Transcript Slide 1

The Future of Research on Nonprofits:
Major Challenges for Academics and
Practitioners
IDEEL ARENA and the Swedish Research
Council
Stockholm
February 10, 2011
Dennis R. Young
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Outline of my presentation
 How has nonprofit research developed in the U.S. and
elsewhere? Dimensions, drivers and issues.
 What are the challenges and opportunities for
nonprofit research driven by the needs of practice?
 ARNOVA and the Gates Foundation: attempting to
craft a pragmatic research agenda addressed to
nonprofits and public policy
 Summary observations and possible futures for
nonprofit research
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Evolution of nonprofit sector
research
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Pre-history of the field, pre-1970s
Organizing of the field, 1970s and ’80s
Seminal contributions, ’70s, ’80s, ’90s
Maturing and flowering of the field, ’90s
– present
 Alternative futures
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Pre-history
 Many studies of related subject matter –
voluntary behavior, social movements,
collective action, etc.
 Case studies of particular organizations,
e.g., March of Dimes, YMCA
 Fragmented research, not specifically
identified as “nonprofit”
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Seminal Events
 Commissions to study the sector
 New infrastructure organizations, e.g.
Independent Sector
 Establishment of Academic centers
 New scholarly associations
 New academic journals and book series
 New data bases
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The early “big issues”: addressing
Filer’s “terra incognita”
 What exactly is a nonprofit organization?
 What is the size, scope, significance of the
nonprofit or third sector?
 In what functions, services and activities do
nonprofit organizations engage?
 Why do nonprofit organizations exist in a market
economy and democratic society?
 How do nonprofits behave? How are they
different from for-profit or governmental
organizations?
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Pioneering contributions
 Establishing an empirical data base: Independent
Sector, Urban Institute, Johns Hopkins Project
 Formulating theories of existence
 Formulating theories of behavior
 Providing historical context
 Providing international context
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Early issues and challenges
 Acceptance of “sector” as the unifying
concept across academic disciplines
 Determination of which “industries” or
activities belong in the “sector”
 Legal and cultural differences in the
“third sector “ construct among countries
 Incomplete and incompatible data
 Funding for research
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What have been the driving forces
behind nonprofit research ?
 Political/governmental antagonism (U.S.)
 Private foundation support (U.S.)
 Devolution and privatization; government support
(Europe)
 Expansion of democracy and market societies (e.g.,
Eastern and Central Europe, developing countries)
 Academic entrepreneurship and intellectual interest
 Needs of teaching and practice (especially growth of
graduate programs in nonprofit management)
 Not government funding (unfortunately?)
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Digression on Current Funding for Nonprofit
Research: Quick survey of NACC members
 Survey of 50 NACC members/10 responses – 9 US centers
and 1 Canadian
 9 centers had sponsored (funded) research/8 US centers
 4 centers received gov’t funding for research/3 US centers
 Average % of gov’t funding for those with gov’t supported
research was 31%/38% for US centers
 Federal gov’t was most common source of gov’t funds
 Other sources of research funding included foundations,
nonprofit associations, corporations, private donors, internal
university funds and endowments
 Overall: nonprofit research funding in the U.S. is fragmented
and government is not the dominant funder
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Opportunities and Challenges of
a “Needs based” Research Agenda
 Not impossible for academics and practitioners
to collaborate on research, despite different
motivations and goals
 Necessary to develop more effective and
efficient management practices and public
policies
 Can be academically rewarding, especially in
stretching the boundaries of traditional
disciplinary research
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Academics and Practitioners
 Academics want rigorous, generalizeable
research
 Practitioners want clear, useable results
 Collaboration requires mutual respect and
understanding of each others’ needs and
aspirations
 Many practitioners are genuinely interested in
relevant quality research, and many academics
are motivated to learn from practice
 Quality research of mutual interest can require
substantial (external) resources
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Some contemporary nonprofit research questions
of mutual interest to academia and practice:
 Governance: Effective board structures and
policies
 Finance: Effective mixes of income; role of
endowments; incentives for giving and
volunteering
 Performance: Measuring mission
effectiveness and financial health
 Growth – “Going to scale” and achieving
greater societal impact
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More research issues of mutual
interest to academic and practice
 Strategy – When and how nonprofits should
collaborate and compete
 Policy Advocacy –Tensions between service delivery
and public policy advocacy. Determinants of
effectiveness in the policy arena
 Human Resources –Best mixes of paid staff and
volunteers. Effective compensation structures for
nonprofit paid staff
 Public Policy –Effective regulation and nonprofit
accountability. Tax policy and exemptions.
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The ARNOVA-Gates Conference:
fleshing out a research agenda
 October 4-5, 2010 in Baltimore
 30 scholars and nonprofit leaders
 Goal to create a research agenda to study
how public policy affects nonprofits in
the U.S.
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Key questions addressed
 What are the most critical policy issues presently
facing the nonprofit sector?
 What do we really know, from rigorous research,
about the positive or negative impacts of past, current,
and prospective policies.
 What are the gaps in our knowledge—not just
research, but basic data—about the interaction of
public policies and nonprofits?
 What kinds of research might be framed to generate
new insights of immediate utility to nonprofits and
policy makers that would elevate the quality and
hopefully the results of the nonprofit public policy
discourse?
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Emerging research themes
 What are the different forms of funding available
to the nonprofit sector and how do their impacts
differ ?
 How does government funding impact how
nonprofits operate?
 How do regulatory and tax policies support or
hinder the nonprofit sector and the benefits it can
deliver?
 What are the challenges and opportunities from
“emerging organizational forms”?
 What are the civic roles of the nonprofit sector?
 What is the value proposition for the nonprofit
sector?
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Observations about the U.S.
academic/practitioner dialogue
 Consensus around need for more data and description
of how things actually work
 Strong mutual interest in impacts of policy on
nonprofits and nonprofits on society
 Fundamental questioning of the role of nonprofit
organizations and what their roles, privileges and
obligations are and should be
 Positive, empirical research and analysis as the
common ground between practitioners’ desires for
facts and actionable results and academics’ sometimes
more esoteric interests in theory , models and
relationships
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An overall assessment of the current
state of nonprofit research
 Success in establishing a recognizable field of
scholarship
 Greater progress in some disciplines than others
 Progress in creating useful data bases
 Progress in international comparative research
 Considerable progress in creating publications
 Some progress with multi-disciplinary research
efforts, especially coordinated book projects:
 Large scale interdisciplinary projects are rare
 Lots of opportunities for new, cutting edge work
 Not yet clear that field is correctly defined
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Alternative futures
 Continued progress along current lines - not-for-profit
organizations and discipline-based research
 Integration across disciplines
 Broadening to include cooperatives, limited-profit
enterprises and other social purpose organizations
 Reframing around other integrative concepts such as
social enterprise , social economy or civil society
 Broadening to embrace (at the bottom) less formal
voluntary organizations and (at the top) transnational
nonprofit organizations, associations and movements
 Refocusing on“hybridization” of the economy integration of nonprofit, business and government –
networks, partnerships and mixed forms of enterprise
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Final thoughts
 I congratulate you on your dialogue ; encourage your
development of a robust funded research agenda of mutual
interest to academia and practice
 Government funding is important. Private funding can add
diversity, innovation and stimulus.
 Needs-driven research can be both practical and useful, and
intellectually compelling and academically rewarding
 The appropriate research agenda will differ from country to
country. Sweden and the U.S. differ substantially in the roles
and functioning of nonprofits and civil society organizations.
Hence our research agendas will necessary differ.
 We can learn much from each other!
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