This article explores the interplay and collaboration between refugee organization volunteers and social service professionals. On the basis of qualitative interviews and observations, we study how volunteers from Danish local refugee organizations experience their interaction with refugees and social service professionals, and how they act and perceive their role as advocates for the refugees. The purpose is to gain insight into the everyday practices and strategies of civil society organizations attempting to balance the demands and interests of stakeholders and internal legitimacy claims in a hybrid environment. In addition to providing effective refugee assistance and services, refugee organizations achieve legitimacy through professional communication, campaign work, and networking with key political actors and stakeholders. However, although it may be less visible, advocacy-oriented activities also take place in local organizations at ‘street level.’ We identified three distinct types of strategies to balance issues of autonomy in the collaborative relationship with the municipalities and simultaneously engage in advocacy activities.

This article explores how and to what extent revenue diversification and concentration strategies affect financial performance, particularly financial capacity and vulnerability, in nonprofit organizations. Using a sample collected from a systematic literature search of all major databases, we first conducted a bibliometric analysis of 86 existing studies to visualize the clusters of major topics in this area and to explore the connections between existing studies. We then employed a meta-analysis to quantitatively synthesize 258 effect sizes from 23 existing empirical studies. We found that diversification had little effect on financial vulnerability, but it had a slightly negative effect on financial capacity. The article finally uses a meta-regression to discuss some of the theoretical and practical reasons why there is inconsistency in the results across existing studies and calls for more discussion of the assumptions and effectiveness of revenue diversification among nonprofit scholars and practitioners.

Previous scholarship has shown evidence of a positive relationship between volunteering and improved measures of mental and physical wellbeing. It has also been suggested that volunteering may help individuals navigate transitions between different life stages by encouraging them to become more involved in their communities, thereby building new social connections and improving networks of social support. Using Waves 2 and 3 of panel data from the Midlife in the United States Survey, we examined whether volunteering can buffer against the negative effects of low self-esteem on correlates of psychosocial wellbeing in adults from mid- to later-life. Results indicated that participation in volunteering mitigates the negative effects of adults’ low self-esteem on their sense of belonging and life satisfaction. In particular, we determined the adverse effect of negative self-esteem at time T1 on our wellbeing measures (belonging to the community and life satisfaction) at T2 above and beyond the effects of the same measures at T1 and the covariates. Furthermore, we found positive evidence for the moderating influence of volunteering on the relationship between negative self-esteem and both measures of wellbeing, although the effect was stronger for life satisfaction than for belonging. These conclusions suggest that volunteering acts as a buffer for ageing adults, with possible public health implications.

Effective programmes introduced by NGOs in developing countries have the potential to benefit a large number of people if they are scaled up, but instances of successful scaling-up are relatively rare. This paper uses a case study of an Indian educational NGO that has scaled up rapidly and effectively in order to explore the reasons for choice of scaling-up strategy, the particular barriers to scaling-up in the education sector, and how these barriers can be overcome. It finds that, while a high-functioning NGO can successfully overcome many of the internal organisational challenges posed by scaling-up, external barriers such as the difficulty of building relationships with key stakeholders like government officials and school teachers pose significant challenges. While these difficulties could in principle be mitigated by moving from an expansion-based to collaboration-based model of scaling-up, low accountability and governance of the NGO sector make it difficult to detect the quality of potential partners. The case also shows that India’s recent law mandating CSR has increased funding availability for scaling-up, but its requirement for corporate donors to preferentially support local projects has also created some challenges by constraining NGO ability to harness economies of scale during scaling.

This study suggests that the expectation of an individual about the outcome of their charitable donating can guide their action. Based on reciprocity theory and research, outcome expectation was dichotomized as altruistic versus egoistic, and an expectation-based psychological model of giving has been proposed. In this model, expectation leads to trust in charities, manifesting in strengthened engagement, which in its turn generates an increased amount of donations. In addition, social status moderates the effect of outcome expectation on charitable commitment. Overall, the proposed model was supported by the results of 530 responses of an online survey. Furthermore, social status moderated only the effect of egoistic expectation on charitable commitment. This indicated a stronger positive relationship between egoistic expectation and commitment for individuals of low social status than for those of high social status.

Corporate volunteering programs are increasingly used to bolster community involvement, address social issues and improve the reputation of organisations. Despite this growing trend, our understanding of what motivates corporate volunteers is scant. Drawing on self-determination theory, this study investigates motivational differences among employees engaging in different corporate volunteering types and in independent volunteering, and examines the relationships between these volunteering types and employees’ intent to volunteer in the future. Findings obtained from a survey of 318 employees suggest that higher levels of motivation to volunteer for reasons of ego enhancement or guilt prevention (introjection) were associated with a higher likelihood of participation in employer-organised, large-scale volunteering. Lastly, compared to the other types of volunteers, corporate volunteers had the highest intentions to volunteer through their company in the future, while independent volunteers had the highest intentions to continue volunteering in their own time without employer support. These results highlight the importance of offering various types of corporate volunteering opportunities to employees, as people engaging in corporate volunteering do not make up a homogeneous group, and that different corporate volunteering activities fulfil different motivational needs.

Faith-based development organizations (FBOs) have been argued to deliver more cost-efficient development projects than their secular counterparts through exclusive access to faith networks, which provide predictable decentralized funding, the recruitment of volunteers, low employee salaries, and less overhead and indirect costs. To date, however, comparative analyses of religious and secular organizations have relied on a case-by-case approach, limiting the generalizability of findings. This study addresses this methodological gap by analyzing Registered Charity Information Return filings and organizational websites of 844 Canadian development NGOs to determine the proportion of FBOs and their organizational distinctiveness. The results show that FBOs comprise 40% of the Canadian NGO sector in terms of the number of organizations and their expenditures in developing countries, and are significantly less reliant on federal funding (p < .1), pay employees lower salaries (p < .01), but do not exhibit a significant difference in their expenditures on overhead and indirect costs. Thus, Canadian FBOs participation in faith networks shapes their organizational modus operandi but does not result in a low overhead alternative to secular NGOs.

Public trust of nonprofits can augment social benefits of the nonprofit sector by enhancing engagement of the general population in the sector. This study analyzed cross sectional data collected from a random sample of Canadians (n = 3853) to test the effects of respondents’ perceptions of financial accountability, transparency, and familiarity of charitable nonprofits, along with the effects of trust in key institutions on their general trust in charitable nonprofits. Results show that each factor (except for trust in government institutions) has a significant effect on the level of trust respondents had in charitable nonprofits. The study helps advance our understanding of what contributes to trust in charitable nonprofits among Canadians and offers suggestions on how nonprofits can garner greater trust with the population.

The literature on international volunteer motivation has highlighted mainly Western cases, while almost ignoring Asian volunteers. Through an analysis of the motivations of Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers (JOCVs), this study aims to identify who they are and to contribute to our understanding of individual behavior in relation to international volunteering. This is the first quantitative study of their motivation, and we surveyed them using a series of questionnaires. We obtained 1507 responses from the volunteers, and a cluster analysis of the revealed motives categorized them into six types, labeled as: (I) curious; (II) business-minded; (III) development assistance; (IV) quest for oneself; (V) change-oriented; and (VI) altruist. The results show that each of these groups tends to have a different set of motives, and these can be characterized according to their socio-demographic and behavioral information. The results confirm that JOCVs have the same altruistic and egoistic motivations that have been observed in the Western studies. From a practical perspective, our six clusters of volunteers match the three purposes of the JOCV program, and show that, to a certain extent, the program has been successful in recruiting young Japanese people. Moreover, the classifications will be helpful when the JOCV Secretariat managers wish to target specific types of volunteers for special recruiting and training.

The current study hypothesized and tested a model contending that organizational culture influences organizational commitment attitudes and job satisfaction levels of volunteers directly and through servant leadership behaviors. Data were collected from 385 volunteers involved in voluntary activities of various types under different six voluntary organizations located in Istanbul City of Turkey. Results revealed that community culture and job satisfaction influenced affective and normative commitment of volunteers. Furthermore, bureaucratic culture had negative relationship with affective commitment, and innovative culture’s effect on volunteer job satisfaction was significantly positive. Besides, servant leadership partially mediated the relationships of community culture with affective and normative commitment attitudes but not the relationships between organizational culture dimensions and volunteer job satisfaction. The implications of these findings and suggestions for future studies are discussed.

While the literature is replete with studies that identify factors explaining why people are likely to make monetary contributions, less is known about which particular charitable causes they are likely to choose and how much they donate to them. This article examines donor choice among eight different causes using survey data collected in 2011 for a nationally representative sample in Austria. In particular, the study investigates the role of individual-level factors: subjective dispositions such as empathic concern, trust, and religiosity, and resources such as education and income. We find that subjective dispositions rather predict a donor’s incidence of giving among causes but not the amount donated. Human resources, in contrast, are associated with both the incidence and the amount donated to particular causes, and they also mediate the impact of subjective dispositions. What is more, the study reveals that being asked to donate has the highest explanatory power regarding the incidence of giving among all causes investigated.

Viewing disability as a form of social capital, this paper examines the unique contribution of volunteers with disabilities and the meaning that volunteering holds for them. Of the 35 volunteers with disabilities interviewed, all were volunteering in self-help organizations for people with disabilities, half of them in administrative and leadership roles. The interviews revealed rich and active stories. Their areas of activity were diverse and encompassed various organizations. The volunteers crossed over from the role of merely extending services to their beneficiaries to becoming activists for political and social change. Their practices suggest that the volunteers’ self-identity as individuals with disabilities has shaped their supportive approach. Therefore, understanding their unique resources as people with disabilities is key to developing an organizational culture that promotes integrative recruitment of volunteers.

This paper seeks to reconstruct the specific experiences that strengthen or erode the commitment of volunteers in the welfare sector. The empirical basis is narrative interviews with volunteers who have withdrawn from their role at a welfare organisation in Germany. The findings show tensions: on the one hand, experiences of successful relationships with clients and fellow volunteers strengthen volunteers’ commitment. On the other hand, volunteers observe practices and approaches that run counter to their values. This tension between engaging and disengaging experiences arises from the welfare sector itself, for while care can enable close interpersonal experiences, it is also shaped by economisation. Overall, our study shows that the motivations underlying volunteers’ long-term commitment can be both strengthened and undermined by actual volunteering experiences. In the light of our findings, we present heuristics for understanding volunteering processes that focus on field-specific experiences and tensions.

While the principled case for humanitarian accountability is relatively straightforward, the practice is demonstrably more complicated, necessitating constant negotiation among stakeholders. However, despite the wave of research into nongovernmental accountability, few empirical studies have grappled with the phenomenon’s inherently contested nature. This paper foregrounds tensions arising in the elaboration of nonprofit accountability. Its approach is informed by critical constructivist theory, an international relations approach attuned to social power, identity and exclusion, and conceptual contestation; its conclusions are supported by interview data with key stakeholders. Focusing on the Humanitarian Accountability Partnership (HAP) International, it finds that initial consensus on the desirability of beneficiary (downward) accountability quickly gave way to principled disagreements and operational difficulties. Specifically, the initiation stage of HAP was marked by two conflicts—a debate about enforcement and a turf war over control—culminating in rebranding and relocation. The implementation stage was characterized by tensions over certification and intra-organizational struggles over leadership. The contemporary practice of accountability is shown to be a contingent and contested social process, with humanitarian identity and practice ultimately at stake.

Community interventions seek to increase volunteer activists’ social resources in order to further the establishment of social networks and better enable volunteers to promote the development of their community and answer its social needs, while also enhancing their own well-being. The current study investigated whether this goal is indeed achieved. Two hundred residents of low-SES (socioeconomic status) communities who volunteer to take an active part in community interventions (volunteer activists) and 200 other residents of these communities completed questionnaires measuring the levels of five social resources (community belonging, community commitment, knowledge of local services, social competence, community leadership). Variance analyses (MANCOVA) revealed significantly higher levels of almost all resources among the volunteer activists. Furthermore, regression analyses found significant effect of the activists’ years of involvement in community activity and the centrality of the role they perform on their social resources, suggesting that their resources are indeed strengthened by their community work. The implications for researchers and professionals are discussed, and practical recommendations are offered.

As charitable donations account for a significant amount of the revenue of professional associations, such associations can benefit greatly from a better understanding of the factors that influence the amount of money that members donate. Using data collected from six professional associations, this study examines the factors affecting association members’ donation amounts. A survey of 2156 members was conducted to investigate the potential factors. The results of hierarchical regression analysis showed that after controlling for sociodemographic factors, face-to-face solicitation, intrinsic and extrinsic motivations, membership length, and recommendation intention significantly influence the donation amount among members. This study offers more comprehensive explanations for the factors that influence members’ donation amounts and provides potential strategies to maximize donations from members.