findings with follow-up qualitative data from 14 nonprofit executive directors. Findings offer guidance to nonprofit leaders for assessing their organizations’ environment and innovative capacities when making decisions on GenAI adoption. Furthermore, there are broad implications for examining the potential of GenAI tools for mission fulfillment and more effective management of nonprofit organizations.